Miss Frances Theresa Garnett

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

Additional Information: Theresa joined the WSPU in 1907 and, with others in 1909, chained herself to a statue in the Central Lobby of the House of Commons. She did this to protest against the so-called 'Brawling Bill', which punished anyone found guilty of disorderly conduct within the Palace of Westminster when Parliament was in session. The bill was clearly aimed at suffragettes. Theresa was not arrested. That same year, she managed to get tickets for a government reception and heckled throughout about 'votes for women'. She was arrested for her part in a deputation to the Houses of Parliament and stone-throwing at Whitehall, for which she was sentenced to one month in prison. She went on hunger strike and faced an additional charge for biting and kicking a prison wardress in Holloway. Found guilty, she was sentenced to a further term, went on hunger strike and was released a few days later. Using the alias 'Annie O'Sullivan', she was arrested with others for a rooftop protest in Liverpool, was imprisoned, went on hunger strike and was released. In November 1909, she accosted Home Secretary Winston Churchill with a whip in Bristol (though she claimed she did not touch him) and was sentenced to one month in prison for disturbing the peace. She went on hunger strike, was forcibly fed and, in protest, set fire to her prison cell. She was then placed in solitary confinement for most of the rest of her sentence, but was moved to a hospital ward after being found unconscious. In 1910, she became WSPU organiser in Camberwell, London, but as the level of violent militancy increased in the WSPU, she left. She did not join another suffrage society but, in 1960, was honorary editor of the Women's Freedom League (WFL) Bulletin.

Other Suffrage Activities: Theresa was a nursing sister at the London Hospital during the First World War and nursed at the front line. She was a member of the Six Point Group, which campaigned on women's issues. She died practically penniless.