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Lot Essay
Miss Helen Kirkpatrick Watts was born in Sunderland in 1881. Daughter of the Reverend A.H. Watts, who became Vicar of Lenton, Nottinghamshire, Helen came from a radical thinking background and was imbued with the spirit of social reform. It would appear that her father supported her involvement with the Women's Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U.) and his attitude to women's militancy is apparently recorded in his comment "It will bring women's suffrage before the public".
Her part in W.S.P.U. protests is recorded from at least as early as 1909, when on 24 February she took part in one of the famous marches from Caxton Hall to the House of Commons to attempt to gain access to the Prime Minister. As a result she was arrested, sentenced and spent a month in Holloway. During the time she was held at Bow Street Police Station, Helen wrote home saying 'It will be a direct step to making things better'.
After her release and warm welcome home to Nottingham, she took part in the protest that led to the award of her Suffragette Medal, but this time the location was closer to home. With a number of colleagues she participated in a meeting to coincide with the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill's speech at the Palace Theatre, Leicester in connection with a local by-election - a regular Suffragette tactic to draw attention to their cause. The incident is reported in some detail both in Votes for Women (the W.S.P.U. newspaper) and in the Leicester Daily Mercury. The spectacle of W.S.P.U. supporters on horseback was used to attract protesters to the women's meeting. One rider was a Mrs. Rutter from New Zealand, riding in "Colonial Costume" bearing a placard "New Zealand women have the vote; why not British women?" A large crowd gathered at this fringe meeting which then made its way to the theatre to request admittance. A struggle with the police ensued and the gathering was beaten back. Further atttempts were made to gain admittance before the arrests began. The women later complained of rough treatment.
As the incident took place on a Saturday, a special court to deal with those in custody was convened on that evening, which was not normal procedure (Votes for Women claims this was 'a form of proceeding ... unprecedented in the annals of Leicester'). Helen Watts, five female associates and one male supporter were charged with a breach of the peace. In court Helen replied to the charge that "I stood still when the police tried to make me move - if you can call that disorderly". As the women refused to be bound over to keep the peace, they were sentenced to five days and imprisoned in Leicester Goal. Once incarcerated, they refused to wear prison clothes and it is reported that Helen Watts broke two cell windows. Additionally the prisoners went on hunger strike - a fast which lasted for 90 hours. Along with her colleagues, Helen was released on Wednesday 8.9.1909 to a warm greeting from both local women and W.S.P.U. representatives from London. The 'ex-prisoners' were hurried off in cabs to bed because of the length of their fasting. A welcome supper for the women was held two days later at Morley's Cafe in Nottingham. Subsequently in January 1910 she participated in a protest in Nottingham outside a meeting addressed by Herbert Jackson, M.P. and again was arrested. On this occasion the charges were dropped.
In her spare time Helen liked writing and from this period has at least two publications to her name, Poems by a Brother and Sister (Saxton, 1906) and The Nevilles: A Story for Girls (S.P.C.K., 1912). In 1914 she took up nursing and later went to work for the War Office, then to the Ministry of Labour.
Helen Watts first retired to Sussex and then in 1965 she moved to Victoria, British Colombia where she was welcomed as a distinguished arrival, not just because she had emigrated at the age of 84 and in so doing had flown for the first time, but because she was a Suffragette. Calling All Women (the Newsletter of the Suffragette Fellowship which was published at least until the early 1970s) notes further that 'She took her treasured Suffragette records with her'.
Her part in W.S.P.U. protests is recorded from at least as early as 1909, when on 24 February she took part in one of the famous marches from Caxton Hall to the House of Commons to attempt to gain access to the Prime Minister. As a result she was arrested, sentenced and spent a month in Holloway. During the time she was held at Bow Street Police Station, Helen wrote home saying 'It will be a direct step to making things better'.
After her release and warm welcome home to Nottingham, she took part in the protest that led to the award of her Suffragette Medal, but this time the location was closer to home. With a number of colleagues she participated in a meeting to coincide with the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill's speech at the Palace Theatre, Leicester in connection with a local by-election - a regular Suffragette tactic to draw attention to their cause. The incident is reported in some detail both in Votes for Women (the W.S.P.U. newspaper) and in the Leicester Daily Mercury. The spectacle of W.S.P.U. supporters on horseback was used to attract protesters to the women's meeting. One rider was a Mrs. Rutter from New Zealand, riding in "Colonial Costume" bearing a placard "New Zealand women have the vote; why not British women?" A large crowd gathered at this fringe meeting which then made its way to the theatre to request admittance. A struggle with the police ensued and the gathering was beaten back. Further atttempts were made to gain admittance before the arrests began. The women later complained of rough treatment.
As the incident took place on a Saturday, a special court to deal with those in custody was convened on that evening, which was not normal procedure (Votes for Women claims this was 'a form of proceeding ... unprecedented in the annals of Leicester'). Helen Watts, five female associates and one male supporter were charged with a breach of the peace. In court Helen replied to the charge that "I stood still when the police tried to make me move - if you can call that disorderly". As the women refused to be bound over to keep the peace, they were sentenced to five days and imprisoned in Leicester Goal. Once incarcerated, they refused to wear prison clothes and it is reported that Helen Watts broke two cell windows. Additionally the prisoners went on hunger strike - a fast which lasted for 90 hours. Along with her colleagues, Helen was released on Wednesday 8.9.1909 to a warm greeting from both local women and W.S.P.U. representatives from London. The 'ex-prisoners' were hurried off in cabs to bed because of the length of their fasting. A welcome supper for the women was held two days later at Morley's Cafe in Nottingham. Subsequently in January 1910 she participated in a protest in Nottingham outside a meeting addressed by Herbert Jackson, M.P. and again was arrested. On this occasion the charges were dropped.
In her spare time Helen liked writing and from this period has at least two publications to her name, Poems by a Brother and Sister (Saxton, 1906) and The Nevilles: A Story for Girls (S.P.C.K., 1912). In 1914 she took up nursing and later went to work for the War Office, then to the Ministry of Labour.
Helen Watts first retired to Sussex and then in 1965 she moved to Victoria, British Colombia where she was welcomed as a distinguished arrival, not just because she had emigrated at the age of 84 and in so doing had flown for the first time, but because she was a Suffragette. Calling All Women (the Newsletter of the Suffragette Fellowship which was published at least until the early 1970s) notes further that 'She took her treasured Suffragette records with her'.