Edith Garrud

“The suffragette who knew jiu-jitsu. The Arrest. ”: The caricature by Arthur Wallis Mills in Punch magazine of June 6, 1910 shows Edith Garrud alone facing a group of frightened police officers.

Edith Margaret Garrud (* 1872 in Bath as Edith Williams ; † 1971 in Islington ) was an English suffragette , Jiu-Jitsu teacher and author. She was an active member of the Women's Social and Political Union and trained Emmeline Pankhurst's bodyguard.

Life

Family and career beginnings

After completing her physical education teacher training, Edith Williams married the physical education teacher William Garrud. The couple had a son and a daughter.

In 1899 Garrud attended a martial arts demonstration with her husband. Shortly afterwards, she began to practice Jiu-Jitsu . She took lessons from Edward William Barton-Wright , who made the sport known in Great Britain, and from Raku Uyenshi , a Japanese. Edith and William Garrud founded a Jiu-Jitsu school in London . Edith Garrud was one of the first women to teach martial arts in a western country.

The growing interest in Japanese culture in England in the early 20th century also brought an interest in martial arts. In 1907 Garrud was seen in a short film called Jiu-jitsu Downs the Footpads . A public performance in which she defeated a significantly larger and heavier police officer generated a lot of media coverage. Garrud gave other high-profile Jiu-Jitsu performances in which her opponent disguised himself as a police officer.

Commitment to the women's rights movement

In 1909 Edith Garrud gave a demonstration at an event organized by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). In December of that year, she advertised her Suffragettes' Self-Defense Club in Votes for Women magazine , where she taught twice a week. She trained the suffragettes to defend themselves against police violence and violent opponents of women's suffrage. Other female athletes followed Garrud's example and offered self-defense courses for suffragettes. Sylvia Pankhurst gave a speech in 1913 recommending women to practice Jiu Jitsu. This trend became well known and increasingly regarded as a hallmark of the suffragette movement. In 1910 the magazine Punch showed Edith Garrud alone opposite a group of frightened police officers with the caption “The suffragette that knew Jiu-Jitsu. The Arrest. ”(“ The suffragette who knew Jiu Jitsu. The arrest. ”). The martial arts skills of the suffragettes were also received by opponents of women's suffrage: for example, opposing postcards showed caricatures of suffragettes who violently oppressed their husbands, and portrayed the suffragette as a threat to social order.

Garrud was also active in the Women's Freedom League . She headed the association's sports department and organized sporting events for its members. In June 1910 Garrud led the sports department of the Women's Freedom League in the Women's Coronation Procession to, a Suffragettenmarsch for the coronation of George V . In 1912, Garrud hid six suffragettes who were wanted after an attack in her school by posing as her students.

Author and actress

In Health and Strength magazine, Garrud published several articles explaining the value of martial arts to women, which she viewed less a sport than self-defense. In 1911 her play appeared in Health and Strength with the title Ju-Jutsu as a Husband-Tamer. A Suffragette Play with a Moral . It is about the wife of a grocer who learns to defy her violent husband through martial arts. Garrud not only advocated martial arts as a defense against police violence, but also emphasized its value in protecting women from domestic violence . In a performance of the play, Garrud played the lead role himself.

The Pankhurst bodyguard

From 1913 Edith Garrud trained the bodyguard that accompanied Emmeline Pankhurst . This unit of about 30 women in the press Amazons ( Amazons were called) had Gertrude Harding established to Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia to protect them from being arrested by the police. In addition to unarmed Jiu Jitsu, Garrud also trained the bodyguard in hand-to-hand combat with gymnastic clubs . Their courses took place in secret, changing locations as the training group was spied on by the police.

Emmeline Pankhurst's widely acclaimed public appearances also made her bodyguard known nationwide. Health and Strength published a satirical article entitled "Jiu-jitsuffragettes". The suitcase word “suffrajitsu” soon established itself in the British media .

End of life

Little is known about Edith Garrud's later years. She lived in London until the end of her life and was 99 years old.

Honors

Commemorative plaque for Edith Garrud in Islington

Since 2012 a plaque commemorates Edith Garrud on Garrud's house in Thornhill Square in the London borough of Islington . The honor was awarded in a public vote by the population of the city district.

A sculpture by Edith Garrud is part of an installation above Finsbury Park London Underground station . The artwork was inaugurated in April 2013 with members of Edith Garrud's family.

reception

Tony Wolf and Kathrynne Wolf wrote a book about Edith Garrud for young people called Edith Garrud. The Suffragette Who Knew Jujutsu . In his graphic novel trilogy Suffrajitsu , published together with João Vieira . Edith Garrud appears as a supporting character in Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons and his Mark Lingane-written spin-off The Second-Story Girl .

For the film Suffragette - Actions Not Words , Helena Bonham Carter insisted that her character should be given the first name Edith to honor Edith Garrud.

literature

• Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , p. 240.

Web links

Commons : Edith Garrud  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c d e} Jean Williams: A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One. Sporting Women, 1850-1960. Routledge, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-1386-9511-5 , p. 84.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. , P. 235.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Camila Ruz, Justin Parkinson: 'Suffrajitsu': How the suffragettes fought back using martial arts. In: BBC News Magazine. October 5, 2015, accessed September 1, 2018 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Rachel Williams: Edith Garrud. A public vote for the suffragette who taught martial arts. In: The Guardian . June 25, 2012, accessed September 1, 2018 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Wendy L. Rouse: Her Own Hero. The Origins of the Women's Self-Defense Movement. New York University Press, New York 2017, ISBN 978-1-4798-2853-1 , pp. 130. 171-173.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} L. A. Jennings: She's a Knockout !: A History of Women in Fighting Sports. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2014, ISBN 978-1-4422-3643-1 , p. 72.
7. ↑ Jiu-jitsu Downs the Footpads in the Internet Movie Database (English)
8. ^ Andrew Johnson: Jiu-jitsu suffragette Edith Garrud celebrated with People's Plaque. In: Islington Tribune. July 6, 2012, accessed September 1, 2018 . 
9. ^ Andrew Johnson: Jazzie B, health pioneer and ju jitsu-training suffragette all honored with statues in Finsbury Park. In: Islington tribune. April 26, 2013, accessed October 18, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Brochure on the artwork (PDF; accessed October 18, 2018).