Mary+Gawthorpe

Mary Gawthorpe was born in Leeds on the 12th January 1881. In this house, 5 Melville street.

One of 5 children, she worked in a local Textile Mill to help support her family.

On 23rd October 1906 Mary Gawthorpe was arrested, along with nine other women, for making a speech in the House of Commons lobby. Mary was each given the choice of keeping the peace for six months or going to prison for two months as a common criminal. Mary, Mrs Pethick-Lawrence, Annie Kenney, Mrs Montefiore, Adela Pankhurst, Teresa Billington, Mrs How Martyn, Irene Fenwick Miller, Mrs Baldock, and Mrs Anne Cobden Sanderson all chose to go to jail. As they were famous Suffragettes, this gained a lot of sympathy and publicity for their cause.

In 1916 mary travelled to America. She became the head Organiser of the 'New York Woman Suffrage Party'. She was described as being ".....a morsel of a woman to have achieved so much". She later became "State Press Chairman for the Party", a capacity in which she served until mid-1918!

A picure of Mary with Chistabel pankhurst in 1909