Evaline Hilda Burkitt

Evaline Hilda Burkitt (19 July 1876 – 7 March 1955) was a British suffragette and member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). A militant activist for women's rights, she went on hunger strike in prison and was the first suffragette to be forcibly-fed. Between 1909 and 1914 she was force-fed 292 times Lillian and Christobel were among 50 women arrested on 11 February 1908, following the "Women's Parliament". During her time in prison she spoke out against what she described as inhumane treatment. On her release from Winson Green prison on 18 October 1909 she shouted a defiant "Votes for Women' to a small crowd including reporters. At a reception on 5th November, Burkitt was presented with the WSPU Hunger Strike Medal, "for Valour". causing £36,000 of damage to the latter. There were no occupants in either the Pavilion or the hotel. The two women refused to answer questions in Court and sat on a table chatting throughout the proceedings with their backs to the magistrates.

Force-feeding On 29 May 1914 Burkitt was sentenced to two years imprisonment in HM Prison Ipswich. She suggested that the judge should put on the black cap and sentence her to death. In prison, she went on hunger strike and thirst strike and was force-fed for the entirety of her remand period before being moved to Holloway Prison. A suffragette released from Holloway at the end of July 1914 stated that Burkitt was being force-fed up to four times a day. She "suffers agonies with her nerves ... She is sick after every feeding ... Her throat is in a terrible condition." Although in good health in prison Burkitt regularly complained of chest pains at night which the prison authorities said were due to indigestion. At the same time her weight loss was recorded which had dropped to 98 lbs by mid-July 1914 – "16 lbs below average weight for her height". It was often recorded that Burkitt was "hysterical" during force-feeding.

On 7 August 1914 Burkitt petitioned the Home Office for release, writing: "I’ve been in prison since April 28th and have been forcibly fed during the whole time, 292 times so far." Burkitt pleaded "reply to my Petition at once, as if I should die through my fasting, my death will lie at your door." She was the last suffragette to be force-fed in Holloway Prison. The marriage was later dissolved. In 1939 she was living in St Albans as a "Confectioner and Cake Maker". Her family described her as a gentle quiet person, only angry when not permitted a mortgage without a male guarantor.

Legacy

In 2014 The Felixstowe Society unveiled a plaque commemorating the burning down of the Bath Hotel in Felixstowe by Burkitt and Florence Tunks in 1914. The plaque commemorates the centenary of the burning down of the hotel and is on what remains of the building, at the site of the former Bartlet Hospital.

From November to December 2018 an art installation of a portrait of Burkitt was placed in Birmingham New Street Station where she had thrown a stone at Asquith's train in 1909. Named "The Face of Suffrage" the artwork was a floor-based 200-metre-square photo mosaic. The artwork was based on a photograph taken by Burkitt's older sister Ida Lillian Burkitt who was a suffragette as well as being an actress, photographer and nurse. Made from 3,724 photographs of women from the West Midlands from the 1900s in addition to pictures of modern women, the artwork was created by artist Helen Marshall of "The People's Picture" to celebrate the centenary of women getting the vote.