William Ball (suffragist)

William Ball (4 November 1862 – )[2] was a British workers union member, jailed for his support of women's suffrage, and subject of a WSPU pamphlet, "Torture In An English Prison", which described his experience being force-fed such that his health deteriorated and he was sent to a lunatic asylum.

[3] Ball's arrest and imprisonment in December 1911 was for breaking two panes of the Home Office windows in protest at the jailing of another man, Alan MacDougall, who had supported the suffragettes attending political meetings.

With four dependent children and only one wage, Jennie wrote to the Prison Commission, Home Office with a request to insure Ball's life, which would require a doctor's visit to assess his health.

It also included Mary Leigh's description of force feeding:...the drums of the ears seem to be bursting, and there is a horrible pain in the throat and breast...[4]The WSPU handbill 'Torture in an English Prison' [5] and the leaflet 'The Case of William Ball' can be seen at the Museum of London.

[3] At her eighth trial, for suffragette activism, at Bow Street Court, for breaking Post Office windows, Ellen (Nellie//Nelliy) Crocker, cousin of Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, denounced the hard sentences given to Ball and MacDougall as part of the justification for her own actions.