Constance Lytton
Encyclopedia
Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton (Jane Warton, Jane Wharton) (born 12 January 1869, Vienna
, died 2 May 1923, Knebworth House
) was an influential British suffragette
activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform
, votes for women, and birth control
.
Although she was raised as member of the privileged, ruling class
elite within British Society
, she rejected this background to join the Women's Social and Political Union
(WSPU), the most militant group of Suffragette activists, campaigning for "Votes for Women".
She was subsequently imprisoned four times including once in Walton gaol
in Liverpool
under the nom de guerre Jane Warton, where she was force fed
whilst on hunger strike
. She chose the alias and disguise of Jane Warton, an 'ugly London seamstress', to avoid receiving special treatment and privileges because of her family title . (Her brother was a member of the House of Lords
.) She wrote pamphlets on women's rights, articles in The Times
newspaper, and a book on her experiences Prisons and Prisoners which was published in 1914.
While imprisoned in Holloway during March 1909 she used a piece of broken enamel from a hairpin to carve the letter "V" into the flesh of her breast, placed exactly over the heart. "V" for Votes for Women.
She remained a spinster
because her mother refused permission to marry a man from a "lower social order" and she refused to contemplate marrying anyone else.
Her heart attack
, stroke and early death at the age of 54 have been attributed in part to the trauma of hunger strike and force feeding
by the prison authorities.
Constance Lytton was the second daughter and third child of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
and Edith Villiers. Lytton was the 'Viceroy of India' where his daughter spent the first eleven years of her life. He made the proclamation that Queen Victoria was the Empress of India. Edith Villiers was Queen Victoria's Lady-in-Waiting
(Lady of the Bedchamber
) and rode with the Queen's body on the funeral journey from London to Windsor. Edith was decorated with the honorific Lady, Royal Order of Victoria and Albert
, was invested as a Imperial Order of the Crown of India and held the office of "Lady of the Bedchamber" to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra
.
Constance Lytton's maternal grandparents were Edward Ernest Villiers (1806-1843) and Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell. Edward Ernest Villiers was a son of George Villiers and Theresa Parker. Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell was a daughter of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth
and his wife Maria Susannah Simpson. George Villiers was a son of Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon
and Charlotte Capell. Theresa Parker was a daughter of John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon
and his second wife Theresa Robinson. Maria Susannah Simpson was a daughter of John Simpson and Anne Lyon. Charlotte Capell was a daughter of William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex
and Lady Jane Hyde. Theresa Robinson was a daughter of Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham
and Frances Worsley. Anne Lyon was a daughter of Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
and Jean Nicholsen
. Lady Jane Hyde was a daughter of Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon
and Jane Leveson-Gower.
Constance Lytton's paternal grandparents were the novelists Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
and Rosina Doyle Wheeler
. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
, confidant of Mary Shelley
, was a florid, popular writer of his day, coining such phrases as "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar
", "the pen is mightier than the sword
", and the infamous incipit
"It was a dark and stormy night
". Constance Lytton's great grandmother was the author and women's rights campaigner Anna Doyle Wheeler
.
Constance Lytton's six siblings included :
In the early years in India Lytton was educated by a series of governesses and reportedly had a lonely childhood. Although she matured in England surrounded by many of the great artistic, political and literary names of the day, she tended to reject the aristocratic way of life, and after her father died she retired from view to care for her mother, rejecting attempts to interest her in the outside world.
Lytton remained a spinster
until her death, having been refused permission in 1892 to marry a man from a "lower social order". For several years she waited in vain for her mother to change her mind, whilst refusing to contemplate marrying anyone else.
estate. She reportedly donated this to the revival of Morris dancing, and her family records state that "Her brother Neville suggests she gives it to the Esperance Club
, a small singing and dancing group for working class
girls", where part of the remit was to teach Morris dancing. The Esperance club was founded by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
and Mary Neal
in response to distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade.
Between September 1908 and October 1909 Constance Lytton's conversion to the militant suffragette cause was complete. On 10 September 1908 she wrote to Adela Smith:
She subsequently met other suffragettes, including Annie Kenney
and Pethick-Lawrence, at the 'Green Lady Hostel' and on a tour of Holloway prison.
On 14 October 1908, Constance Lytton wrote a letter to her mother:
In Prison and Prisoners she stated,
Working for the WSPU she made speeches throughout the country, and used her family connections to campaign in Parliament. She wrote to the Home Secretary
Herbert Gladstone asking for Emmeline Pankhurst
and Christabel Pankhurst
to be released from prison.
Constance Lytton was imprisoned in Holloway prison twice during 1909, after demonstrating at the House of Commons, but her ill health (a weak heart) meant that she spent most of her sentence in the infirmary. When the authorities discovered her identity, the daughter of Lord Lytton, they ordered her release. The British government were also aware that her health problems and hunger striking could lead to martyrdom. Infuriated by such inequality of justice she wrote to the Liverpool Daily Post
in October 1909 to complain about the favourable treatment she had received.
On February 24 1909, Lytton wrote to her mother about prison and reform in Prisons and Prisoners (Chapter III-"A Deputation to the Prime Minister"):
While she was imprisoned in Holloway Prison during March 1909 she started to mutilate her body. Her plan was to carve 'Votes for Women' from her breast to her cheek, so that it would always be visible. But after completing the "V" on her breast and ribs she requested sterile dressings to avoid blood poisoning
, and her plan was aborted by the authorities.
Lytton wrote of the self-mutilation
action in Prisons and Prisoners (Chapter VIII-"A Track to the Water's Edge"):
In January 1910, convinced that poorer prisoners were treated badly, Lytton travelled to Liverpool disguised as a working-class London seamstress named Jane Warton. She was arrested after an incident of rocks being thrown at an MP's car, imprisoned in Walton gaol for 14 days 'hard labour' and force-fed 8 times. After her release, although desperately weak, she wrote accounts of her experience for The Times
and Votes for Women (the monthly journal of the WSPU, launched in 1907). She went on to lecture on the subject of her experience of the conditions which suffragette prisoners endured. It's thought that her speeches and letters helped to end the practice of force-feeding.
Constance Lytton wrote of the Jane Warton episode in Prisons and Prisoners, (Chapter XII-Jane Warton) and (Chapter XIII-Walton Gaol, Liverpool: My Third Imprisonment).
Lytton's health continued to deteriorate and she suffered a heart attack in August 1910, and a series of strokes which paralysed the right side of her body. Undaunted, she used her left hand to write Prisons and Prisoners (1914), which became influential in prison reform.
in Victoria Street, London. However conditions had improved "all was civility; it was unrecognisable from the first time I had been there" and suffragettes were treated as political prisoner
s.
After the WSPU ended its militant campaign at the outbreak of war in 1914, Lytton gave her support to Marie Stopes
' campaign to establish birth control
clinics.
In January 1918 parliament passed a bill giving women over 30 the vote.
, ref 9/21
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, died 2 May 1923, Knebworth House
Knebworth House
Knebworth House is a country house in the civil parish of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England.-History and description:The home of the Lytton family since 1490, when Thomas Bourchier sold the reversion of the manor to Sir Robert Lytton, Knebworth House was originally a genuine red-brick Late Gothic...
) was an influential British suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform
Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
, votes for women, and birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
.
Although she was raised as member of the privileged, ruling class
Ruling class
The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society....
elite within British Society
History of British society
The social history of England evidences many social changes over the centuries. These major social changes have affected England both internally and in its relationship with other nations...
, she rejected this background to join the Women's Social and Political Union
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
(WSPU), the most militant group of Suffragette activists, campaigning for "Votes for Women".
She was subsequently imprisoned four times including once in Walton gaol
Walton, Merseyside
Walton, originally known as Walton-on-the-Hill, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, is an area situated to the north of Anfield and the east of Bootle and Orrell Park. It is largely residential, with a diverse population.-History:...
in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
under the nom de guerre Jane Warton, where she was force fed
Force Fed
Force Fed is an album by the band Prong. Prong themselves have said on many occasions that Force Fed is their debut album; they once denied that they had one album before this one, meaning that Primitive Origins is an EP....
whilst on hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
. She chose the alias and disguise of Jane Warton, an 'ugly London seamstress', to avoid receiving special treatment and privileges because of her family title . (Her brother was a member of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
.) She wrote pamphlets on women's rights, articles in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper, and a book on her experiences Prisons and Prisoners which was published in 1914.
While imprisoned in Holloway during March 1909 she used a piece of broken enamel from a hairpin to carve the letter "V" into the flesh of her breast, placed exactly over the heart. "V" for Votes for Women.
She remained a spinster
Spinster
A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...
because her mother refused permission to marry a man from a "lower social order" and she refused to contemplate marrying anyone else.
Her heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, stroke and early death at the age of 54 have been attributed in part to the trauma of hunger strike and force feeding
Force-feeding
Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a person or an animal against their will. "Gavage" is supplying a nutritional substance by means of a small plastic tube passed through the nose or mouth into the stomach, not explicitly 'forcibly'....
by the prison authorities.
Family
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC was an English statesman and poet...
and Edith Villiers. Lytton was the 'Viceroy of India' where his daughter spent the first eleven years of her life. He made the proclamation that Queen Victoria was the Empress of India. Edith Villiers was Queen Victoria's Lady-in-Waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
(Lady of the Bedchamber
Lady of the Bedchamber
This is an incomplete list of those who have served as Lady of the Bedchamber in the British Royal Household...
) and rode with the Queen's body on the funeral journey from London to Windsor. Edith was decorated with the honorific Lady, Royal Order of Victoria and Albert
Royal Order of Victoria and Albert
The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert was a British Royal Family Order instituted in on 10 February 1862 by Queen Victoria, and enlarged on 10 October 1864; 15 November 1865; and 15 March 1880. No awards were made after the death of Queen Victoria....
, was invested as a Imperial Order of the Crown of India and held the office of "Lady of the Bedchamber" to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
.
Constance Lytton's maternal grandparents were Edward Ernest Villiers (1806-1843) and Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell. Edward Ernest Villiers was a son of George Villiers and Theresa Parker. Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell was a daughter of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth
Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth
Thomas Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth , known as Sir Thomas Liddell, 6th Baronet, from 1791 to 1821, was a British peer and Tory politician.-Life account:...
and his wife Maria Susannah Simpson. George Villiers was a son of Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Family:Clarendon was the second son of William Villiers, 2nd Earl of Jersey and his wife Judith Herne, daughter of Frederick Herne....
and Charlotte Capell. Theresa Parker was a daughter of John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon was a British peer and Member of Parliament.Parker was the son of John Parker and Catherine Poulett, daughter of John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett, and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected to the House of Commons for Bodmin in 1761, a seat he held...
and his second wife Theresa Robinson. Maria Susannah Simpson was a daughter of John Simpson and Anne Lyon. Charlotte Capell was a daughter of William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex
William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex
William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was the son of the 2nd Earl of Essex.Capell was one of the founding governors of the charity, the Foundling Hospital, created in October 1739 to care for abandoned children....
and Lady Jane Hyde. Theresa Robinson was a daughter of Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham
Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham
Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham, KB, PC was a British diplomatist and politician. He was a younger son of Sir William Robinson, Bt...
and Frances Worsley. Anne Lyon was a daughter of Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore was the son of John Lyon, 4th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Lady Elizabeth Stanhope.On 20 July 1736, he married Jean Nicholsen, at Houghton-le-Spring. They had seven children:...
and Jean Nicholsen
Jean Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne
Jean Lyon was the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne and the wife of Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and one of the ancestors of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon...
. Lady Jane Hyde was a daughter of Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon
Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon
Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon and 2nd Earl of Rochester, PC was an English nobleman and politician. He was styled Lord Hyde from 1682 to 1711.-Life:...
and Jane Leveson-Gower.
Constance Lytton's paternal grandparents were the novelists Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling dime-novels which earned him a considerable fortune...
and Rosina Doyle Wheeler
Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Rosina Bulwer Lytton wrote and published fourteen novels, a volume of essays and a volume of letters. Her husband was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a novelist and politician...
. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Bulwer-Lytton
Bulwer-Lytton is a surname, and may refer to:* Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton , novelist and politician* Rosina Bulwer Lytton , feminist writer and wife of Edward Bulwer-Lytton...
, confidant of Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
, was a florid, popular writer of his day, coining such phrases as "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar
Almighty dollar
Almighty dollar is an idiom often used to satirize an obsession for material wealth .The beginning of the realisation that wealth can engender quasi-religious respect has been attributed to British writer Ben Johnson, who wrote in 1616:The "dollar" version of the phrase is commonly attributed to...
", "the pen is mightier than the sword
The pen is mightier than the sword
"The pen is mightier than the sword" is a metonymic adage coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy. The play was about Cardinal Richelieu, though in the author's words "license with dates and details.....
", and the infamous incipit
Incipit
Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...
"It was a dark and stormy night
It was a dark and stormy night
"It was a dark and stormy night" is an infamous phrase written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest uses the phrase as a signifier of purple prose...
". Constance Lytton's great grandmother was the author and women's rights campaigner Anna Doyle Wheeler
Anna Doyle Wheeler
Anna Doyle Wheeler was a writer and advocate of political rights for women and the benefits of contraception. She married Francis Massey Wheeler when she was aged 15 and they separated 12 years later...
.
Constance Lytton's six siblings included :
- Edward Rowland John Bulwer-Lytton (1865–1871)
- Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-LyttonBetty Balfour, Countess of Balfour---------Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Balfour, née Bulwer-Lytton was a daughter of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton and Edith Villiers ---------Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Balfour, née Bulwer-Lytton (b. 12 June 1867 - d. 28 March 1942) was a daughter of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of...
(12 June 1867 – 28 March 1942). Married Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of BalfourGerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of BalfourGerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour PC , known as Gerald Balfour until 1930, was a British nobleman and Conservative politician.-Background and education:...
, brother of the future Prime MinisterPrime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Arthur BalfourArthur BalfourArthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
. - (Constance Lytton)
- Henry Meredith Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1872–1874)
- Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964). Married the architect Edwin LutyensEdwin LutyensSir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
. Associate and confidante of Jiddu KrishnamurtiJiddu KrishnamurtiJiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
. - Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of LyttonVictor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of LyttonVictor Alexander George Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC, DL , styled Viscount Knebworth until 1891, was a British politician and colonial administrator...
(1876–1947), married Pamela Chichele-Plowden, an early flame of Sir Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, who had met her while playing poloPoloPolo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
at SecunderabadSecunderabadSecunderabad popularly known as the twin city of Hyderabad is located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh north of Hyderabad. Named after Sikandar Jah, the third Nizam of the Asaf Jahi dynasty, Secunderabad was founded in 1806 AD as a British cantonment...
. - Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of LyttonNeville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of LyttonNeville Stephen Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton, OBE was a British military officer and artist.He was a son of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton and grandson of the famous novelists, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Rosina Doyle Wheeler. Neville Lytton was born in India while his father served...
(6 February 1879 – 9 February 1951)
In the early years in India Lytton was educated by a series of governesses and reportedly had a lonely childhood. Although she matured in England surrounded by many of the great artistic, political and literary names of the day, she tended to reject the aristocratic way of life, and after her father died she retired from view to care for her mother, rejecting attempts to interest her in the outside world.
Lytton remained a spinster
Spinster
A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...
until her death, having been refused permission in 1892 to marry a man from a "lower social order". For several years she waited in vain for her mother to change her mind, whilst refusing to contemplate marrying anyone else.
Women's suffrage
The reclusive phase of Lytton's life started to change in 1905 when she was left £1,000 in her great-aunt/godmother, Lady Bloomfield'sJohn Bloomfield, 2nd Baron Bloomfield
John Arthur Douglas Bloomfield, 2nd Baron Bloomfield, GCB, PC, DL was a British peer and diplomatist.-Background:...
estate. She reportedly donated this to the revival of Morris dancing, and her family records state that "Her brother Neville suggests she gives it to the Esperance Club
Espérance Club
The Espérance Club, and the Maison Espérance dressmaking cooperative, were founded in the mid-1890s by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Neal in response to distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade...
, a small singing and dancing group for working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
girls", where part of the remit was to teach Morris dancing. The Esperance club was founded by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a Britishwomen's rights activist.Her father was a businessman...
and Mary Neal
Mary Neal
Mary Neal CBE , born Clara Sophia Neal, was an English social worker and collector of English folk dances....
in response to distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade.
1908 - Conversion to suffragette
She subsequently met other suffragettes, including Annie Kenney
Annie Kenney
Annie Kenney was an English working class suffragette who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union...
and Pethick-Lawrence, at the 'Green Lady Hostel' and on a tour of Holloway prison.
On 14 October 1908, Constance Lytton wrote a letter to her mother:
In Prison and Prisoners she stated,
Working for the WSPU she made speeches throughout the country, and used her family connections to campaign in Parliament. She wrote to the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Herbert Gladstone asking for Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...
and Christabel Pankhurst
Christabel Pankhurst
Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE , was a suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union , she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914 she became a fervent supporter of the war against Germany...
to be released from prison.
1909 - Imprisonment and self-mutilation in Holloway
Liverpool Daily Post
The Liverpool Daily Post is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Friday and is published in Merseyside, Cheshire, and North Wales editions, and is a morning paper...
in October 1909 to complain about the favourable treatment she had received.
On February 24 1909, Lytton wrote to her mother about prison and reform in Prisons and Prisoners (Chapter III-"A Deputation to the Prime Minister"):
While she was imprisoned in Holloway Prison during March 1909 she started to mutilate her body. Her plan was to carve 'Votes for Women' from her breast to her cheek, so that it would always be visible. But after completing the "V" on her breast and ribs she requested sterile dressings to avoid blood poisoning
Bacteremia
Bacteremia is the presence of bacteria in the blood. The blood is normally a sterile environment, so the detection of bacteria in the blood is always abnormal....
, and her plan was aborted by the authorities.
Lytton wrote of the self-mutilation
Self-harm
Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...
action in Prisons and Prisoners (Chapter VIII-"A Track to the Water's Edge"):
1909 - Imprisonment in Newcastle
In October 1909 Constance Lytton was arrested for a second time in Newcastle. She had thrown a stone wrapped in paper bearing the message ‘To Lloyd George – Rebellion against tyranny is obedience to God – Deeds, not words’. Her message was in response to the government’s new policy of force-feeding imprisoned suffragettes who were on hunger strike.1910 - Jane Warton in Liverpool, Walton gaol
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and Votes for Women (the monthly journal of the WSPU, launched in 1907). She went on to lecture on the subject of her experience of the conditions which suffragette prisoners endured. It's thought that her speeches and letters helped to end the practice of force-feeding.
Constance Lytton wrote of the Jane Warton episode in Prisons and Prisoners, (Chapter XII-Jane Warton) and (Chapter XIII-Walton Gaol, Liverpool: My Third Imprisonment).
1911 onwards
In November 1911 Constance Lytton was imprisoned in Holloway for the fourth time, after breaking windows in the Houses of Parliament, or of a Post OfficePost office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
in Victoria Street, London. However conditions had improved "all was civility; it was unrecognisable from the first time I had been there" and suffragettes were treated as political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s.
After the WSPU ended its militant campaign at the outbreak of war in 1914, Lytton gave her support to Marie Stopes
Marie Stopes
Marie Carmichael Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of birth control...
' campaign to establish birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
clinics.
In January 1918 parliament passed a bill giving women over 30 the vote.
Death and commemoration
Constance Lytton never fully recovered from her prison treatment, heart attack and strokes, and was nursed at Knebworth by her mother until her death in 1923, aged 54. She was buried with the purple, white and green Suffragette colours laid on her coffin.Quotes
Timeline
Edited extract from the Knebworth House memorial- 1869 - Lady Constance Georgina Lytton born.
- 1880 - Family leaves India.
- 1887 - Sister Betty marries Gerald Balfour (Arthur's brother).
- 1897 - Sister Emily marries Edwin Lutyens, the architect.
- 1908 - Godmother Lady Bloomfield dies, leaving her £1000. Lytton subsequently meets Annie Kenny and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.
- 1909 - Becomes an official member of the WSPU.
- 1909 - Imprisoned for the first time in February 1909.
- 1909 - Her pamphlet 'No Votes for Women: A Reply to Some Recent Anti-SuffrageAnti-suffragismAnti-suffragism was a political movement composed mainly of women, begun in the late 19th century in order to campaign against women's suffrage in the United States and United Kingdom...
Publications' is published. - 1909 - Imprisoned for 2nd time in Holloway in October 1909.
- 1910 - Disguises herself as Jane Warton and imprisoned for 3rd time in Walton Gaol, Liverpool, in terrible conditions. Force fed several times.
- 1910 - Writes about her experiences in The Times.
- 1911 - Imprisoned for the 4th time, in Holloway in November 1911
- 1912 - Suffers a stroke from which she never fully recovers, but continues to write Prisons and Prisoners: an account of her time in custody.
- 1914 - Prisons and Prisoners is published.
- 1918 - Representation of the People Act 1918Representation of the People Act 1918The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act...
gives the vote to all men, and to women over the age of 30. - 1923 - Lytton dies aged 54.
- 1928 - Representation of the People Act 1928Representation of the People Act 1928The Representation of the People Act 1928 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This act expanded on the Representation of the People Act 1918 which had given some women the vote in Parliamentary elections for the first time after World War I. It widened suffrage by giving women...
gives the vote to women on the same grounds as men.
See also
- History of feminismHistory of feminismThe history of feminism involves the story of feminist movements and of feminist thinkers. Depending on time, culture and country, feminists around the world have sometimes had different causes and goals...
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- SuffragetteSuffragette"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
- Women's Social and Political UnionWomen's Social and Political UnionThe Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
- Women's suffrageWomen's suffrageWomen's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
- Women's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...
Archives
Letter of Constance Lytton are held at The Women's Library at London Metropolitan UniversityLondon Metropolitan University
London Metropolitan University , located in London, England, was formed on 1 August 2002 by the amalgamation of the University of North London and the London Guildhall University . The University has campuses in the City of London and in the London Borough of Islington.The University operates its...
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