Georgina Agnes Brackenbury

Georgina "Ina" Agnes Brackenbury (1 July 1865 – 27 January 1949) was a British painter who was known as a militant suffragette. She was jailed for demonstrating for women's rights. She followed Emmeline Pankhurst's lead as she became more militant (and lost former colleagues). Brackenbury was one of Emmeline Pankhurst's pallbearers. Her portrait of Pankhurst was bought by her memorial committee for the nation.

Life Brackenbury was born at Royal Military Academy in Woolwich where her father, Major General Charles Booth Brackenbury who had been a Times correspondent before he was wounded was Director of the artillery college. She was brought up by Flora Shaw, a governess housekeeper - as Brackenbury's mother, Hilda Eliza, disliked housework. In 1890 the family moved to Kensington after the death of their father. Her parents both had artistic interests and in 1888 Georgina went to the Slade School of Art where she specialised in portraits as suggested by Hubert von Herkomer.

Georgina would mostly paint at home but she did hire a studio. In 1894 she created a portrait of Harold Dillon, 17th Viscount Dillon who was the Chair of the trustees at the National Portrait Gallery. She exhibited at London galleries including the Royal Academy. Their mother had been interested in women's rights and in 1907 she joined the increasingly radical Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Quickly Georgina and Marie also joined the WSPU and they transformed their studios in Holland Park into classrooms where they could train women in public speaking.

Georgina and Marie were sentenced to six weeks in prison after they joined a WSPU stunt at the House of Commons. They met surprised police who manhandled women to the ground, more than once, as they rushed to approach the doors.

Brackenbury's imprisonment qualified her sister and herself to have a commemorative tree planted at the "Suffragette's Rest" in Somerset on 22 July 1910.

When Emmeline Pankhurst died on 14 June 1928, Brackenbury was one of her pallbearers, alongside other former suffragettes her sister, Marion Wallace Dunlop, Harriet Kerr, Mildred Mansel, Kitty Marshall, Marie Naylor, Ada Wright and Barbara Wylie.

Brackenbury died in St Mary Abbots in 1949, and her 2 Camden Hill Square, Holland Park home was left to a group providing clubs and hostel accommodation for women over thirty (the Over Thirties Association, founded 1934). She has portraits in the National Portrait Gallery including a painting of Emmeline Pankhurst which was bought by Pankhurst's memorial committee. An enamel plaque of the Brackenbury women including an image of a woman in a natural meadow scene, freed from chains by Ernestine Mills is in the Museum of London.