Caprina Fahey

Born Charlotte Emily Caprina Gilbert, Fahey was born in Capri, Italy on 13 September[1] 1883,[2] she had four siblings.[3] Her father was Alfred Gilbert, (1854–1934) sculptor of Eros statue in Picadilly Circus London.[2] Her father also sculpted the memorial to Henry Fawcett, Millicent Garrett Fawcett NUWSS convenor's husband in Westminster Abbey.[4]

She became an active member of the Women's Social and Political Union, took part in suffragette activism and was imprisoned[5] at least twice. She was given the Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' dated March 14, 1914 when she arrested under the name 'Emily Charlton'[6] and also used the name 'Charlotte Hay',[7] her medal also refers to May 21, 1914.[3]

Her mother, Alice Jane Gilbert (1847–1916) was her father's first cousin and they had eloped to Paris in 1876 to wed, and in 1901 her father became bankrupt and left Britain for Bruges, Belgium. Her mother left her father in 1904, and as she was in a mental hospital, they never divorced. Her mother died in 1916, but her father did not find out until the end of World War I when he married his housekeeper Stéphanie Debourgh who had seven children. Alfred Gilbert left Fahey out of his will when he died in 1934.

She was a trained masseuse, and married Alfred Edward Fahey[4] in 1901[3] who was one of her father's assistants[2] a painter,[8] and had a son Dennis Mountiford Fahey[3] in 1905. Alfred left her when the boy was six months old.[2] She later sued Alfred for divorce and was given custody which was not normal for the mother in those days [3] and her husband died in 1907.[4] Her son lived to the age of 35 and died in Brighton.[3] She had three grandchildren in Sussex.[9]

She became a suffragette and was imprisoned and went on hunger strike, she became an organiser within the Women's Social and Political Union.[2]

Fahey served with the French Red Cross as a masseuse during World War One, where she is thought to have met[1] her second husband Edward Knight[3] and returning to Britain, she then trained as a midwife up to May 1917,[1] and then lived in Rose Cottage,[1] Hainford, Norfolk from during the Second World War[1] where they hosted at least one refugee during that war, they remained living there until she died in Norfolk and Norwich Hospital[1] on 26 October 1959.[3]

Her funeral took place in All Saints Church, Hainford on 29 October 1959. The Rose Cottage became derelict and was demolished in 1975 and some artefacts relating to Fahey's Votes for Women campaigning were found.[1]

Fahey joined WSPU in 1908, and within two years became organiser for Middlesex.[3] She lived with Vera Wentworth.[4] Fahey also helped at Longdown Farm, organising suffragette meetings in central Buckinghamshire,[10] where she stayed in the summers of 1908 and 1909.[11]

Suffragette prisoners procession, 1909

She was arrested in 1909, with twenty-six suffragette campaigners who went from Caxton Hall, Westminster to attempt to enter the House of Commons,[3] and sentenced for obstruction with Constance Lytton, Daisy Soloman, Rose Lamartine Yates and Sarah Carwin to their first sentence for the cause of women's suffrage, of one month in prison.[2] In November 1910, she was involved in the incident known as Black Friday and arrested again, for stone-throwing, sentenced to two weeks.[3] Fahey's sentences were served in Holloway Prison, and she went on hunger strike.[3]

By 1913 Fahey was asked to be a 'captain', leading one of twenty-two groups of suffragette mourners along with Leonora Tyson, Elsa Myers, Eleanor Glidewell, and Dorothea Rock at the major suffragette funeral procession of Emily Davison.[3]

Fahey associated with the local Norfolk suffragettes including Princess Sophia Alexandra Duleep Singh, Grace Marion and Miriam Pratt.[3]

Fahey had been imprisoned with Helen Watts and wrote to her congratulating her on a subsequent 90hours fast in prison for the cause.[4]

Fahey was awarded the WSPU Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' in 1914, and is now held in the Norfolk Museum Service archive.[3]

Her legacy as a suffragette was not mentioned in her death notice, but her time in the Red Cross, as a state registered midwife and as an Air Raid ARP Warden and membership of the Women's Institute were recorded.[1]

In November 2017, Norfolk Museum Services put out a public call for information on Caprina Fahey's life and legacy.[3] The appeal led to more information about her life [9] and an ornate suffragette certificate which is also now held in the museum.[1] Caprina Fahey was nominated for the Suffrage to Citizenship project organised by the Women's Local Government Society.[12] Her medal was on display at a Quilters Guild event.[13]