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Auction: 5012 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 676

The Women´s Social and Political Union Medal awarded to Rona Robinson, silver (Hallmarks for Birmingham 1909), 22mm, ´Hunger Strike´ engraved in block capitals, rev. ´Rona Robinson´ engraved within wreath, beaded ring for suspension, the lower suspension bar engraved ´August 20th 1909´, the middle riband bar engraved ´October 15th 1909´, and the top riband bar engraved ´For Valour´, with riband, good very fine and rare Estimate £ 3,500-4,500Rona Robinson was the first ever woman to gain a first class BSc in the Honours School of Chemistry, Victoria University, Manchester in 1905; she was awarded an MSc in 1907. Rona began her career as a teacher, but later became a research chemist at the Royal Institution, Manchester, then an Analyst and Research Chemist, later Chief Chemist, at J.B. & W.R. Sharpe Ltd 1915-20, and later a Research Chemist at Clayton Aniline Co. In 1922 she was made a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry. She joined the Women´s Social and Political Union (WSPU - whose members were more commonly known as Suffragettes) in its early years and was an organiser in the Manchester area at least as early as 1909. She was clearly a very active member at this time, in one week alone she had speaking engagements in Accrington, Blackpool, Southport, Rochdale, Bury and Manchester. This was not untypical of her schedule which regularly included speaking at meetings often further afield. The team of WSPU organisers in Manchester at this time had a reputation for being independent and single-minded, which did not always meet with the full approval of the WSPU national leadership. In fact 1909 was a most eventful year for Rona and her Suffragette activities. She not only took part in a deputation to see Prime Minister Asquith, but also she was twice sentenced, imprisoned, and went on hunger-strike. The deputation consisted of several well-known women in the history of the WSPU, especially her colleague Dora Marsden, a fellow Manchester University graduate, and Emily Wilding Davison, later killed by the King´s horse at the Derby. The first incident for which Rona was imprisoned brought the women involved considerable notoriety as it was widely reported in the national press. On 20 August, Minister of War Richard Burdon Haldane MP (later Lord Haldane) was due to speak at the Sun Hall, Liverpool. A group of seven women, including Rona, had rented a house close to the Hall, which they occupied prior to the meeting. One of them, Mrs Leigh, climbed out of a window and onto the roof where, with the help of her colleagues, she tore off slates and bricks to hurl at the Hall windows. When Haldane rose to speak, a woman´s voice rang through a megaphone calling attention to the Suffragette demand for votes for women. Haldane´s opening sentences were then punctuated by a missile smashing one of the windows. More slates and bricks after brick followed and windows were falling in everywhere. The Police were soon alerted and made a rush down Romer Road to the first entrance leading up to the Hall. Once they realised the source of the missiles, they ´commandeered a passing window cleaner to fetch them [the women] down´. His ladder was found to be too short and the acting sergeant sent for a ´fire escape´. Once safely conducted to the ground, the culprits were taken into custody in a Black Maria singing ´Rule Britannia´. Next day they were brought before Liverpool Police Court and charged with wilful damage to the Sun Hall and adjoining premises. As the women refused to pay a ´standing-over´ fee of three shillings, they were taken to the cells where they went on hunger-strike. Also they broke the windows of their cells, apparently because they had not been allowed to walk in couples during exercise. As a result they were removed to the punishment cells. When brought before a Stipendiary Magistrate on the 24th, they had still eaten no food. All the women pleaded guilty as charged of damage estimated at three pounds and nine shillings but insisted that their objectives were political not criminal. The Magistrate is reported to have replied that people were not brought before him on account of their political aspirations and that their conduct had probably endangered the lives of others. Five of the women were sentenced to two months imprisonment and two to one month (although a later report says that Rona received a four month sentence). They were taken to Walton jail in a Black Maria, singing the Marseillaise. A report of the incident in the Liverpool Daily Post referred to the women as ´Seven Viragos´ while the Daily News recorded that the women had spent the first part of the day of the Haldane incident ´feasting on cakes and ginger beer´. Once sentenced, women continued their hunger-strike, and at least in some cases refused to take water until their weakened conditions made it necessary to release them on Thursday 26 August. The full horror of her time in prison can be found in an account penned by Rona herself (Votes of Women, 3 September 1909) in which she says that on arrival at Walton jail, she refused to give any information or to part with her private possessions. The air was so foul in her cell that she broke the windows and was then taken to a punishment cell. Here she refused ´the evil smelling water´ she was given. Rona found it impossible to sleep and twice lost consciousness. Despite her weakened condition and her desperate need for food and water, she resisted a mug of cocoa that had been left tantalisingly close at hand. After 123 hours without food, a doctor ordered she be taken to hospital but she was in fact released and nursed back to health ´to take her place once more in the fighting line´. It is reported that after her release from prison, Rona attended a memorable meeting at the ballroom, White City, Manchester, which probably took place at the very beginning of October, when along with Dora Marsden and Emily Wilding Davison she received the WSPU ´Victoria Cross´ from Mrs Pankhurst herself. This must have been one of the very first Hunger Strike Medals to be awarded, as Marion Dunlop-Wallace, the first WSPU woman to go on hunger strike (91 hours), had only done so some six weeks earlier. Rona was next arrested in Manchester on 4.10.1909 together with two other university women - Mary Gawthorpe and Dora Marsden, her Manchester WSPU colleagues. They were forcibly arrested while convening outside Victoria University Building, Manchester, from which they had been evicted. Wearing their university robes, they had just attended a meeting presided over by Lord Morley, the Chancellor, an occasion on which, before he could take his seat, the three had questioned him concerning the condition of a number of women being force-fed in Winsom Green prison, Birmingham. This incident also made the national newspapers with the Daily Mirror referring to Rona as a ´Suffragette disguised as a student´, a statement immediately branded an untruth by Votes for Women, the WSPU newspaper, which commented that Rona had always done great credit by her university and was a subscriber to Lord Morley´s new laboratory. The women were taken to Cavendish Street Police Station where they needed medical attention because of rough treatment. Brought before a Police Magistrate, they were charged with disorderly conduct and remanded for a week. At their hearing on 12 October, although accused by the Chief Constable of obstruction and ´vindictive´ language, the charges were dropped due, Votes for Women reported, to a latent sense of justice and, perhaps, a fear of the determination of the women to carry out a hunger strike. Rona´s second period of imprisonment resulted from a summons issued against her in respect of the damage to prison property (seven panes of glass to the value of one shilling and six pence) arising out of her time in Walton prison. When eventually arrested in Manchester, she was taken to the Town Hall where she was seen by a doctor who diagnosed laryngeal catarrh and a weak and irregular action of her heart. He advised that a hunger strike or force-feeding would be very dangerous. Rona appeared before a Stipendiary Magistrate after transfer to Liverpool and found a second charge had been added. This claimed that she had broken more cell windows during her current arrest and had caused damage of two shillings. The second count was dropped by the Magistrate but she was found guilty of the first and fined, with the alternative of 14 days imprisonment. Inevitably she took the latter option but her demand to be treated as a political prisoner was refused. In prison Rona refused to adhere to prison discipline, so that the wardresses were force to remove her clothes, and once more she refused all food. After 72 hours, she was released in a very weakened state having suffered from sleeplessness, headaches and violent sickness. In view of her medical problems a Member of Parliament put a question to the House on 20 October asking about Rona Robinson´s condition and the likelihood of her being force-fed, only to be told that she had already been released. Years later Rona Robinson recalled the occasion when she said she had pushed Winston Churchill off a podium whilst he was public speaking in Manchester in 1909 for which she was imprisoned and force-fed. Although initial research has failed to corroborate this information, a few lines about her that appear in Votes for Women, late in 1909, do say that she was three times imprisoned during 1909, and twice went on hunger-strike. It is not clear whether this third occasion refers to the events of 4 October, when she was held in police custody before the charges against her were dropped, whether it refers to some other occasion, or whether it was simply a case of inaccurate reporting. The WSPU newspaper does not report that she was ever force-fed. Later in life Rona Robinson lived at Mosley Villa, Mitford Road, Withington Manchester. She died in 1962 from bronchitis, an illness which she always said was due to her time in prison.

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£3,000