Miss Dorothy Evans

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/activity/3214/how-effective-was-the-votes-for-women-campaign-in-bristol

Family information: Father a builder.

Additional Information: Dorothy joined the WSPU in 1907 and, while teaching at a school in Yorkshire in 1909, was arrested for protesting at a meeting held by Liberal politician Walter Runciman. She was sentenced to ten days in prison but was released when, against her wishes, her father paid a fine instead. By early 1910, she resigned as a teacher and went to work as a WSPU organiser at the Birmingham and Midlands branch. That year, she served a week in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, for failing to pay dog tax. She took part in London's 'Black Friday' Demonstration in 1910 and was arrested in 1911 for holding a meeting (which was banned) in the Bull Ring in Birmingham. She was not charged. She travelled to London to take part in window smashing in 1912 and was sentenced to four months in prison. She served her sentence in Aylesbury Prison, where she was confined to the 'Feeble Minded Inebriate' block and suffered two periods of forcible feeding following hunger strikes. She was sent in 1913 to Bristol and to Northern Ireland to organise for the WSPU. She was charged with conspiracy when an attempt was made to burn down a castle there, and was released after six days following a hunger and thirst strike. In 1914 she was arrested again and was still in prison when the war broke out. Imprisoned in Ireland, she was not released under the suffragette amnesty and had to suffer another hunger and thirst strike to draw attention to her predicament before being released. In 1916, she was a member of the Independent WSPU, and organised for the Women's Freedom League (WFL) in 1917.

Other Suffrage Activities: Dorothy regained a position as a teacher (not always easy for suffragettes who had 'criminal records') but quit again to become a pacifist campaigner. In 1921, she was secretary of the Women's League for Peace and Freedom and had become a committed socialist. She joined the committee of the Joint Women's Industrial Organizations and was chairman of the Six Point Group, who campaigned on issues directly affecting women. She also championed women's rights to have babies outside marriage, which she herself did with her partner Emil Davies, a local county councillor.