Paperwork dated 5 March 1912 from Notting Hill Police Station in the name of Ethel Lewis. She was bound over for the sum of £50 to appear at Marylebone Police Court at 10am on 6 March 1912 to answer a charge of wilful and malicious damage.
Ethel Julia Lewis, 1885-1972.
Ethel Lewis was born in Battersea, London in 1885, her parents were Henry and Julia Lewis. Her father’s occupation is given in various census’ as “labourer in boiler shop” and “locomotive plate layer”.
Ethel can be found on the 1911 census, living with her parents, she is twenty-five, no occupation is recorded. Emily was extremely active in The Women’s Social and Political Union, the Suffragettes, in 1910 she was committed for trial at Bow Street, no details of her crime has been found.
In November 1911 she was committed for trial , “ wilful damage , breaking windows”, she received 21 days imprisonment and a fine of ten shillings, the windows in question were those of Charing Cross P.O. An extract from a newspaper of the time reads “ Miss Ethel Lewis a young woman who was also charged with breaking a window at Charing Cross road Post Office said, “I did it to protest against the Government bringing forward a Manhood Suffrage Bill, when the only real demand has been votes for women”.
In 1912 Ethel was committed to Maidstone prison; 6 months imprisonment for “maliciously damaging two plate glass windows at Liberty and Company, and one plate glass window, property of Louise and co. She had a letter published in The Daily Herald, 8th February 1913, “It rests with Women.” Little is known of her life after the onset of WW1, many suffragettes undertook war work. There is an item in” The Workers Dreadnought” of December 1917, about a meeting of the Hull & Leeds WSP, Miss Ethel Lewis of 23 Blundell Street, Leeds, is a secretary of the Party.
The 1939 Register shows an Ethel Lewis, a wages clerk, of the right age, living in Leeds. We have no knowledge if this is the former suffragette, but it is highly likely it is. In 1972, Miss Ethel Lewis, a resident of a home for vegetarians at Scar Lane Golcar, died, a relative presented two suffragette medals to Colne Valley Museum, Golcar, for us her story began.
The Medals: “The Holloway Badge” This was awarded at the time as a simple silver broach, a chained portcullis topped with an arrowhead containing the Suffragette colours, given to women who were imprisoned in Holloway. “ The Hunger Strike Medal” awarded by the WSPU to those women who had been on hunger strike whilst in prison. Bars on the medal indicate that force feeding took place. The citation in the medal box reads;” Presented to Ethel Lewis by the WSPU 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”.
It can be assumed, from the severity of the sentences that Miss Lewis engaged in several more instances of window breaking, but no more information can be found.
Sources: British Newspapers online, Find my past Suffrage Collection, Google, Wikipedia, DCM medals, Ancestry, Colne Valley Museum.
Former Colne Valley MP Lord Clark returns to celebrate 40th with Colne Valley Museum: https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/former-colne-valley-mp-lord-5002615
