16-06-2025
Suffragette's horrifying account of being force fed pints of milk in prison after being jailed for London window-smashing campaign
The fascinating archive of two Suffragette sisters including their graphic accounts of going on hunger strike in prison has emerged for sale for £30,000.
Frances and Margaret McPhun were both jailed after taking part in the window-smashing campaign in London in March 1912.
They had travelled from their home in Glasgow to join other campaigners and were arrested and sentenced to two months hard labour.
Both sisters, university graduates aged in their 40s, refused to eat and had to be forcibly fed, which they describe in shocking detail in letters from their time at Holloway Prison.
The letters were smuggled out of prison by other suffragettes upon their release to inform the movement's leaders about the continued struggle.
In one letter, Frances, the younger sister, tells of being held down in a chair as two pints of milk were poured down her throat.
In another, she recounts how a fellow suffragette used her head as a battering ram to keep away a nurse trying to feed her by nasal tube.
Frances wrote: 'The doctor and nurse rushed in, a sheet was thrown round me, and I was held down in a chair and two pints of milk were poured down my throat.
'Don't gasp with horror.
'(Another suffragette) using her head as a battering ram she kept them at bay.
'The fat nurse reposed on her tummy, a wardress on each foot, the doctor supporting her head between his knees!
'One girl was hurt – her nose bled and she was unconscious for some minutes.'
Margaret wrote to her brother Robert, describing her cell: 'A chair and plank bed... straw mattress... small window high up... The view is not inspiring, ...smoke and dust ascend like incense to my window.'
Both sisters were awarded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) Hunger Strike medal for 'Valour' for their defiance of authority.
They returned to Scotland to carry on their activist lives, writing articles to promote the suffragette cause.
The medals and letters have remained in the McPhun family for over 100 years but are now going under the hammer at auctioneers Bonhams, of Knightsbridge.
There is also Margaret's presentation copy of Holloway Jingles, which she contributed the poem 'To A Fellow Prisoner' to.
Sarah Lindberg, manuscripts specialist at Bonhams, said: 'The military-style medals, known as the 'Victoria Cross' of the suffragette movement, were awarded by the leaders of the WSPU to suffragettes who had undertaken hunger-strike whilst imprisoned for the cause.
'There is also a series of extraordinary letters from the sisters inside Holloway Prison describing at first hand the conditions experienced by Suffragettes and the harshness of forcible feeding.
'Railing at the unfairness of their punishment throughout the correspondence, the sisters remain angry and defiant.
'Most striking is the description by Frances of hunger strike and forcible feeding, believed by both sisters to be a necessary tool to achieve their aims, showing the bravery and fierce determination shown by their fellow inmates.
'The letters were smuggled out of Holloway Prison on scraps of paper by Suffragettes who were leaving prison so they are a rare survival.
'The items have come through the family so there is a very good provenance and we hope a Scottish institution may acquire them.'
The suffragette movement was founded in 1903 and many campaigners were imprisoned before they were released to help with the First World War effort, which they did with distinction.
In November 1918, months after the conflict ended, women over the age of 30, who met a property qualification, were given the right to vote.
However, it would be another 10 years before this right was extended to all women over the age of 21 under the Equality of the Representation of the People Act.
The sale takes place on June 19.
