Alice Davies
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Alice Davies (1870 - ''alive in'' 1919 ) was a British
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
and
nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
. She was imprisoned for protesting for women's right to vote by smashing windows, went on
hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...
and was awarded the
Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...
Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour'.


Life and activism

Born in 1870, to parents in
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
and had at least one brother, who later had a son Frederick Lesley Stuart Davies, serving in the WWI Army Cycle Corps. Alice Davies joined the
Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...
(WSPU) to protest for women's right to vote. Davies became the Liverpool WPSU Branch organiser from June 1910 to September 1912, trying to move the approach of the four branches in the area to holding more large indoor events and social functions, away from the frequent street meetings outside factories and smaller 'At Homes' in more affluent areas that were a feature before her. The groups in the Cheshire side of the Mersey continued the street events with speakers from Liverpool and beyond, and from November 1910 WSPU had toned down its militancy for a period. The branch shop did not do well during that time with a drop from over £18 annual profit from written material sales to just over19shillings (less than £1) as it became a more exclusive 'members meeting' place. As most of the suffragette literature had been sold at street meetings to spread the message about 'votes for women' to the public, the change in management may reflect lost opportunities to increase support for the cause. Davies organised Holiday Campaigns' in the
Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
, and used
Vida Goldstein Vida Jane Mary Goldstein (pron. ) (13 April 186915 August 1949) was an Women's suffrage in Australia, Australian suffragist and social reformer. She was one of four female candidates at the 1903 Australian federal election, 1903 federal election ...
and Beatrice Harraden, from the national movement to support this. In 1911, Davies was writing to encourage local members to join a deputation to London to attempt to speak to Prime Minister Lloyd-George on 21 November. During 1912, Davies was one of the two hundred women arrested during a protest which took place on 1 and 4 March 1912, which was a second wave of window smashing protests in the wealthy London shopping area, the West End, in
Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...
,
Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
and Chelsea. This took place at the same time as the
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
was debating a Conciliation Bill (which was to have given some women the right to vote but was not passed). Davies said at her trial that 'women were determined to fight for the same human rights enjoyed by men. They were tired of being treated as aliens & would continue their struggle until they had reached their objective.' Davies's sentence was three months and she went on
hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...
. Whilst she was away the Liverpool WSPU continued and members praised Patricia Woodlock as a public speaker, the temporary branch organiser. In recognition of Davies suffering in prison, the WSPU awarded her a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' designed by
Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed Suffragette bombing and arson ca ...
, with the ribbon in the colours of the movement - green, white and purple, representing 'hope, purity and dignity' and dated 4 March 1912. The presentation box was inscribed
ALICE DAVIES - BY THE WOMEN'S SOCIAL & POLITICAL UNION 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.
National Archive National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...
record lists those who were imprisoned and later subject to the pardon granted to all suffragettes when the WSPU discontinued militancy at the start of
World War One World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...
; she was listed there as Alice 'Davis', but the record states it was created from later recollections of suffragette activists and not from original prison or court documents. Women imprisoned who went on hunger strike were frequently force-fed and despite not being treated as 'political prisoners' were supportive of each other, in whatever way they could. One example of this that Davies took part in Holloway Prison, was the creation by sixty-eight women of what became known as The Suffragette Handkerchief: secretly embroidering their name, initials or full signature on a common piece of cloth, right under the eyes of the prison wardresses (probably in the exercise yard), and smuggled out by Mary Ann Hilliard and now in The Priest House Museum, West Hoathly on display there and with similar items it can also be viewed online. On return to Liverpool, Davies may have been hesitant for the abilities of her team so organised a campaign meeting at the Sun Hall, Liverpool jointly with two other organisations ( NUWSS and the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association (CUWFA), for the first time, as well as building relations with the local Men's League for Women's Suffrage and the newly developing Church League, but the publicity focussed on the CUWFA role. Davies also organised a visit by
Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst (; Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women to win in 1918 the women's suffrage, right to vote in United Kingdom of Great Brita ...
to the Hardman Hall, which was written up in ''
Votes for Women Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
,'' February 2012''.'' Dr. Alice Ker spoke warmly of Davies, during their time in Holloway together, and Davies gave her an appropriate low key release 'welcome' and garden party, rather than the big public events for the release of Patricia Woodlock and others. It appears that Davies moved away from the area after the next summer campaign in the Lake District, to London, She had joined the Women's Tax Resistance League, and had to have two silver candlesticks auctioned to affray unpaid taxes, an event celebrated by a small procession to Grosvenor Gardens and speeches, led by the organisation's founder, Anne Cobden-Sanderson.


Later life

Davies became a Nursing Sister at Westminster, and served in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (during World War One) but does not seem to appear in later key records of the suffragette or the women's rights movements. She wrote to her nephew Frederick Lesley Stuart Davies, a private in the Army Cyclist Corps. King's Liverpool Regiment and Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, who was discharged injured in 1919. Davies's date of death is unknown.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Alice 1870s births Women's Social and Political Union Women's rights activists from Liverpool English nurses Hunger Strike Medal recipients English tax resisters 20th-century English women 20th-century English people