Name Theresa Garnett | ||
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Theresa Garnett (17 May 1888, Leeds – 24 May 1966, London) was a British suffragette.
Biography
Theresa Garnett was born in Leeds in 1888, daughter to Joshua Garnett and Frances Theresa Garnett and was educated at a convent school.
She worked for some time as a teacher. In 1907, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) after being inspired by a speech given by Adela Pankhurst. In April 1909, she sparked some interest by chaining herself, along with four other activists, to a statue in the Central Lobby of the Houses of Parliament to protest against a law forbidding precisely this kind of thing - disorderly conduct within the Palace of Westminster when the Parliament was in session.
On November 14, 1909, she assaulted Winston Churchill at the Bristol Temple Meads railway station, with a horsewhip, but failed to cause any injury. Arrested, she's sentenced to a month in prison at the HM Prison Bristol for disturbing the peace (Churchill didn't press charges for the assault itself). She went on a hunger strike, was force-fed, tried to put her cell on fire, and finished her time in hospital. She received for her actions, from the WSPU, a brooch for her imprisonment, and a medal of honor for the hunger strike.
In 1910, she became organizer for the WSPU in Camberwell, but left the Union after some disagreement about the WPSU's arson campaign. She stayed favorable to the feminist movement, becoming honorary editor for the Women's Freedom League bulletin in 1960.
During the first world war, she worked as a sister at the Royal London Hospital and in France.
She died in 1966, almost penniless.