AN IMPORTANT lecture about the votes-for-women movement is set to reveal a hitherto unknown act of militancy, when suffragettes burned down a prominent Perth landmark.

The lecture will also publicly launch an appeal to the Home Secretary David Blunkett and First Minister Jack McConnell to offer a posthumous free pardon to those suffragettes convicted at the height of suffrage activity from 1905 to 1914.

The lecture, Militancy, Marches and Mayhem, will be given by Courier journalist Norman Watson, who for 15 years has researched women’s history. He will reveal the remarkable local campaign to win votes for women—tales of passionate protest, bombings and burnings, hunger strikes and force-feeding of prisoners.

Some of Britain’s biggest suffragette demonstrations were in Tayside. It saw Scotland’s first imprisonments and hunger strikes. And for all the movement had no leader in Scotland, its recognised figurehead was Ethel Moorhead, of Dundee, who caused havoc wherever she went. She threw an egg at Winston Churchill, smashed a window at the Wallace Monument, threw pepper at a policeman, trashed various jails, became Dundee’s first tax resister and was the first woman to be force-fed in Scotland.

At first Dundee bore the brunt of the militants as they waged a blazing campaign to win the vote. Winston Churchill was chased through its streets and was forced to make one speech from a shed. Buildings were fire-bombed and an audacious attempt made to blow up Dudhope Castle. The Pankhursts were regular visitors to the city and Adela Pankhurst was arrested after barricading herself in an attic to throw slates at the glass roof of the theatre where Churchill was speaking. When police broke down the door Mrs Pankhurst’s youngest daughter hid up a chimney.

In 1913 Perth was hit by the militants’ mayhem when Perthshire County Cricket Club pavilion was burned down. The belief that suffragettes caused the fire fanned the flames of resentment and mobs began a witch-hunt, surging along streets in search of strange women. Trams were pursued and their occupants closely scrutinised. When Dundee suffragettes appeared, a huge mob chased their tram for a mile.

“Theirs was an extraordinary act of bravery,” said Norman. “Rotten eggs, oranges, pieces of ham, potatoes and stones were hurled at them but they somehow managed to sell all their copies of the Suffragette newspaper! There was even talk of deporting the women to an uninhabited island—where they could have the vote, of course!”

In 1914 Perth emerged as the focus of national protest.

“Up to 1914 Scotland had refused to follow the English lead in force-feeding prisoners who refused to eat. When Perth Prison became a forcible feeding centre that year, hundreds of women protesters arrived in the city. Police reinforcements and troops followed. The city was under siege.

“Four of the five Scottish suffragettes to endure force- feeding were treated at Perth. One—Arabella Scott, who tried to burn down Kelso racecourse stand—was force-fed for five weeks, while up to 3000 people held a day and night protest vigil at the prison gates.

“Force-feeding involved pain, personal terror and intimidation. It involved the violation of the woman’s body, which some considered akin to rape, adding further fuel to the burning anger and sense of injustice felt. Women interrupted church services in Perth to draw attention to the barbaric treatment being carried out in the prison.”

The violence went on, with houses, pavilions and kirks set alight, arguing in courtrooms and skirmishing with police. King George V’s visit to open Perth Royal Infirmary in 1914 was disrupted by a suffragette.

“Whether by quiet petition, or rallies in the street, or by militant action, Tayside’s suffrage sisters were doing it—and they have been hidden from history for too long,” said Norman.

* The lecture, organised by Kultura and supported by Perth Museum and Art Gallery, is at Perth Museum tomorrow at 7 pm, accompanied by a display of rare suffrage memorabilia.