Caroline Lowder Downing

Caroline Lowder Downing (1855 – 2 November 1942) was a Welsh suffragette who in 1912 was imprisoned and awarded a Women's Social and Political Union Hunger Strike Medal "for Valour". She was a sister of the artist and suffragette Edith Downing.

Life and activism Downing was born in 1855 in Wales to a coal merchant and shipping agent, Edward Coenty Downing, and Mary Anne Sarah Lowder. She was one of four siblings, Caroline Lowder Downing trained as a nurse, and in 1908 joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) Chelsea Branch, with her sister Edith Elizabeth Downing, an artist. They both became militant suffragettes.

Downing took part in the window smashing on 1 March 1912, causing £50 of damage. She was imprisoned in Winson Green Prison, An image of the medal was released on social media on 15 October 2015 and 5 February 2018. The dedication on the inside of the original presentation box said:'Presented to Caroline Lowder Downing 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.'