Elsie Duval

Elsie Diederichs Duval (born 1892 ; died January 1, 1919 ) was an English suffragette . She was an active member of the Women's Social and Political Union . She is best known for her account of the treatment of suffragettes in British prisons. She was among the first to be subject to the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 (also known as the Cat and Mouse Act ).

Life

family

Elsie's mother Emily Diederichs Duval, b. Hayes (1861-1924) was a women's suffrage activist who later became a local politician. Her father Earnest Diederichs Duval, who was a manager in a factory, also campaigned for women's suffrage. Elsie had five siblings: sisters Norah, Laura, Winifred and Barbara and brother Victor. Victor Duval founded the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement in 1910 , the no less militant counterpart to the Women's Social and Political Union . Both he and sisters Norah and Laura were sentenced to prison terms for their militant struggle for women's suffrage. Her mother briefly became a member of the Women's Social and Political Union before joining the Women's Freedom League , where she became chairwoman of the Battersea district of London and later a national board member. She also spent some time in prison in 1911.

Engagement and prison terms

Women's Social and Political Union Medal of Valor , awarded in 1912 to Elsie Duval for her first hunger strike in prison

Elsie Duval joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907 but was still too young to take part in its militant actions. On November 23, 1911, she was arrested for obstructing the work of the police, but was quickly released. She then signed up for the Women's Social and Political Union and took part in many of their actions from then on. In July 1912, she was arrested again after breaking the window of a post office and sentenced to a month in prison, which she served in Holloway Prison . There, like many suffragettes imprisoned around the time, she went on a hunger strike . Nine times she was forced into artificial feeding by doctors and prison staff against her will . She was released in August 1912. In April 1913, she was arrested again and again force-fed in prison, although she was in severe pain and resisted vehemently. During this prison stay, the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 - better known as the Cat and Mouse Act - came into force: the new law provided for a temporary release instead of force-feeding until the prisoners had recovered from the hunger strike and the The rest of their prison sentence. On March 28, 1913, Elsie Duval and her fellow prisoner Olive Beamish were the first suffragettes to be released from Holloway Prison under the Cat and Mouse Act .

Escape and return

Paper napkin in memory of Elsie Duval's and Hugh Franklin's wedding (1915)

In March 1913, Elsie Duval and the politician Hugh Franklin (1889–1962) became engaged . He was also an active advocate for women's suffrage and had been sentenced to prison, which was suspended under the Cat and Mouse Act . They fled the UK together to avoid going to prison again. Elsie Duval lived under the pseudonyms Eveline Dukes and Millicent Dean for a while . With forged letters of recommendation, she got a job as governess in Germany, where she lived for ten months. Then she lived for a few months in Belgium and Switzerland, and later again in Germany. When the suffragette movement stopped its militant actions at the beginning of the First World War and obtained an amnesty for its members , Elsie Duval was able to return to England. There she continued to support the Women's Social and Political Union , which was now committed to strengthening war troops, and joined the Women's Party founded by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst .

On September 28, 1915, Elsie Duval and Hugh Franklin were married in the West London Synagogue .

End of life

Elsie Duval died on January 1, 1919, at the age of only 26, of heart failure from pneumonia. Most likely, her weakened heart was a result of the abuse in prison. She could no longer exercise the right to vote for which she had campaigned all her life. Although she saw the introduction of restricted voting rights for women through the Representation of the People Act 1918 , she was still too young to vote in the 1918 general election.

The Women's Library manages parts of her estate .

literature

Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , pp. 178-179.

Web links

Commons : Elsie Duval - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , pp. 180-181.
↑ Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , p. 181.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , pp. 179-180.
↑ Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , pp. 40-41.
↑ Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , p. 6.

personal data
SURNAME	Duval, Elsie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Diederichs Duval, Elsie (full name); Franklin, Elsie (married name); Dukes, Eveline (pseudonym); Dean, Millicent (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British suffragette
DATE OF BIRTH	1892
DATE OF DEATH	January 1, 1919

[Crawford-Emily-Duval-1] A ^b ^c Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , pp. 180-181.

[Crawford-Victor-Duval-2] Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , p. 181.

[Crawford-Elsie-Duval-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , pp. 179-180.

[Crawford-Olive-Beamish-4] Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , pp. 40-41.

[Crawford-Aliases-5] Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 978-0-4152-3926-4 , p. 6.