The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910

by E. Sylvia Pankhurst

She was then surrounded and held down, whilst the chair was tilted backwards. She clenched her teeth but the doctor pulled her mouth away to form a pouch and the wardress poured in milk and brandy some of which trickled in through the crevices. Later in the day the doctors and wardresses again appeared. They forced her down on to the bed, and held her there. One of the doctors then produced a tube two yards in length with a glass junction in the centre and a funnel at one end. He forced the other end of the tube up her nostril, hurting her so terribly that the matron and two of the wardresses burst into tears and the second doctor interfered. At last the tube was pushed down into the stomach. She felt the pain of it to the end of the breast bone. Then one of the doctors stood upon a chair holding the funnel end of the tube at arm's length and poured food down whilst the wardresses and the other doctor all gripped her tight. She felt as though she would suffocate. There was a rushing, burning sensation in her head, the drums of her ears seemed to be bursting. The agony of pain in the throat and breast bone continued. The thing seemed to go on for hours. When at last the tube was withdrawn, she felt as though all the back of her nose and throat were being torn out with it.

Then almost fainting she was carried back to the punishment cell and put to bed. For hours the pain in the chest, nose and ears continued and she felt terribly sick and faint. Day after day the struggle continued; she used no violence but each time resisted and was overcome by force of numbers. Often she vomited during the operation. When the food did not go down quickly enough the doctor pinched her nose with the tube in it causing her even greater pain.

Lady Constance Lytton before she threw the stone at New Castle, October 9th, 1909

On Tuesday afternoon she heard Miss Edwards, one of her fellow prisoners, cry from an open doorway opposite, "Locked in a padded cell since Sunday." Then the door was shut. She applied to see the visiting magistrates, and appealed to them on behalf of her comrade, saying that she knew her to have a weak heart, but was told that no prisoner could interfere on another's behalf. She protested by breaking the windows of the hospital cell to which, owing to her weakness, she had now been taken, and was then thrust into the padded cell as Miss Edwards was taken from it, the bed which she had occupied being still warm. The padded cell was lined with some India rubber-like stuff, and she felt as though she would suffocate for want of air. She was kept there till Wednesday, still being fed by force.

On Saturday she felt that she could endure the agony of it no longer, and determined to barricade her cell. She piled up her bed and chair, but after three hours men warders forced the door open with spades. Then the chief warder threatened and abused her and she was dragged back to the padded cell.

In Miss Ainsworth's case the feeding was done through the mouth. Her jaws were pried open with a steel instrument to allow of the gag being placed between her teeth. She experienced great sickness, especially when the tube was being withdrawn.

Miss Hilda Burkitt's experiences were very dreadful. She had already fasted four days and was extremely weak when she was seized by two doctors, four wardresses and the matron, who tried for more than half an hour to force her to swallow from the feeding cup. Then a tube was forced up her nose, but she succeeded in coughing it back twice and at last, very near collapse, she was carried to her cell and put to bed by the wardresses. "This will kill me sooner than starving," she said, "I cannot stand much more of it, but I am proud you have not beaten me yet." Still suffering greatly in head, nose and throat, she was left alone for half an hour and the matron and wardresses then returned to persuade her to take food. On her refusal they said, "Well, you will have to come again; they are waiting." "Oh, surely not the torture chamber again," she cried; but they lifted her out of bed and carried her back to the doctors, who again attempted to force her to drink from the feeding cup. Still she was able to resist and then one of them said, "The Home Office has given me every power to use what force I like. I am going to use the stomach pump." "It is illegal and an assault; I shall prosecute you," was her reply, but as she spoke a gag was forced into her mouth and the tube followed. She had almost fainted and felt as if she were going to die, and now for some reason the tube was withdrawn without having been used, but in her great weakness the officials were now able to overcome her resistance and to pour liquid into her mouth with the feeding cup.

This sort of thing went on day after day. On Thursday morning she was unconscious when they came into her cell, and they succeeded in feeding her. During the night she was in agony. She told the doctor he had given her too much food and cried: "For mercy's sake, let me be, I am too tired," but brandy and Benger's food were forcibly administered. During the whole month she only slept four nights.

But the story of these sufferings had no power to influence the Government. They were determined to persevere with the forcible feeding and were so far from abandoning this hateful form of torture, that, evidently thinking the women who had won their way out of prison by the hunger strike had been let off too easily, they proceeded to rearrest a number of them upon the most flimsy charges. Evelyn Wurrie, who had been arrested with Mrs. Leigh and the others, but afterwards discharged by the magistrate, had been refused bail between the time of her arrest and trial and kept for seventeen hours as an ordinary prisoner in the insanitary police court cells. She might have been thought, therefore, to be entitled to claim damages for wrongful arrest and detention, but was nevertheless rearrested because she had broken the cell window to obtain more air, and was sentenced either to pay a fine of eleven shillings or go to prison for seven days. She chose imprisonment, but her fine was paid by a member of the Birmingham Liberal Club. Miss Rona Robinson, Miss Florence Clarkson, Miss Georgina Heallis and Miss Bertha Brewster, who had all gone through the hunger strike in Liverpool, were also summoned for breaking their cell windows, in spite of the fact that they had already been severely punished in prison for these offences. On their refusal to answer to the summons, warrants were issued for their arrest. Rona Robinson, who was said to have committed damage to the extent of two shillings, was arrested on October 15th in Manchester, and was taken the same night to Liverpool. Though her doctor had certified her to be suffering from laryngeal catarrh and a weak, irregular action of the heart, she was sent back to prison for fourteen days' imprisonment in the third division. Owing to the state of her health, the Liverpool authorities refused to take the responsibility of feeding her by force and she was accordingly released after a fast of seventy-two hours.