Alice Davies

Alice Davies (1870 - alive in 1919 ) was a British suffragette and nurse. She was imprisoned for protesting for women's right to vote by smashing windows, went on hunger strike and was awarded the Women's Social and Political Union Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour'.

Life and activism

Born in 1870, to parents in Liverpool and had at least one brother, who later had a son Frederick Lesley Stuart Davies, serving in the WWI Army Cycle Corps.

Alice Davies joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) to protest for women's right to vote. Davies became the Liverpool WPSU Branch organiser from June 1910 to September 1912, trying to move the approach of the four branches in the area to holding more large indoor events and social functions, away from the frequent street meetings outside factories and smaller 'At Homes' in more affluent areas that were a feature before her. The groups in the Cheshire side of the Mersey continued the street events with speakers from Liverpool and beyond, and from November 1910 WSPU had toned down its militancy for a period. The branch shop did not do well during that time with a drop from over £18 annual profit from written material sales to just over19shillings (less than £1) as it became a more exclusive 'members meeting' place. As most of the suffragette literature had been sold at street meetings to spread the message about 'votes for women' to the public, the change in management may reflect lost opportunities to increase support for the cause. In 1911, Davies was writing to encourage local members to join a deputation to London to attempt to speak to Prime Minister Lloyd-George on 21 November.

During 1912, Davies was one of the two hundred women arrested during a protest which took place on 1 and 4 March 1912, which was a second wave of window smashing protests in the wealthy London shopping area, the West End, in Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea. This took place at the same time as the Parliament was debating a Conciliation Bill (which was to have given some women the right to vote but was not passed). and dated 4 March 1912.

The presentation box was inscribed she was listed there as Alice 'Davis', but the record states it was created from later recollections of suffragette activists and not from original prison or court documents.

Women imprisoned who went on hunger strike were frequently force-fed and despite not being treated as 'political prisoners'

On return to Liverpool, Davies may have been hesitant for the abilities of her team

Later life Davies became a Nursing Sister at Westminster, but does not seem to appear in later key records of the suffragette or the women's rights movements. She wrote to her nephew Frederick Lesley Stuart Davies, a private in the Army Cyclist Corps. King's Liverpool Regiment and Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, who was discharged injured in 1919.

Davies's date of death is unknown.