Maud Joachim (1 August 1869 – 16 February 1947) was a member of 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), one of the groups of suffragettes that fought for women to get the right to vote in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. She was jailed several times for her protests. Joachim was one of the first

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 ...

s to go on hunger strike when imprisoned, a protest at not being recognised as political prisoners.

Early life and education

Maud Amelia Fanny Joachim was born to Ellen Margaret (née Smart) and Henry Joachim in Paddington, London, on 1 August 1869. She had three sisters, Gertrude was older than her and Dorothy and Nina were younger. Her father, a wool merchant had been born in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and became a naturalized British subject in 1856, and received a certificate of naturalization in February 1874 following the

Naturalization Act 1870 The Naturalization Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 14) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amended and consolidated enactments relating to British nationality. The act introduced administrative procedures for naturalising non ...

( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 14). Her paternal uncle was the violinist and composer

Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian Violin, violinist, Conducting, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely ...

. Joachim was educated at

Girton College Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the univ ...

between 1890 and 1893, studying moral science.

Suffragette activism

Joachim was militant and a member of the hard line

which was led 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 ...

, becoming involved in 1907. She enjoyed the camaraderie and reflected that she was now with people with the same purpose.

Imprisonments

* In February 1908 Joachim when groups of suffragettes were delivered to the front door of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

transported in pantechnicon vans, this event was called the "Pantechnicon Raid", the group was arrested, and she was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment. * In June she was arrested again after an attempt to visit the Prime Minister, along with Mrs Pankhurst, Emmeline Pethick- Lawrence, Jessie Stephenson and Florence Haig. Maud Joachim was thwarted and a crowd rushed the police. Joachim was sentenced to three months in

Holloway Prison HM Prison Holloway was a British prison security categories, closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, ...

. * In 1909 she was in Scotland working in Aberdeen. That November she joined a protest that disturbed a talk by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

at his constituency in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. She was arrested along with Helen Archdale, Catherine Corbett and Adela Pankhurst and sentenced to ten days in Dundee Prison. During their sentence the five women went on hunger strike. William Blathwayt and Maud Joachim

In an imaginative protest organised with Katherine Douglas Smith, Joachim held up traffic in the West End by the two riding black bay horses up the

Strand Strand or The Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * ...

, at the same time advertising a suffragette meeting at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

Residency at Eagle House

Joachim was invited to Eagle House in 1910. A plaque was made and her photograph was recorded by Colonel Linley Blathwayt. Eagle House near Bath in Somerset had become an important refuge for

suffragettes 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 women's suffrage, the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in part ...

who had been released from prison after hunger strikes. Mary Blathwayt's parents planted trees there between April 1909 and July 1911 to commemorate the achievements of suffragettes including

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 ...

Annie Kenney Ann "Annie" Kenney (13 September 1879 – 9 July 1953) was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union. She co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie ...

Charlotte Despard Charlotte Despard (née French; 15 June 1844 – 10 November 1939) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish suffragist, socialist, pacifist, Sinn Féin activist, and novelist. She was a founding member of the Women's Freedom League, the Women's Pe ...

Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, women's suffrage by Law reform, legal change and in 1897–1919 led Brita ...

and Lady Lytton. Joachim planted a '' Thujopsis Dolabrata'' conifer on 17 June 1910. The trees were known as "Annie's Arboreatum" after Annie Kenney. There was also a "Pankhurst Pond" within the grounds. Joachim was back in London when the 1911 census was enumerated and refused to provide any information to the census enumerator as part of the suffragette boycott. Alongside a number of other WSPU members, in 1913 Joachim moved away from the organisation and radical action as violent protest escalated to arson. She moved her energies towards the socialist East London Federation of Suffragettes, which offered practical support to working-class women alongside campaigning for the vote.

Later life

Joachim ran an unemployment bureau and managed a toy factory for the East London Federation of Suffragettes during the First World War. She later worked with

Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (; 5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was an English Feminism, feminist and Socialism, socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise worki ...

on her anti-fascist Ethiopian campaign. In the 1939 Register, Joachim was listed as living on private means in Somerset Terrace in St Pancras London and later moved to Mouse Cottage,

Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, north of the coastal town of Shoreha ...

, where she lived until her death on 16 February 1947.

Personal life

Joachim was a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

. She was given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU, the box engraved with "''Presented to Maud Joachim by the Women's Social and 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''". An inscription on the back of one of the medal's bars commemorates her being FED BY FORCE 1/3/12 (1st March 1912).

Death

Maud Joachim died in

in 1947. On her death Joachim left legacies to fellow suffragettes Sylvia Pankhurst and Katherine Douglas-Smith as well as Girton College. Dorothy Bagnold Sowter of the Women's Pioneer Housing was executor of her will.

Commemoration

Joachim's WSPU medal was offered for auction at Bonhams on 3 October 2023 and sold for £41,600 inc. premium. Glasgow Women's Library set up a fundraising campaign to buy it, raising £28,000 from c.500 individual donations with the rest of the purchase price supported by the Scottish Government's National Fund for Acquisitions. The medal featured as the star object in the exhibition ''We Deserve A Medal: Militant Suffrage Activism'' at the library (1 February-31 May 2024).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joachim, Maud 1869 births 1947 deaths Eagle House suffragettes Hunger Strike Medal recipients Women's Social and Political Union Joseph Joachim