Miss Florence Eliza Haig
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Single
Born: 1856
Died: 1952
Place of birth: Marylebone, Middlesex, England
Occupation: Artist
Main Suffrage Society: WSPU
Society Role: Honorary secretary
Arrest Record: Yes
Recorded Entries: 4
Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/police-charge-sheet-issued-to-florence-haig/aAG_1dAGIVcHiw
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)
Family information: Sister to suffragette Louisa Evelyn Cotton Haigh and Cecilia Haigh (see More on Suffrage Activity).
Additional Information: Florence joined the WSPU in 1907 and helped her sister (Louisa) Evelyn Haigh set up the WSPU Edinburgh branch in 1908. After this, she left Edinburgh and travelled to London to live in Chelsea. She was arrested in February 1908 for taking part in a 'raid' on the House of Commons and was sentenced to six weeks in prison. Once out of prison, she spent the following year speaking at WSPU meetings around London, at the same time developing her career as an artist and holding several exhibitions. Despite her artistic skills, she seems not to have joined a suffrage art society (there were two ? the Suffrage Atelier and the Artists Suffrage League) but, through her role as honorary secretary of the Chelsea WSPU branch from 1910, probably contributed artistically to WSPU processions and parades. Chelsea was the artistic centre of London and so the WSPU Chelsea branch had many artist members. In 1910, Florence subscribed to the New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage (NCSWS) and donated to the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement (MPU) in 1911. She spent much of that year caring for her sister and fellow WSPU member Cecilia, who had been trampled and seriously injured at the 'Black Friday' demonstration in 1910. She did so until Cecilia's death in January 1912, likely from the injuries she sustained. Soon after, Florence was arrested for breaking windows in London's Oxford Street and was sentenced to four months in prison. She went on hunger strike and was released after a week or so. When the 1914 war broke out, she remained with the WSPU and, until 1916, is listed as one of its secretaries.