Heritage plaque unveiled to celebrate achievement of Lancaster suffragette

Suffragettes such as Selina Martin had to endure terrors such as force-feeding and brutal imprisonment for her contribution to the fight for women’s rights during the early 1900s.As an active member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), she was passionate about the fight for equality, and played a major part for a large part of her life.

Following this, a plaque, located outside of Sun Street where she once lived, has been erected in her honour.

The plaque erected by Jackson Sycamore, her great great grandson, is said to represent her legacy in Lancaster and the surrounding areas, in the hopes that anyone who sees it, recognises what was sacrificed during the fight for equal rights.

Her imprisonment was justified by her and companion suffragette Leslie Hall threw an empty ginger beer bottle into the car of Prime Minister Asquith, after he ignored their questions regarding the suffragette movement and his views on the inequality in Britain.

Both women were treated appallingly following this; they were force-fed after going on a hunger strike, and denied bail, being whisked away without counsel to Walton Gaol. It was this injustice that meant other suffragettes such as Lady Constance Lytton –  who was an upper class woman from a wealthy background – began protesting and bringing to light the unfair treatment of the two women.

Prior to this, Selina Martin underwent further mistreatment at the hands of the law, following an incident where she assaulted an officer. She was sent to a prison in Birmingham in September 1909, where her handcuffs we made so tight, it cut circulation and caused her to faint multiple times.

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It is due to atrocities such as these that further protests occurred and violence between the Suffragettes and the police continued – but the fight was eventually won in 1918, when women over the age of 30, who met a property quota, were given the vote for the first time.

This was further expanded in 1928, with the Equal Franchise Act being awarded, meaning all women over the age of 21 are given the right to vote.

It is thanks to the incredible work by women such as Selina Martin that women and girls have the rights they do in the current day.

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Featured image via Lancaster Civic Vision on Facebook