Pair of socks knitted by Edith New

Pair of socks knitted by Edith New whilst in prison. Suffragette prisoners were required to undertake work during their time in Holloway .Many chose knitting. The red band around the leg and toe indicate these socks were intended for boys held in juvenile offending units known as Borstal. Presumably Edith smuggled them out of prison on her release as a souvenir. Edith was a teacher in Greenwich before joining the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906. She was first imprisoned in March 1907: a two-week sentence following a raid on the House of Commons. In January 1908 she served three weeks for chaining herself to the railings of 10 Downing Street. By this time she had also become a WSPU paid organiser responsible for the WSPU by-election campaign in Hastings. By mid-1908 Edith was again imprisoned for two months for throwing stones at the windows of 10 Downing Street. She and fellow suffragette Mary Leigh acted without the sanction of the WSPU leadership, and became the first suffragettes to use stone-throwing as a political tactic. On their release they were taken in a carriage pulled by six suffragettes to a celebratory breakfast in Holborn. Edith moved to Newcastle in late 1908 and continued work as a full time WSPU organiser. In September 1909 she was imprisoned in Dundee, charged with breach of the peace at a meeting held by Liberal MP Herbert Samuel. While in prison, Edith went on hunger-strike, one of the first suffragettes to do so in Scotland. She was released after five days, on the order of the secretary for Scotland, without having been forcibly fed.