Miss Harriet Roberta Kerr

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

Family information: Father was Professor of Architecture at King's College, London.

Additional Information: Harriet likely joined the WSPU in 1906 and she may have given up her job running a typewriting business to manage the newly established offices of the WSPU at its London headquarters. She claimed that her father's prejudiced attitude to women had much to do with her own interests in the suffrage movement and feminism. In 1908, she appeared at the head of a march, dressed in prison clothes, although at that time she had not been to prison. She did believe that she would never be persuaded to go to prison for the suffrage cause, but later changed her mind, saying that 'she could not desert the WSPU in its hour of need'. She remained at her desk in the WSPU office when it was raided by the police in 1913 and was arrested, along with the remaining high-profile militant leaders who were there. They were charged with conspiracy to cause damage to property and Harriet was sentenced to one year in prison, followed by a further year's supervision. She went on hunger strike and was temporarily released after after eight days under the 'Cat and Mouse Act'. A petition was raised on her behalf but she was nevertheless rearrested after a struggle with police. She went on hunger strike and was released again due to her broken health. WSPU leaders Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst gave her permission to sign a guarantee that she would no longer be involved with militancy so that she could keep her freedom. She retired from the WSPU and from the suffrage campaign.