Dorothy Pethick

[4] Pethick was educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College,[1] before studying social work at the Women’s University Settlement in Blackfriars Road, London.

[8] With Kenney and Adela Pankhurst, Pethick travelled to North Somerset and addressed a crowd of 200 people at Salthouse Fields, receiving "a constant stream of good-humoured chaff and interruptions.

[12] Pethick organised open air meetings across Leicestershire, for example in Kibworth,[13] and arranged for Emmeline Pankhurst to speak in Leicester.

"[18] She was directed by Christabel Pankhurst to throw stones at the windows of Newcastle General Post Office whilst shouting "Votes for Women!

"[8][22] She was charged with "wilfully and maliciously" damaging property and was sentenced to 14 days imprisonment with hard labour in Newcastle Gaol.

[19] She went on hunger strike and after three days was sent to the prison hospital where she was force fed three-quarters of a pint of milk and egg through a nasal tube by doctors.

[23] Pethick is recalled by fellow suffragette prisoner Lady Constance Lytton in her memoirs as being appointed leader to the group of 12 women who were imprisoned.

[23] She wrote about her experiences for the suffrage newspaper Votes for Women, where she "complained that she felt as though she was being treated like a piece of cattle"[25] and described how the nasal tube used to force-feed the women "was not sanitised between feedings, with the tube and the jug which contained the liquid left near a window on an open tray.

[28] Pethick planted a fir tree Abies Pinsapo on 15 February 1911 in Eagle House's suffragette arboretum.

[22] In 1914, Pethick gave talks on women’s suffrage in America and Canada, recounting how she had endued force feeding.