Mrs Jane Emily Duval

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)

Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/resource/3229/the-womens-freedom-league

Family information: Married factory manager Ernest Diederichs Duval in 1881, a member of the 'suffragette' MPU. Mother to Elsie, Victor and Norah Duval.

Additional Information: Emily joined the WSPU in 1906 but left to join the Women's Freedom League (WFL) when it formed in 1907. She was treasurer for its Battersea, London branch for three years and sat on its national executive committee. She was arrested in 1908 for taking a deputation to the Prime Minister's home and was sentenced to one month in prison. She was arrested again that year for 'disturbances' that took place after another suffragette, Muriel Matters, chained herself to the grille in the Ladies Gallery of the House of Commons. In 1909, she was sentenced to six weeks in Holloway Prison. Clearly, her militancy was growing and so, in 1911, she left the WFL for it not being 'militant enough' and returned to the WSPU. She subsequently broke windows at the Local Goverment Offices Board, and smashed more when under arrest, so was sentenced to two weeks in prison. She was arrested for window smashing again in 1912 and received a hefty six-month sentence, to be served in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham. There, she went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed. In 1915, during the First World War, Emily joined the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS), and differed from the WSPU leadership because she wished to continue campaigning for women's suffrage. Therefore, she was part of the first committee of the newly formed group Suffragettes of the WSPU (SWSPU), which was made up of those WSPU members who also wished to keep working for women's political equality.

Other Suffrage Activities: Between 1918 and 1921, Emily was a member of Battersea Borough Council.