Miss Christabel St John

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999); S Stowell, A Stage of their Own: Feminist Playwrights of the Suffrage Age (1992)

Additional Information: Christopher St John was the pseudonym for Christabel Marshall. She changed her name to St John in recognition of her conversion to the Catholic faith. She did not join the WSPU formally until 1909, but had previously worked with the Women Writers Suffrage League (WWSL) and the Actresses Franchise League (AFL). In 1909, she turned a short pamphlet, called 'How the Vote was Won', into a suffrage play, which proved a hit when performed to suffrage societies across the country. Christabel took part in a number of other suffrage plays and performed in the first play held by the Pioneer Players ? a new feminist theatre company formed by suffrage campaigner Edith Craig in 1911. She was arrested for taking part in a deputation to the House of Commons and for setting fire to a letter box. Christabel Marshall also became a member of the committee of the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society in 1913. She later wrote an autobiography called Hungerheart, in which she described her involvement in the suffrage campaign and her lesbian relationship with Edith Craig. Hungerheart became an important and inspirational novel for many homosexual women and men, who had no rights or recognition in law or society at this time.