Clara Lambert

Clara Mary Lambert aliased as Catherine Wilson; May Stewart or Mary Stewart (1874–1969) was a British frequently-arrested suffragette. She took a hatchet to porcelain in the British Museum, smuggled herself into the House of Commons, committed arson and went on hunger strike during her many arrests. Her Hunger Strike Medal recorded dates over a three-year period.

Life Lambert was born in 1874. She came from a working-class background and she started work in the family laundry business.

Lambert smuggled herself into the British Museum where she appeared to be an interested visitor until she pulled out a brand new hatchet she was hiding beneath her long coat. She broke a display case and then smashed porcelain cups and saucers. Lambert was brought before the Bow Street magistrates the next morning and she was so noisy that they sent her back to the cells. She was protesting particularly about the home secretary who was allowing Emmeline Pankhurst to "face torture" in prison. She returned to the magistrates in the afternoon where she had to be held by two attendants while she was committed for trial. At the trial Lambert was sent to Prison where she went on hunger strike.

On 16 March 1914 she dressed as a man and entered the Houses of Parliament accompanied by Clement H Whatley at about 8 p.m.. Lambert should have gone to the women's gallery where women could observe parliament from behind a grill. The gallery was poorly lit to prevent men from being distracted by the sight of women.

Her Hunger Strike Medal recorded dates over a three-year period of one force-feeding and three periods of imprisonment. She was directed by the WPS to work with the women munition workers in Pembrey in Wales, and there she met her life partner Violet Louise Croxford who had been a mental health nurse before the war.

When the war ended she again went to work looking after women. She helped sex-workers in London and in 1926 she and Croxford opened a refuge for them in Hythe in Kent.

Lambert died in Farncombe. Her biography was written by Violet Croxford.