Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 6007 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 354

The Women´s Social and Political Union Medal awarded to Norah Dacre Fox, silver (Hallmarks for Birmingham 1913), 22mm, ´Hunger Strike´ engraved in block capitals, rev. ´Norah Dacre Fox´ engraved within wreath, beaded ring for suspension, three date bars, May 15th 1914, July 5th 1914, July 28th 1914, with top riband brooch bar engraved ´For Valour´ and portcullis badge, in its original named box of issue, inscribed ´Norah Dacre Fox´, good very fine and rare Estimate £ 2,500-3,000First Date Bar: Votes for Women 22.5.1914 ´At Westminster Police Court on Friday May 15 before Mr. Horace Smith Mrs. Drummond and Mrs. Dacre Fox were charged with making inciting speeches. Each were ordered to find two sureties in £50 each, or go to prison for one month.´ Second Date Bar: Votes for Women 10.7.1914 ´Mrs Dacre Fox, who had previously intimated to the Lord Bishop of London her intention of seeking sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, stepped out from the nave when he was preaching here on Sunday afternoon, and called upon him to stop forcible feeding. A women in the congregation, an Anglican nun, it is said, is reported to have placed her handkerchief over the interrupter´s mouth. Mrs. Dacre Fox made no resistance and was led out quietly. Outside the Abbey she was at once re-arrested and taken away to Holloway Prison.´ Third Date Bar: Votes for Women 31.7.1914 ´Mrs Dacre Fox was re-arrested outside Buckingham Palace whilst attempting to deliver a letter from Mrs. Pankhurst to George V´. Mrs. Norah Dacre Fox was first arrested for her militant suffragette activities in May 1914, when ´At the instance of the Commissioner of Police, summonses have been granted by Mr. Horace Smith at Westminster Police Court for hearing on Thursday in this week against Mrs. Flora Drummond and Mrs Dacre Fox for using language at Knightsbridge, Chelsea Town Hall, Clapham, and other places "openly and deliberately advocating acts of violence". The defendants are asked "to show cause why they should not be ordered to enter into their recognisances and find sureties for future good behaviour?"´ (Votes for Women 15.5.1914). They had been summoned on account of certain inciting speeches they were alleged to have made, and also when they drove at an early hour respectively to the houses of Sir Edward Carson and Lord Lansdowne, and established themselves in both cases on the threshold, and sent in a letter to explain their position. The letter in each case said that ´a militant had come to another militant to shelter from arrest, thinking it the safest place they could come to´ because, both Sir Edward Carson and Lord Lansdowne, ´had been enabled to go scot free.´ In Mrs. Drummond´s case, she remained undisturbed most of the day on Sir Edward Carson´s doorstep in Eaton Place, breakfasting and luncheoning there. Constables prevented her from speaking to Sir Edward when he emerged from the house, but they were unable to stop her throwing into the hall documents containing militant quotations from his own speeches. Due to her failure to appear in court that day, a warrant was issued, and she was arrested at four o´ clock that afternoon. In the meantime, Mrs. Dacre Fox had received a reply to her letter from Lord Lansdowne´s secretary, in the course of which he said ´I am to say that it is impossible for him to allow you to take refuge in his house, in which, moreover, you would obviously still be within reach of the law. Lord Lansdowne has not seen the speeches which have led to proceedings taken against you. As to his own conduct, should it at any time render him liable to prosecution, he would certainly, if required to appear before a magistrate, not decline to do so.´ Mrs. Dacre Fox was removed by the police and charged with obstruction at Vine Street but was subsequently released. She promptly returned to Lansdowne House and was arrested on a warrant later in the day. The following morning both defendants were brought up at Westminster Police Court before Mr. Horace Smith. Mrs. Dacre Fox, whose case was first, said she would take no part in the proceedings, and talked loudly for some twenty minutes. A similar course was taken by Mrs. Drummond, who caused laughter by telling Mr. Muskett, prosecuting for the Crown, that she had as good a voice as he had, and that he had done all the talking for the past seven years, and that now it was her turn. At the conclusion of the evidence of the short-hand writers, not a word of which could be heard, Mr. Horace Smith ordered the defendants to find two sureties in £50 each for twelve months´ good behaviour, or in default one month´s imprisonment. The defendants did not consent to be bound over, and both were sent that afternoon to Holloway Gaol. In the House of Commons, Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P. asked why proceedings had been initiated against Mrs. Drummond and Mrs. Dacre Fox for advocating acts of militancy and violence whilst no similar proceedings are contemplated against those Privy Counsellors, King´s Counsel, and Army Officials who have been advocating a like policy in Ulster. Mr. Hardie wondered if the advocacy of enfranchisement is a greater crime than advocating an armed rebellion against the State. The Minister McKenna replied by saying that such cases were sub judice, but it is the advocacy of arson and outrage that is the crime, not the advocacy of enfranchisement. The following Tuesday, 19th May, Mrs. Dacre Fox was released from Gaol, as a result of going on hunger strike, under the new ´Cat and Mouse´ Act, which allowed militant suffragettes to be released in order to regain their health following hunger striking, and then re-arrested. She was re-arrested following her altercation with the Lord Bishop of London at Westminster Abbey on Sunday 5th July, and sent again to Holloway Gaol. Immediately, she went on hunger strike, and then on a thirst strike, which led to her release five days later on Friday 10th July. She was re-arrested a second time on Tuesday 28th July outside Buckingham Palace, where she was attempting to deliver a letter, written by Christable Pankhurst, to HM the King. She was finally released unconditionally at the start of the War, when all suffragettes were released under amnesty, following the decision by the Women´s Social and Political Union to suspend their militant activities. Following the Enfranchisement Bill of November 1914, Mrs. Dacre Fox was one of the first women to run for Parliament, standing as an Independent for Richmond on 14th December 1914, but losing with 3,615 votes.

Sold for
£6,200