Sarah Jane Baines (30 November 1866 – 20 February 1951) was a British-Australian
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
,
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 social reformer.
She was the first suffragette to be
tried by jury,
and one of the first
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 ...
rs. She was known as 'Jennie Baines
' in the suffragist movement.
Early life
Sarah Jane Baines was born in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, England, in 1866 to Sarah Ann (''née'' Hunt) and James Edward Hunt, a gun maker.
She began work at
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
's ordnance factory
at the age of eleven. At age fourteen, Baines joined her parents in working with the
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...
. Upon attaining the rank of lieutenant at age twenty, she was sent to work as an
evangelist in an independent working men's mission in Bolton.
In this role, she was also called upon to act as a police court
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...
caring for women who had been arrested.
On 26 September 1888 in Bolton she married George Baines, a boot and shoemaker,
and the couple had five children between 1888 and 1899
three of whom survived childhood.
Between motherhood and her work as a sewing machinist, there was little time for public activities. Yet Baines' commitment never wavered, her youngest surviving child was six years old when she was imprisoned for the third time.
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 ...
called her 'one of the most kind-hearted woman one could meet, a born revolutionary'.
Baines also joined the
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...
,
the feeding of school children committee and the unemployed committee.
Campaigning for women's suffrage
In October 1905, Baines read about the arrest of suffragists
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 ...
and
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 ...
for assault and this motivated her to join 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 ...
.
Initially this was as a voluntary basis but in February 1908, Baines was made a paid organiser on a wage of £2 a week,
organising open-air rallies, disrupting meetings and establishing new branches of the WSPU in the
North of England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...
and the
Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
.
Later this same year, in November 1908, Baines was to be tried of unlawful assembly at the Coliseum in
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
,
the first ever member of the WSPU to be tried by jury. Refusing to be
bound over
In the law of England and Wales and some other common law jurisdictions, binding over is an exercise of certain powers by the criminal courts used to deal with low-level public order issues. Both magistrates' courts and the Crown Court may issue ...
, she was convicted to six weeks imprisonment in
Armley Goal, Leeds because "''she did ‘not recognise the laws of this Court administered by men''".
One of the first to advocate militant methods, Baines was imprisoned some fifteen times for her part in protests.
In July 1909 with twelve others, including
Mary Leigh
Mary Leigh (née Brown; 1885–1979) was an English political activist and suffragette.
Early life
Leigh was born as Mary Brown in 1885 in Manchester. She was a schoolteacher until her marriage to a builder, surnamed Leigh.
Activism
Leigh j ...
,
Lucy Burns
Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate.Bland, 1981 (p. 8) She was a passionate activist in the United States and the United Kingdom, who joined the militant suffragettes. Burns w ...
,
Alice Paul
Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragette, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the foremost leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the Unit ...
,
Emily Davison
Emily Wilding Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was an English suffragette who fought for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, votes for women in Britain in the early twentieth century. A member of the Women's Social and Polit ...
and
Mabel Capper
Mabel Henrietta Capper (23 June 1888 – 1 September 1966) was a British suffragette. She gave all her time between 1907 and 1913 to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) as a 'soldier' in the struggle for women's suffrage. She was impr ...
and another in her wheelchair
ay Billinghurst perhapsref name=":5" /> she was jailed for obstruction for trying to stop
Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
's public budget meeting in
Limehouse
Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains throu ...
.
The protest was witnessed by
Annie Barnes who was inspired to join the
East London Federation
The Workers' Socialist Federation was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom, led by Sylvia Pankhurst. Under many different names, it gradually broadened its politics from a focus on women's suffrage to eventually become a left comm ...
and influenced by
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 the way to
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, ...
the women arrested had shouted and sung protests and demanded to be treated in 'first division' in their own clothes as 'political' prisoners rather than criminals, this was not granted and the women broke 150 panes of glass at the prison and refused to give their names, prison officers had to use 'force necessary' to get the women into prison clothes.
In Liverpool, in 1910, Baines was making speeches with
Ada Flatman and
Patricia Woodlock, when she was interrupted by
Constance Lytton
Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton (12 February 1869 – 22 May 1923), usually known as Constance Lytton, was an influential British suffragette activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform, votes for women, and birth control. S ...
disguised as 'Jane Wharton' a seamstress asking 'the men and women of Liverpool to be the first to wipe out the stain
f force-feeding and a crowd followed them to the prison Governor John Dillon's house, chased by police.
In July 1912, Baines was part of an attempt, under the name 'Lizzie Baker' along with Gladys Evans and
Mary Leigh
Mary Leigh (née Brown; 1885–1979) was an English political activist and suffragette.
Early life
Leigh was born as Mary Brown in 1885 in Manchester. She was a schoolteacher until her marriage to a builder, surnamed Leigh.
Activism
Leigh j ...
and
Mabel Capper
Mabel Henrietta Capper (23 June 1888 – 1 September 1966) was a British suffragette. She gave all her time between 1907 and 1913 to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) as a 'soldier' in the struggle for women's suffrage. She was impr ...
, to burn down the
Theatre Royal in
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
the night before a scheduled visit from then Prime Minister,
H.H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...
, to speak on
Home Rule
Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...
.
For this Baines was sentenced to seven months hard labour
and Central Bridewell prison, Dublin.
Joining her fellow suffragette prisoners on hunger strike, she was released after five days.

The next year, on 8 July 1913, with her husband George and son Wilfred, Baines was accused of attempting to bomb first-class railway carriages at a
Lancashire and Yorkshire railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...
siding, and leaving suffragist material, near where they lived in Manchester.
A bomb, loaded revolver, masks and cutting tools and two catapults were found at their premises.
As a result, her husband and son were charged with malicious damage and not imprisoned,
but Baines was re-arrested under the '
Cat and Mouse act
The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act 1913, commonly referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act, was an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under H. H. Asquith's Liberal government in 1913.
The Cat and Mouse Act wa ...
' and imprisoned at
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, ...
. She again 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 ...
, refusing food and water, and was released in a 'very serious condition'.
Baines suffered from
chorea
Chorea, or (rarely) choreia, () is an abnormal involuntary movement disorder, characterized by quick movements of the hands or feet. It is one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. The term ''chorea'' is derived , as the move ...
("St Vitus' Dance") causing spasms brought on by emotional stress,
making it almost impossible to force-feed her.
Baines had been given a
Hunger Strike Medal
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, many went on hunger strike while serving the ...
'for Valour'.
In May 1913 another arrest for obstruction during a meeting in Hyde Park, and a month sentence led WSPU leaders to determine that her health could not endure another stint in prison,
so Baines and her family were smuggled into Wales as the 'Evans' family and set sail aboard ''The Ballarat'', bound for
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
before their trial (as a family) was due in November 1913. The trial went ahead and acquitted George and Wilfred Baines.
WSPU saw this migration as a reward for all Baines had done, as Australia had achieved the female federal vote in 1902.
Later life in Australia
After being smuggled out of England, Baines arrived in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Australia in December 1913, aged 47.
Adele Pankhurst would later arrive in 1914.
Upon settling in
the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy,
the Baines family joined the
Victorian Socialist Party
The Victorian Socialist Party (VSP), also known as the Socialist Party of Victoria, was a socialist political party in the Australian state of Victoria during the early 20th century.
Most VSP members were also members of the Australian Labor ...
and the
Labour Party while Sarah busied herself working with the
Women's Political Association as early as January 1914
and co-founded the
Women's Peace Army.
With Adele Pankhurst, Baines campaigned against
World War I conscription in 1916-1917 and against the spiralling cost of living,
as profiteering.
Both were sentenced to nine months imprisonment but both were freed on appeal on a legal technicality.
Baines was again jailed in March 1919 for flying the prohibited
red flag on the Yarra Bank
and became the first prisoner in Australia to undergo hunger strike. A special Federal Cabinet meeting was held
and her release after four days starving
was secured on the advice of the
Attorney-General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
.
In 1920, Baines helped establish the
Communist Party in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
. Five years later, she would be expelled and this saw her rejoin the Labour Party. In 1926, the family relocated to
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, Port Phillip Local government ...
and Baines was appointed special magistrate to the Children's Court there from 1928
to 1948.
Death and legacy
Although her post
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
activities were curtailed by her failing sight,
Sarah Jane Baines continued her "''fiery eloquence on the hustings''" until her death from cancer, only giving up public speaking a few months before she died on 20 February 1951 in
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, Port Phillip Local government ...
.
Survived by her husband and her three children,
Baines's legacy could perhaps be summed up in her own words:
'To fight for that which is better and nobler in this world is to live in the highest sense, but to submit and tolerate the evils which exist is to merely vegetate in the sewers of iniquity'. Jennie Baines quoted in ''The Socialist'', 11 April 1919.
See also
*
Adele Pankhurst
*
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 ...
*
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Brita ...
References
External links
'Surveillance Photograph of Militant Suffragettes' - Image of Jennie Baines at the National Portrait Gallery.'Jennie Baines' by Criminal Record Office - Image of Jennie Baines at the National Portrait Gallery.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baines, Sarah J
British suffragists
British social reformers
1866 births
1951 deaths
Australian women activists
Activists from Birmingham, West Midlands
British emigrants to Australia
Women's Social and Political Union
19th-century Australian women
20th-century Australian women
Australian expatriates in England
Australian anti-war activists
Australian anti–World War I activists