Why Women Teachers Break Windows: The Teacher who Hid Her Identity to Become a Militant

This hunger strike medal awarded to Pleasance Pendred is due up for auction at Bonhams towards the end of next moth with a bidding estimate up to £15,000.

I'm adding this post because Pleasance lived in the old borough of Hornsey (in Herbert Road, Highgate) and because the subject is somewhat topical since it wasn't that long ago that one of our railway lines took the name Suffragette Line - and simply because it's a short story worth the telling.

Much of the following, along with the pictures come directly from the Bonhams listing page.

Hunger strike medal awarded to Pleasance Pendred by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU - a militant suffrage movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters in Manchester,) 

The medal is of silver and enamel construction. The obverse of the top bar the top bar is engraved 'For Valour'. The suspension bar of purple, white and green enamel is engraved 'Fed by Force 28/1/13'

The disc is engraved 'Hunger Strike' on one side and on the other;'Pleasance Pendred', The, maker's name is engraved on reverse of top bar ('Toye 67 Theobalds/ Rd London'). The presentation box has dedication to Pleasance Pendred printed in gilt:

"'Presented to Pleasance Pendred by the Women's Social and Political Union in recognition of a gallant action, whereby through endurance to the last extremity of hunger and hardship a great principle of political justice was vindicated".

Grocer's daughter, Kate Pleasance Jackson (1864-1948) was a teacher who adopted her mother's maiden name Pendred and used the alias 'Pleasance Pendred' to hide her militant activities from her employers. She was an active member of the Hornsey branch of the WSPU and their Literature Secretary from 1909-1910.

At the time the Franchise Bill was to be debated in parliament in 1913, there was an intense period of militant protest. She resigned her teaching post in order to take part in window-smashing action in January 1913 around Westminster and the West End of London, which coincided with a deputation to the House of Commons led by Flora Drummond.

For her part in the action, during which she smashed the window of an antique shop in Victoria Street, Pendred was arrested and sentenced to four months hard labour at Holloway. At her trial, she complained of the insanitary conditions in which she and fellow suffragettes had been detained at Rochester Row.

Her hunger strike medal bears the date of her arrest, 28 January 1913 and the striped enamel clasp denotes that she was force fed.

According to The Suffragette, '...on her partial recovery, Miss Pendred who is still confined to her bed, continued the hunger strike, and is now being fed by cup...' (4 April 1913). The newspaper also records that she received a welcome picnic from Hornsey WSPU on her early release and she continued as a speaker at the North Islington (formerly Hornsey) branch. Her article, 'Why Women Teachers Break Windows' was published in Woman's Press in 1913.

The military-style medals, known as the 'Victoria Cross' of the suffragette movement, were awarded by the leaders of the WSPU to suffragettes who had gone on hunger-strike. There are several variations of design, but they all hang on a length of ribbon in the WSPU colours, usually from a silver pin bar engraved 'For Valour'. On the obverse is engraved 'Hunger Strike' or 'Holloway' and the reverse is engraved with the name of the recipient. Some medals had additional silver bars in recognition of periods of hunger strike, or striped enamelled bars to denote forcible feeding. The medals were made by Toye & Co. at a cost of £1.00 each, and were first presented in St James' Hall in early August 1909.

The first part of the title to this post is the name of a pamplet written by Pleasance in 1912 (copy from Wikipedia).