"I felt as taken hold of by the movement... for the first time in my life I felt of some use"
Constance was born on the 18th of January, 1869. She was related to aristocracy, her farther Robert Bulwer-Lytton was the 1st Earl of Lytton and her mother Edith Villers was a lady in waiting to the Queen. Constance spent the first 11 years of her life in India as her farther was the British Viceroy of India, meaning he was the representative of the royal family in India. Constance was a talented musician, she was heavily involved in charity work mostly working with the lower-class women on her estate, for most of her life Constance was described as shy, with a weak personality, she also suffered with a heart condition. Despite being in a high social class, being wealthy and having musical talent she was depressed and disappointed with her social life. In her early life Constance fell in love, however her mother deemed the man inappropriate as he was in a lower social class and Constance refused to marry anyone else.
Like many women at first Constance did not agree with the women suffrage movement, or at least she didn’t agree with the militant parts. In a letter to a friend in 1906 she wrote about an encounter with a suffragette, ‘I sympathise with the cause, she left me unconverted as to my criticisms of their methods’, It wouldn’t take long before her opinion changed. In 1905 Constance inherited money from her Great Aunt, her brother suggested she donate it to the Espérance Club, a club for working class girls founded by Emmeline Pethwick- Lawrance and Mary Neal. In 1906 she visited the Espérance Club and watched speeches by Emmeline Pankhurst-Lawrance and Christable Pankhurst leaders of the Women’s Social and Political Union WSPU, she was inspired by everything they said, they inspired her to take part in the women’s suffrage movement, Constance became a suffragette in 1908, and in 1909 she took part in her first protest. For her first protest she was partnered fellow Suffragette Elsa Gye who had already attended marches and protests, it was common practice to give newbie suffragettes an experienced partner for support and guidance. The aim of this protest was to march to the House of Commons and hand their petition to the Prime minister, Herbert Henry Asquith. The protesters knew this would not happen and that most marchers would be arrested, it was more of a political stunt. One thing that stood out to Constance was how aggressive the police were, the majority of marchers were forced away but some were arrested, Constance was one of these women. As soon as authorities knew who Constance was she recived special treatment; she was not treated as violently as other women, had a better cell, she did not have as long or extreme sentence and she was examined by a medical officer who deemed her to ill to stay in prison due to her heart condition, she ended up being sent home early. Constance was disappointed in herself, she had allowed the special treatment to go on and decided that during her next imprisonment she would suffer the same consequences as the women around her. In 1910 Constance travelled to a protest in Liverpool, for this protest she cut her hair, wore glasses, put on ragged clothing and renamed herself Jane Watson (based on Joan of Arc). She was arrested again, this time for throwing pebbles into a police governors garden, on this occasion she was treated as a normal suffragette. In order to continue protesting whilst in jail Constance like many other suffragettes went on a hunger strike, she endured force feeding, as they did not know who she really was, she was not given a medical examination beforehand. Like most women this led her to vomit, she vomited over her clothes and bed but was told that it was too late for her to clean herself or her bed, she was made to sleep in her vomit.
Constance was imprisoned four times in her life and like many women Constance never fully recovered from the force feeding and died in 1923 at the age of 52, she was buried in green, white and purple, the colours of the suffragettes. When talking about being a suffragette Constance stated ‘I felt taken hold of by the movement… for the first time in my life I felt of some use’. Throughout her activism, Constance gave speeches across the UK, she wrote letters to the house of parliament, wrote for pamphlets, articles and even a book called ‘Prisons and prisoners: Some Personal Experiences’. This activism was not in vain, in 1918 women who were over the age of 30 could vote under the ‘Representation of the people act’ and by 1928 women and men’s voting was made legal and everyone over the age of 21 could vote.
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU):
Often known as the Suffragettes this was a militant union was founded by Emeline Pankhurst in 1903. They felt that peaceful protests were not getting them anywhere and violent action must be taken, this action ranged from chaining themselves to railings outside of parliament to setting fire to post boxes. In contrast to the WSPU was the National Union of Women’s Suffrage (NUWS), this union known as the Suffragists was less violent but hugely more popular with around 100,000 members in its prime. The Suffragettes and Suffragists are often put against each other claiming you were in one union or the other, however this wasn’t the case the majority of women and their allies involved in the movement supported both groups and participated in demonstrations organised by each union.
Force feeding:
Force feeding was a common practice in prisons when hunger strikes were taking place. Someone being force fed would; be held down by medical staff and wardresses, have metal clamp forcing their mouth open, a rubber tube would be forced down their mouth or nose into their stomach and liquid food would be poured into it. These medical staff did not have to be trained doctors, there was also no way of telling if the rubber tube was in exactly the right place and was often pushed down to far. The liquid food consisted of milk, and eggs, anything else added depended on the prison, the doctor or what they had in. There were a number of health issues associated with force feeding including, broken teeth, bleeding, vomiting and choking. Women would shout to each other ‘No Surrender’ from different cells in a way to encourage each other.
Articles and References
Books:
Lady Constance Ebook
‘Feminism, a very short introduction’ by Margret Walters
‘A History of Britain 1776-2000’ by Simon Schama
Websites:
People Pill, ‘LADY CONSTANCE BULWER-LYTTON’
Spartacus Educational, ‘Constance Lytton’:
Suffragette Stories, ‘Constance Lytton’
Biteback Publishing, ‘Lady Constance Lytton’, by Lydnesy Jenkins
History Mag, ‘Lady constance Lytton: The Suffering Suffragette” by Michelle Birkby:
Museum of London, “Six things you should know about the suffragette hunger striikes’ written by Baverly Cook
Image found on google Images from the National portrait Gallery
Image of force feeding found on google images from the Museum of London
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