Helen Tolson

Helen Tolson (born c.1888) was an English suffragette from Manchester active in the Women's Social and Political Union. She was repeatedly arrested in 1908 and 1909.

Activism

In December 1908 Tolson, aged 20, was arrested with Patricia Tomlison and Joseph Salignet outside the Sun Hall in Liverpool, where David Lloyd George was speaking. The magistrate dismissed the case to avoid giving publicity to their "stupid behaviour".[1] In March 1909 Tolson was amongst the suffragettes arrested outside the Houses of Parliament.[2] Her father wrote to the Home Secretary, Herbert Gladstone, to complain at the police violence.[3] In August she was beaten up by a Liberal crowd who had come to hear Winston Churchill and Herbert Samuel at Rushpool Hall, Saltburn-by-the-Sea.[4]

In September she and her younger sister Catherine were amongst the suffragettes arrested for breaking glass at White City in Manchester, who all accepted imprisonment rather than pay fines.[5] Two days later they were released from Strangeways after going on hunger strike.[6] On 4 December 1909 Tolson, Dora Marsden and Winson Etherley were arrested for breach of the peace for disrupting an appearance by Winston Churchill at the Empire Theatre in Southport. Charges were dismissed at their court appearance later that week.[7]

References

  1. ↑ 'The Liverpool Disturbance. Overlooking "Stupid Behaviour"', The Manchester Guardian, 23 December 1908.
  2. ↑ 'Tuesday's Disturbance: Convictions for obstruction and assault', The Manchester Guardian, 1 April 1909.
  3. ↑ De Angelis, Valerio Massimo (2004). "Diverging Trajectories? The Freewoman vs./and the women's suffrage movement". In Marina Camboni. Networking Women: Subjects, Places, Links Europe-America : Towards a Re-writing of Cultural History, 1890-1939 : Proceedings of the International Conference, Macerata, March 25-27, 2002. Ed. di Storia e Letteratura. p. 205. ISBN 978-88-8498-157-8.
  4. ↑ Sylvia Pankhurst (2015). The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement. Dover Publications. pp. 415–6. ISBN 978-0-486-80731-7.
  5. ↑ 'Suffragist Disturbance: Balls of iron thrown in White City', The Manchester Guardian, 7 September 1909.
  6. ↑ 'Suffragists Released: "Hunger strike" at Strange Ways', The Manchester Guardian, 9 September 1909.
  7. ↑ 'Woman Suffragists: Charges Dismissed at Southport', The Times, 7 December 1909.
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