Selina Martin

[1] Her Hunger Strike Medal given 'for Valour' by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was sold at auction in Nottingham in 2019.

In March 1909, Selina Martin was the Lancaster representative among a delegation of suffragettes led by Emily Pankhurst and Georgina Solomon seeking to speak with the Prime Minister at the House of Commons.

[3] On 21 December 1909, Selina Martin and Leslie Hall (Laetitia Withall), again directly approached the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith as he was leaving his motor car, and tackled him on the subject of women's rights.

She explained that she had been wet through by the snow storm on the previous day and that her clothes were still saturated, for no attempt had been made to get them dry, but she was forcibly dressed and, with her hands handcuffed behind her, was dragged to a cold, dark punishment cell and flung on the stone floor.

She lay there in an exhausted state for some hours, being unable to rise without the aid of her hands and arms, which were still fastened behind her back, until, at last, a wardress came in and lifted her onto the bed board.

After a violent struggle I was forced into a chair, the handcuffs removed, my arms being held by the wardresses, whilst the doctor forcibly fed me by that obnoxious instrument, the stomach tube.

Next day she was forcibly fed and afterwards again refused to return to the dark cell, but she says, " I was seized by a number of wardresses and carried down the steps, my head being allowed to bump several times."

Martin's case inspired Lady Constance Lytton to dress as a working class seamstress to prove that poorer prisoners were treated badly.