Miss Joan Lavender Baillie Guthrie

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
https://womanandhersphere.com/tag/lavender-guthrie/

Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3213/whats-the-story-of-votes-for-women-in-my-local

Additional Information: Joan 'Lavender' (as she was known) Bailie Guthrie also used the name Laura Grey. She had joined the WSPU aged 18 but had not taken part in militant activity until she was 21 years old. She spent some time in Holloway Prison for window smashing, went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed. Lavender's life was short and tragic. She had been born into a middle class and relatively affluent family, but had always been drawn to social causes by the need to help others less fortunate. She left home to find work in London and stand on her own two feet. This was difficult and eventually she turned to the stage as a source of income. The stage as an occupation was then associated with the seedier side of life ? with drink, drugs and even casual prostitution. Somewhere along the line, Lavender seems to have fallen into this trap, becoming addicted to drink and drugs. In 1914, she was found dead in her flat. She had committed suicide and at the time was pregnant. Her scandalous story received much coverage in the press, with many blaming her 'insanity' and fall from 'respectability' on the suffragette cause. More about the circumstances surrounding her death can be found in the link in Internet Source 2.