SUFFRAGE HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL Hunger strike medal awarded by the WSPU to Margaret McPhun, with or...

SUFFRAGE – HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL Hunger strike medal awarded by the WSPU to Margaret McPhun, in silver and enamel construction, the top bar fitted with a pin and the obverse engraved 'For Valour', the suspension bar comprising three enamel stripes in purple, white and green, engraved on reverse 'Fed By Force 4/3/12', the disc 22mm. diameter, engraved 'Hunger Strike' on obverse and 'Margaret McPhun' on reverse surrounded by a design of laurel leaves, ribbon in green, white and purple grosgrain silk, maker's name engraved on reverse of top bar ('Toye 67 Theobalds/ Rd London'), overall 80 x 40mm.; in original purple roan presentation box, lined with green velvet, padded silk inner lid with dedication to Margaret McPhun printed in gilt, box 55 x 102mm., [1912]; with a photographic postcard of Margaret with her dogs at Llandudno (3) Footnotes: HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL OF A SCOTTISH ACTIVIST AND CONTRIBUTOR TO 'HOLLOWAY JINGLES'. In 1912, as our medal attests, Margaret McPhun was arrested for her part in the March window-smashing campaign, imprisoned in Holloway for two months hard labour, and whilst there undertook hunger strike and forcible feeding. Her poem To a Fellow Prisoner, dedicated to Scottish activist Janie Allan, and written whilst in prison, was included in Holloway Jingles, published by the Glasgow Branch of the WSPU (see lots 188 and 190). One of a group of suffragettes who travelled from Glasgow for the action, she was arrested with her sister and also took the alias 'Campbell'. The McPhuns were '...amongst the most active WSPU members in Glasgow...' (Leah Lenaman, A Guid Cause: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Scotland, 1991, p.264), and letters from the sisters, smuggled out of Holloway and describing their experiences, are also offered in this sale (see lot 191). Margaret, like her younger sister Frances, was a distinguished graduate of Glasgow University and worked at the Queen Margaret College Settlement, which had been set up in 1897 to look after the welfare of the poor of Anderston. Politically aware from a young age (her father was one of the founders of the People's Palace), she was involved in the Liberal Association and acted as convenor of the Scottish University Women's Suffrage Union. It was therefore a natural step to join the WSPU in 1909, and she held the post of press secretary for the Scottish WSPU from 1912 to 1914. She continued to be involved in politics and social causes for the remainder of her life, and contributed articles to Votes for Women, the Suffragette and other suffrage and socialist publications. The military-style medals, known as the 'Victoria Cross' of the suffragette movement, were awarded by the leaders of the WSPU to suffragettes who had undertaken hunger-strike whilst imprisoned for the cause. There are several variations of design, but they all hang on a length of ribbon in the WSPU colours, usually from a silver pin bar engraved 'For Valour'. On the obverse is engraved 'Hunger Strike' or 'Holloway' and the reverse is engraved with the name of the recipient. Some medals had additional silver bars in recognition of periods of hunger strike, or striped enamelled bars to denote forcible feeding. 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. Margaret McPhun's 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 Margaret McPhun 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'. Exhibited: Glasgow Women's Library, 'We Deserve a Medal: Militant Suffrage Activism' exhibition, 1 February to 31 July 2024. Provenance: Margaret Pollock McPhun (1876-1960); thence by descent. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing