SUFFRAGE - HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL Hunger strike medal awarded by the WSPU to Lizzie McKenzie, 1912

SUFFRAGE - HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL Hunger strike medal awarded by the WSPU to Lizzie McKenzie, in silver construction, the top bar fitted with pin, the obverse engraved 'For Valour', the suspension bar in silver with the date 'March 1st 1912', the disc 22mm. diameter, engraved 'Hunger Strike' on the obverse and 'Lizzie McKenzie' on the reverse, maker's name engraved on reverse of top bar ('Toye 57 Theobalds/ Rd London'), overall 76 x 38mm.; in original purple roan presentation box, lined with green velvet, padded silk inner lid with dedication to McKenzie printed in gilt, box 60 x 102mm., [1912] Footnotes: 'WHATEVER I DID, I DID AS A PROTEST AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT'S ACTION': THE HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL OF LIZZIE MCKENZIE, WINDOW-SMASHER. Lizzie McKenzie was one of many women arrested during a second and determined wave of window-smashing organised by the WSPU in March 1912, '...On the evening of Friday March 1st, & again on the following Monday, WSPU supporters gathered in the shopping streets of the West End, Knightsbridge, Kensington & Chelsea. They were armed with hammers or stones & at a pre-arranged time they began smashing the windows of shops & offices... over 200 women were arrested...' (tepapa.gov.nz blog online). According to the trial report in Votes for Women of 8 March 1912, Lizzie showed no remorse for her actions – '...Constable Tucker... saw her deliberately strike the window of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company... with something concealed. He at once arrested her. She had a hammer in her bag. When arrested she said, 'Let me break another one, do!' The window was cracked but not very badly... the damage was put at about £20 if the window had to be replaced... On being asked by the magistrate whether she had any questions to ask, Mrs McKenzie said 'I do not wish to say anything at all. I only wish to say that whatever I did, I did as a protest against the Government's action'...' For cracking a window that may or may not have needed replacing, she was sentenced to two months in Holloway. McKenzie's medal bears the date of her arrest, 1 March 1912, but the lack of an additional enamelled bar indicates that, whilst she undertook hunger strike, she was not forcibly fed. Lizzie McKenzie was connected to the Lewisham branch of the WSPU, for which she briefly acted as secretary in 1910, and was an occasional speaker at branch meetings including one at Lea Green in June 1909. She joins eminent figures such as Katherine Gatty, Janie Terrero and Edith Downing (her hunger strike medal sold in these rooms, 23 March 2022) as a signatory on the 'Suffragette Handkerchief' now kept at The Priest House, West Hoathly, which was signed by inmates of Holloway Prison in March 1912. The military-style medals were awarded by the leaders of the WSPU to suffragettes who had gone on hunger-strike in protest at not being recognised as political prisoners. They hang on a length of ribbon in the WSPU colours from a silver pin bar engraved 'For Valour' in the style of the Victoria Cross. On the obverse is engraved 'Hunger Strike', and the reverse is engraved with the name of the recipient. The medals were made by Toye & Co. at a cost of £1.00 each, and were first presented in St James' Hall in early August 1909. Our medal comes in its original purple box with green velvet lining, and the wording on the inside lid, printed in gold on white silk 'Presented to Lizzie McKenzie by the Women's Social and Political Union in recognition of a gallant action, whereby through endurance to the last extremity of hunger and hardship a great principle of political justice was vindicated'. Provenance: Private collection, U.K. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing