One side of the coin at the bottom of Nurse Pine's medal reads "Nurse to Mrs. Pankhurst." Thus, Nurse Pine's medal helps to tell the story of the physical suffering that Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) and others in the Woman's Social and Political Union (WSPU) endured in the campaign for "Votes for Women." Nurse Pine's medal also helps tell the story of the care that she provided following Mrs. Pankhurst's many hunger, thirst, and sleep strikes. But Nurse Pine also cared for numerous suffragettes, including one of Emmeline's daughters, Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960). The only Pankhurst to endure forcible feeding, Sylvia engaged in hunger striking and was forcibly fed throughout March 1913. By this time, hunger striking was well underway (the tactic in the campaign for "Votes for Women" began in 1909). The Shield's Daily News item seen here reports that Sylvia recuperated at a nursing home after the ordeal. This was assuredly Nurse Pine and Gertrude Townend's Nursing Home at 9 Pembridge Gardens. The article from the March 28, 1913 of The Suffragette titled "Under Torture," provides a more detailed report on the harrowing episode. In his book The Pankhursts, Martin Pugh writes that Emmeline Pankhurst and Keir Hardie remained at Sylvia's bedside for several days during his time period. (p. 259).

For detailed descriptions of forcible feeding, see Sylvia Pankhurst's biography, The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement. Originally published in 1911, this book details the horrors of forcible feeding before the passage of the infamous "Cat and Mouse Act" (Prisoner's Temporary Discharge for Ill Health Act) in April 1913. The Cat and Mouse Act is discussed further in Bar #2 (dated April 13, 1913).

In early April 1913, Emmeline Pankhurst was convicted for soliciting and inciting others to commit misdemeanors and felonies. Earlier, on February 19, 1913, unknown members of the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU) placed an explosive in a house being built for Lloyd George at Walton-on-the-Hill (a village in Surrey), with the intent to destroy it. Mrs. Pankhurst was sentenced to three years imprisonment for soliciting and inciting others to commit this act of property destruction. This was by no means Mrs. Pankhurst's first imprisonment (that history begins in 1908), but the bar on Nurse Pine's medal dated April 13, 1913 is pertinent to the infamous "Cat and Mouse Act" that followed in the wake of Emmeline Pankhurst's 1913 imprisonment.

Strictly speaking, the "Cat and Mouse Act" (more formally known as the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act) was not officially law on April 13, 1913. The Act would not become official law until April 25, 1913. But the essence of the Act was applied to Mrs. Pankhurst in early April 1913. What was the essence of the Cat and Mouse Act? Rather than being forcibly feeding those suffragettes who engaged in hunger striking (which was causing "public relations" difficulties for British Government) the Cat and Mouse Act implemented a new tactic: to temporarily release from prison those suffragettes who became weak and in ill health due to their self- imposed fasts. The Act required that, upon a temporary release, the prisoner was to return or be "rearrested" at the expiration of a "recuperation period," usually about a week. Many suffragettes, including Mrs. Pankhurst, refused to return voluntarily. The dates on Nurse Pine's medal that occur after April 13, 1913, refer to a pattern that was officially set in motion by the Cat and Mouse Act: namely: imprisonment-arrest-hunger strike-release-rearrest. Indeed, upon her imprisonment in April 1913, Mrs. Pankhurst went on hunger strike and was released after several days, under the care of Nurse Catherine Pine.

In her The Woman's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928, Elizabeth Crawford reports on this date as follows:

"In prison [Pankhurst] went on hunger strike and was not forcibly fed. By 9 April she was described in the prison report as emotional and depressed. She threatened to take off her clothes, or walk about all night in order to ensure her release; she was desperate to appear at the Albert Hall meeting on 10 April. The Home Office noted that she "appears to be very nervous about herself", and delayed her release until 12 April, when she was let out for 15 days on a Special Order license. The 'Cat and Mouse' Act, which had been hastily drafted to deal with this situation, did not receive the Royal Assent until 25 April." (p. 508).

In a chapter titled "Prisoner of the Cat and Mouse Act" in her biography on Emmeline Pankhurst, June Purvis describes the relevant history:

"On 11 April, the day after the Albert Hall meeting at which the large sum of £15,000 was raised, the Governor came to [Mrs. Pankhurt's] cell and read out a Special Licence under the Penal Servitude Acts which would release her for only fifteen days, provided she informed the police of all her movements. The notorious Prisoners Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Bill, which had been rapidly passed through its various readings, had been specially drafted to deal with such troublesome suffragettes; but it did not receive the Royal Assent until 25 April. Under the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’, as it became known, suffragettes or ‘mice’ in a state of poor health could be released into the community to recover sufficiently to be clawed back by the ‘cat’ to complete their sentence. When the Governor presented Emmeline with her licence that Friday evening, she summoned up what strength she could and tore it into strips. ‘I have no intention of obeying this infamous law. You release me knowing perfectly well that I shall never voluntarily return to any of your prisons.’

The Home Office instructed the Governor to telephone Special Branch at Scotland Yard as soon Emmeline had left and, in particular, to give the address of her destination; it was 9 Pembridge Gardens, the nursing home run by Catherine Pine. One stone lighter in weight, suffering from irregularities in her heartbeat, weakness and prostration, Emmeline should have been conveyed there on a stretcher; the prison authorities sent her away sitting up in a cab. Visiting the nursing home, Ethel Smyth found the sight of Emmeline heartrending; her skin had turned yellow and was tightly drawn over her face, her eyes were deep sunken, and there was a dark flush on her cheeks. Some twenty years later Ethel was still haunted by ‘the strange, pervasive, sweetish odour of corruption’ hanging about Emmeline’s room, as she was nursed back to health, a smell unlike any other and due, she supposed, to the body feeding on its own issue." (p. 217-218)

The passage of Cat and Mouse Act, which required the rearrest of suffragettes, caused Nurse Pine and Townend's nursing home at 9 Pembridge Gardens to become besieged with police and crowds of onlookers. Alternative places of recovery were sought. Thus, Nurse Pine relocated her caregiving of Mrs. Pankhurst at places such as Hertha Ayrton's house at 41 Norfolk Square (April 1913); Ethel Smyth's house "Coign" in Surrey (May 1913); Ada Wright's Flat at 51 Westminster Mansions (June & July 1913); The home of the Hilda Brackenbury and her daughters Georgina and Marie at 2 Campden Hill Square (March 1914). The Brackenbury house became known as "Mouse Castle" due to the many suffragettes who went there upon their temporary release. It is pictured below. In addition to "Mouse Castle," there was "Mouse Hole," the nickname of the home of I.A.R. Wylie, about which you will learn more when you get to the bar dated May 26th, 1914 (Dot #9).

The Brackenbury Home, also known as "Mouse Castle," 2 Campden Hill Square . Hilda Brackenbury, Georgina Brackenbury and Marie Brackenbury resided here.

Ethel Smyth's home, "Coign," where Nurse Pine cared for Emmeline Pankhurst before her re-arrest on May 26, 1913. Today the home is known as "Brettanby Cottage".

Image courtesy of the excellent of the Museum of London website, here. As you can see in the photo, Mrs. Pankhurst is weak and is being supported by Ethel Smyth. Nurse Pine expresses ample outrage. According to the Museum of London, "the May 1913 rearrest began a pattern of hunger strike, release, recuperation and re-arrest"…During each period of recuperation from hunger strike Emmeline Pankhurst found refuge in a number of safe houses and was always nursed back to health by her nurse Catherine Pine."

After her rearrest on May 26, 1913, Mrs. Pankhurst was temporarily released from Holloway on May 30, 1913. She was obliged to return to prison on June 7, but she did not do so. She was finally arrested on June 14, 1913, attempting to attend the funeral of Emily Wilding Davison. After hunger striking, Mrs. Pankhurst was then released on June 16th, once again to Ada Wright's flat where Nurse Pine cared for her.

On June 4, 1913, Emily Wilding Davison ran out in front of the King’s horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby, causing horse and rider to fall. She suffered a fractured skull and died four days later. Davison's funeral, a video of which you can see here, occurred on June 14, 1913.

As described by Elizabeth Crawford's entry "Emmeline Pankhurst" in her The Woman's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928:

Mrs. Pankhurst "was rearrested outside Ada Wright's flat on June 14, as she stepped, with Sylvia Pankhurst, into a horse brougham [carriage]. She was on her way to Emily Wilding Davison's funeral. A Home Office official noted that 'If her rearrest is criticized it would be well to point out that she has been convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to a term of penal servitude. If she is well enough to take part in a demonstration of sympathy with an act of criminal folly which might have endangered several lives she ought not to be allowed to remain at large." On being returned to Holloway Emmeline Pankhurst immediately went on hunger strike and was released on 16 June, under the "Cat and Mouse" Act, again to Ada Wright's flat. She did not return to Holloway on June 23 as instructed." (p. 509).

Indeed, Mrs. Pankhurst's refusal to return to Holloway on June 23, 1913, resulted in yet another rearrest on July 21, which corresponds to the next bar on Nurse Pine's medal dated July 24th, 1913.

Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913) sacrified herself for the cause of Women's suffrage in 1913.

A scene from Emily Wilding Davison's funeral on June 14, 1913, a video of which you can see here.

51 Westminster Mansions, Little Smith St, London SW1P 3DQ, UK as it appeared in 2022.

Clipping from pg. 662 of the August 15, 1913 issue of "Votes for Women."

As described by Elizabeth Crawford's entry "Emmeline Pankhurst" in her The Woman's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928:

"Emmeline Pankhurst was re-arrested on 21 July and sent back to Holloway. This time she went on a hunger and thirst strike and refused to undress, and lying on her bed covered with blankets, refused all examinations. She smashed up all her cell utensils. The Prison Commissioners medical officer reported on 23 July, "She was evidently in an emotional state and seemed distressed at her own position and also because she thought her daughter [Sylvia] might be in the same plight as herself." She was released once more on 24 July to 51 Westminster Mansions." [the flat of Ada Wright] (p. 509).

The July 24, 1913 release was for a term of 7 days. Thus, Mrs. Pankhurst was due to return to Holloway on July 31, 1913. In her biography on Emmeline Pankhurst, June Purvis reports:

Emmeline’s licence did not expire until 31 July. Although she was very ill, she decided, against her doctor’s orders, to make the most of the opportunity by attending the London Pavilion meeting on 28 July. She was wheeled in seated in a nursing chair, with a nurse in attendance. The hurricane of cheers subsided as the audience saw how frail and emaciated their leader looked. She tried to rise, but sank back into the cushions in her chair. (p. 229).

Mrs. Pankhurst's treatment under the Cat and Mouse Act caused considerable public outrage. On August 7, 160 members the clergy petitioned Prime Minister Asquith. As June Purvis explains, these clergy remembers [expressed] "their abhorrence at the workings of the Cat and Mouse Act, which was not only ‘exciting much unrest and widespread indignation’ but also ‘seriously endangering the moral standard of the nation, as well as the stability of the law and order in the State’. Although the Prime Minister received the petition, he refused to grant an audience." (p. 229).

The International Medical Congress was also held in London in August 1913. As Mrs. Pankhurst explains in her autobiography, My Own Story (1914):

"A great medical congress was being held in London in the summer of 1913, and on August 11th we held a large meeting at Kingsway Hall, which was attended by hundreds of visiting doctors. I addressed this meeting, at which a ringing resolution against forcible feeding was passed, and I was allowed to go home without police interference. It was, as a matter of fact, the second time during that month that I had spoken in public without molestation. The presence of so many distinguished medical men in London may have suggested to the authorities that I had better be left alone for the time being. At all events I was left alone, and late in the month I went, quite publicly, to Paris, to see my daughter Christabel and plan with her the campaign" (p. 322)

The growing agitation against the Act gave the government considerable pause, and Mrs. Pankhurst continued to work for the WSPU during the summer of 1913 without rearrest. She traveled openly not only to Paris for 2 months, but also to the U.S., where she stayed for another 2 months. Indeed, her trip to the United States is relevant to the next bar on Nurse Pine's medal, dated December 7, 1913.

Emmeline Pankhurst embarking on her American Tour, Fall 1913.

In December 1913, Emmeline Pankhurst returned from her American tour. Mrs. Pankhurst arrived in America on October 18, 1913 where she fundraised and gave many speeches including her famous "Freedom or Death" speech, part of which is powerfully reenacted here.

Upon her returned to England on December 4th 1913, Mrs. Pankhurst was rearrested at Plymouth Harbor when her ship The Majestic, sailed into port. This would be Mrs. Pankhurst's 4th arrest after the passage of the Cat and Mouse Act. The ordeal is described by Elizabeth Crawford in her entry "Emmeline Pankhurst" in The Woman's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928:

"Scotland Yard has sent from the Special Branch one first-class inspector, one second-class inspector, one second-class sergeant, and two constables for the purpose of assisting the chief constable of Plymouth to arrest Mrs. Pankhurst. The police report makes clear that the arrest was planned well in advance with the White Star Line Company. Emmeline Pankhurst, refusing to co-operate, was carried of the ship and taken to Exeter jail, where she immediately went on hunger and thirst strike, and was released late on December 8, The Home Office had determined even before her arrest that they must keep her in prison until at last 6pm on 7 December." (p. 510).

In her biography on Emmeline Pankhurst, June Purvis reports:

"Refusing to co-operate with the enforcement of the Cat and Mouse Act, Emmeline was carried off the ship and taken to Exeter gaol where she went on a hunger strike. She was treated kindly by the prison staff, one of whom confided to her that she was being kept there until after the evening meeting of welcome at the Empress Theatre on Sunday, 7 December. ...Emmeline was released from Exeter prison on the Sunday evening, at ten o’clock at night, under a licence to return to the same prison on 15 December." (p. 240).

On December 7, Mrs. Pankhurst was released to Nurse Pine's care. She was due to return to prison on December 15. She would be re-arrested on December 13, which leads us to the next bar on Nurse Pine's medal, that of December 17, 1913.

Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst in Paris, ca. 1912. Full attribution here.

On December 13, 1913, Emmeline Pankhurst was rearrested upon returning from her trip Paris to visit Christabel. Nurse Pine accompanied Emmeline on this trip, and was present when she was re-arrested. Although her temporary discharge expired on December 15, Mrs. Pankhurst was nevertheless arrested on December 13. In her biography on Emmeline Pankhurst, June Purvis reports:

"When Emmeline enquired upon the grounds for the arrest, she was told that she had broken the terms of her licence by not notifying the police of her change of address. ‘Judging from her appearance’, wrote the sceptical Inspector, ‘Mrs. Pankhurst was in good health, and up to the time of her arrest, did not exhibit those symptoms of collapse which she assumed after we had intimated that she was to consider herself in custody.'" (p. 240).

Imprisoned at Holloway, Mrs. Pankhurst went on a hunger, thirst and sleep strike. She was temporarily released to Lincoln's Inn House, on 17 December. She was due to return to prison on 23 December, but instead escaped again to Paris, staying there until the end of January.

Testimony from an eyewitness swearing to police brutality at the "Glasgow riot" at which Mrs. Pankhurst was arrested. Source for the testimony here.

On March 9, 1914, Emmeline Pankhurst addressed a large crowd at St Andrew's Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. Police arrested her on the spot, and rioting followed. The citizens of Glasgow were outraged, and called for an official inquiry into police brutality. A wealth of materials on these proceedings can be found here. Emmeline was taken back to Holloway in London via train the following day, and immediately commenced a hunger and thirst strike. She was released on March 14th, for 7 days to the care of Nurse Pine at 2 Campden Hill Square, the home of Hilda Brackenbury, Georgina Brackenbury and Marie Brackenbury, also known as "Mouse Castle."


On March 10, 1914, the day on which Mrs. Pankhurst was taken back to Holloway, Mary Richardson slashed the Rokeby Venus at the National Gallery. In her biography of Emmeline Pankhurst, June Purvis explains:


On 10 March, Mary Richardson slashed with a meat chopper the famous Rokeby Venus painting in the National Gallery. ‘I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the government for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history’, she explained. ‘Justice is an element of beauty as much as colour and outline on canvas. Mrs. Pankhurst seeks to procure justice for womanhood, and for this she is being slowly murdered by a Government of Iscariot politicians. (p. 255)

Velasquez's Rokeby Venus, slashed by Mary Richardson and discussed in her autobiography "Laugh, A Defiance"

The May 26th 1914 bar refers to Mrs. Pankhurst's temporary release after her arrest on May 21, at Buckingham Palace. On 21 May 1914, Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested as she led a deputation of 200 women to the Palace. Their objective? To petition the King directly. Watched by large crowds, they were met by police officers. Many were arrested and injured. The photograph was widely shows Pankhurst, weakened by hunger-strikes, struggling with the police. Some footage of the ordeal can be seen here (though Pankhurst herself is not seen in this footage). On May 26th 1914, after her 8th hunger and thirst strike, Emmeline Pankhurst was released to the care of Nurse Pine at 34 Grosvenor Place, London SW. According to Elizabeth Crawford (via email to Hope Elizabeth May), 34 Grosvenor Place "was a very large house, now demolished, but once standing opposite the gardens of Buckingham Palace." Elizabeth Crawford also learned that by the time of Mrs. Pankhurst's discharge to 34 Grosvenor Place, the householder, Hon. George Campbell Napier, had died on 29 March 1914 (at the Golf Hotel, Le Touquet, France). Elizabeth Crawford explains:

"The house [34 Grosvenor Place] remained in the family – [Napier] had a wife and a daughter (in her twenties) – so someone had given permission for Mrs Pankhurst to be cared for there." There must have been some connection between the Napiers and the suffrage movement, but  I haven’t been able to find any documentary evidence." (private correspondence with Hope Elizabeth May of 5/16/24)

Mrs. Pankhurst was due to return to prison after a week. Instead, she became a fugitive, seeking refuge in "Mouse Hole", the nickname of the home of I.A.R. Wylie. In a chapter titled "Fugitive" in her biography of Emmeline Pankhurst, June Purvis explains:

"Emmeline now stayed at the home of Ida [I.A.R] and Barbara Wylie, 6 Blenheim Road, which was known as ‘Mouse Hole’ since suffragettes who recuperated there could, once they were well enough, escape the watching eyes of detectives by scrambling over six garden walls into the home of a secret sympathiser" (p. 261)

In researching the records of the census, Elizabeth Crawford has pointed out that Barbara Wylie did not in fact live at 6 Blenheim Road. Further, according to Crawford, "Blenheim Road is in St John’s Wood, north London, whereas Barbara Wylie was always, as far as I can find, associated with the Kensington area – and the Kensington WSPU." (private correspondence with Hope Elizabeth May of 5/15/24).

Emmeline Pankhurst was rearrested on July 8, outside of the old WSPU headquarters at Lincoln's Inn. This arrest takes us to the next bar on Nurse Pine's medal, dated July 11, 1914.

Emmeline Pankhurst being arrested at Buckingham Palace on May 21, 1914.

Emmeline Pankhurst was rearrested on July 8 outside the Old WSPU headquarters at Lincoln's Inn. The ordeal is described by Elizabeth Crawford in her entry "Emmeline Pankhurst" in The Woman's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928:

"On 8 July Mrs Pankhurst was back in Holloway, having been arrested in a tussle outside Lincoln's Inn House…On 10 July she was tried before the Visiting Committee in Holloway on a charge of using unseemly language and violence. This related to her behavior during the course of the "forcible" (i.e., "strip") search in the Reception Wing of Holloway on 8 July. After being stripped and searched she had remained lying on the floor, refusing to be helped on with her clothes. She had lambasted the matron and wardresses for their conduct towards her. The image of Mrs Pankhurst, usually so fastidious and personally reticent, lying naked, stripped, under the gaze of prison officials, is not one conjured up in detail by suffrage histories. This private view was, however, produced for public consumption, that of the Home Office. This humiliation more than her commanding oratory and platform presence represents Emmeline Pankhurst's apotheosis and perfectly demonstrates what Teresa Billington-Greig identified as her willingness to be ruthless with herself." (p. 511)

Mrs. Pankhurst was sentenced to 7 days close confinement, and after hunger striking was released on July 11 to Nurse Pine's care at 9 Pembridge Gardens. Elizabeth Crawford explains further:

"[Pankhurst] was due to return [to Holloway Prison] on 15 July, but on 16 July she was still a patient at Nurse Pine's nursing home. She was arrested that evening as she was leaving, on a stretcher, to attend a WSPU fund-raising rally at Holland Park Hall." (p. 511-512).

It was Mrs. Pankhurst's arrest on July 16, whilst on a stretcher, that would be her last. She would be released on July 18, 1914, which takes us to the final dated bar on Nurse Pine's medal.

Monument aux morts de 1914-18 (War Memorial 1914-18) St. Malo, France.

As described in Emmeline Pankhurst's entry in Elizabeth Crawford's "The Woman Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928":

"Mrs. Pankhurst was due to return to prison on 15 July, but on 16 July she was still a patient at Nurse Pine's nursing home. She was arrested that evening as she was leaving, on a stretcher, to attend a WSPU fund-raising rally at Holland Park Hall. (p. 511-512).

Upon her July 16th arrest, Mrs. Pankhurst engaged in a hunger strike and was temporarily released from Holloway on July 18th to Nurse Pine's care. She was due to return to Holloway on July 22, but instead departed for France. June Purvis' biography on Pankhurst provides further information about the date:

"Severely weakened from her hunger and thirst strikes, and suffering with nausea and gastric problems, Mrs. Pankhurst was temporarily released from prison yet again, due to return to Holloway prison on July 22. She never returned. Instead, she slipped quietly away to France, where she had arranged to meet Ethel Smyth. Nurse Pine had informed the volatile musician that the leader of the WSPU was ‘lower than ever before’, but nothing prepared Ethel for the shock when, supported by two of her militants, ‘the ghost of what had been Mrs. Pankhurst tottered onto the quay at St. Malo. Soon afterwards, Christabel joined them. With the two women by her side who were closest to her heart, Emmeline began to rebuild slowly her strength, splashing in the sea for the first time in twenty-five years and discovering that she could still swim. She even taught Ethel a trick or so, such as floating on her back and swimming with her mouth above the water. But the clouds of the Great War of 1914–18 were approaching fast. Emmeline followed the crowds on 1 August who gathered in St. Malo to hear the Mayor read Germany’s declaration of war against France. She listened to the cries of the elderly folk who recollected the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and remembered her own schooldays in Paris. Her prejudice against all things German and her enthusiasm for France resurfaced in stronger measure in her emotional temperament as she reflected that she had always argued, as leader of the militant women’s campaign, that human life was sacred. WSPU headquarters was instructed to inform the membership that all activity was to stop until the present crisis was over. Emmeline’s resolve to suspend the militant struggle stiffened when the small country of Belgium was invaded and Britain then declared war on Germany, on 4 August." (p. 266-267).