Ellen Pitfield
Ellen Pitfield (1857 – August 1912) was an English midwife, nurse, devoted suffragette and member of Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union. The movement focused on gaining the women’s right to vote with the motto “Deeds Not Words.” This expresses the importance of action and change within the United Kingdom.
Ellen Pitfield reportedly joined this movement in the year of 1908, immediately becoming aware and willing to learn about proper intakes of this Union.
Throughout the next year of 1909, many militants asked for responsible men to attend public business that led to horrible “costly work. Any women who spoke up about this or dared mention the matter were beaten and sent to prison.
As Pitfield started to become a more determined WSPU suffragette, she became more involved with the women’s suffrage campaign for militant activity; this caused her to get arrested twice throughout that same year. Being in prison meant having to create calculated plans to escape. The women there, including Ellen Pitfield, would purposefully starve themselves so the police would have no choice but to let them go. After being released in 1909, she is reported to have said: "There are only two things that matter to me in the world: principle and liberty. For these I will fight as long as there is life in my veins. I am no longer an individual, I am an instrument."
As a nurse, Pitfield was able to care for injuries that took place within these times.
During this Hunger Strike, Pitfield had been given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU.[citation needed]
In 1911, Ellen was asked to take the census survey given out that year but quickly refused to do so. Around the same time, Ellen discovered she had cancer and would not be able to recover. Her commitment to the suffragette cause is really captured by what she did next despite her diagnosis.
In March 1912, Ellen wrote to WSPU leader Emmeline Pankhurst declaring herself 'A Soldier to the death'. She then continued to enter the General Post office and set it on fire with paraffin. She had thrown a brick through a window of the building as a form of riot and protest and gave herself up to police to raise publicity for the cause. She was quickly sentenced for six months of imprisonment and then carried out to the prison hospital due to her condition.That month, she was sentenced to six months imprisonment and was carried from court to the prison hospital.
According to Pankhurst, she was released in May, after the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement started a petition on her behalf, and was cared for at Pembroke Garden nursing home by Nurses Catherine Pine and Gertrude Townend, and died three months later, in August 1912.
References
Footnotes
Works cited
- Morrell, Caroline (1981). "Black Friday": Violence Against Women in the Suffragette Movement. London: Women's Research and Resources Centre Publications.
- Pankhurst, E. Sylvia (1984) [1931]. The Suffragette Movement: An Intimate Account of Persons and Ideals. London: Chatto & Windus.
- v
- t
- e
- Universal suffrage
- Right to run for office
- Women
- Men
- Black
- Youth
- Resident foreigners
- Expatriates in country of origin
- Voting age
- Demeny voting
- Suffragette
- Compulsory voting
- Disfranchisement
- Women's liberation movement
- Austria
- Australia
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Hong Kong
- India
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Liechtenstein
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Spain (Civil War, Francoist)
- Sri Lanka
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
- women
- African Americans
- Native Americans
- felons
- foreigners
- District of Columbia
- Puerto Rico
- states
- Constitutional amendments: 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, 26th
- 1965 Voting Rights Act
(memorials)
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- Timeline of women's suffrage
- Historiography of the Suffragettes
- Women's suffrage organizations and publications
- Women's rights activists
- Leser v. Garnett
- Belmont–Paul Monument
- Rise up, Women (Emmeline Pankhurst statue)
- Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton statue
- Suffragette Memorial
- Portrait Monument
- Women's Rights Pioneers Monument
- Forward statue
- Kate Sheppard National Memorial
- Millicent Fawcett statue
- Great Petition (2008 sculpture)
- Centenary of Women's Suffrage Commemorative Fountain
- Resilience
- Turning Point Suffragist Memorial
- Eagle House
- Pankhurst Centre
- Paulsdale
- Suffragette Handkerchief
- Holloway banner
- Holloway brooch
- Holloway Jingles
- Hunger Strike Medal
- Justice Bell
- Suffrage jewellery
- Suffragette penny
- Suffrage Oak
- Women's Rights National Historical Park
- Women's Suffrage National Monument
- International Women's Day
- Susan B. Anthony Day
- Women's Equality Day
culture
- "The Women's Marseillaise"
- "The March of the Women" (1910 song)
- The Mother of Us All (1947 opera)
- "Sister Suffragette" (1964 song)
- Suffrage plays
- Women's suffrage in film
- Votes for Women (1912 film)
- Shoulder to Shoulder (1974 series)
- Not for Ourselves Alone (1999 documentary)
- Iron Jawed Angels (2004 film)
- Up the Women (2013 sitcom)
- Selma (2014 film)
- Suffragette (2015 film)
- Sylvia (2018 musical)
- Suffs (2022 musical)
- Susan B. Anthony dollar
- New Zealand ten-dollar note
- 2020 US ten-dollar bill
- Lioness (upcoming film)
This biographical article about a United Kingdom activist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e
This biographical article about a women's rights activist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e