The Full Story
By 1913, women had been asking for the vote for over sixty years. They had petitioned, marched, lobbied, and reasoned. Parliament had ignored them.
The suffragettes decided to make ignoring them impossible.
The campaign of destruction was systematic. Letterboxes were set on fire. Windows were smashed. Golf courses were vandalised. Orchid houses at Kew were destroyed. And buildings burned: railway stations, grandstands, churches.
The tea pavilion at Kew Gardens was burned on 20 February 1913. The cricket pavilion at the Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells, followed in April 1913, with suffragette literature left at the scene. In June 1913, Kitty Marion and Clara Giveen burned the grandstand at Hurst Park racecourse. A plot to blow up the Crystal Palace grandstand before the 1913 FA Cup final was foiled, and attempts were made on the grandstands at Preston North End and Blackburn Rovers.
Emily Davison died throwing herself in front of the King's horse at the Derby. Suffragettes endured force-feeding in prison. They broke the law, destroyed property, and accepted the consequences.
The government responded with brutality. The 'Cat and Mouse Act' released hunger-striking prisoners only to re-arrest them once they'd recovered. But the campaign continued.
Women over 30 got the vote in 1918. All women in 1928. The suffragettes had proven that sometimes, when polite requests are ignored, direct action is the only option.
Why This Matters
The suffragettes showed that rights sometimes have to be demanded, not requested. Decades of peaceful lobbying achieved nothing. Direct action, at great personal cost, succeeded.
Key Facts
- ⚠Correction: the video describes the burning of the new grandstand at Aston Villa on 3 April 1913 with a 'Votes for Women' calling card. That specific incident could not be verified in any source checked. The verified record of attacks on sporting venues in 1913 includes the Kew tea pavilion (20 February), the Nevill Ground pavilion at Tunbridge Wells (April), the Hurst Park grandstand (June, by Kitty Marion and Clara Giveen), a foiled plot against the Crystal Palace FA Cup final grandstand, and attempts at Preston North End and Blackburn Rovers.