Helen Kirkpatrick Watts

Helen Kirkpatrick Watts (1881 – 18 August 1972) was a militant British suffragette from Nottingham.

Life Watts was born in Bishopwearmouth, County Durham in 1881. Her father, Alan Hunter Watts, was the vicar at Holy Trinity Church in Lenton near Nottingham; her mother was Ethelinda Woodrow Cassels. She came to notice after she joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907 after being inspired by a local speech by Christabel Pankhurst.

Watts was deaf and as a consequence she spoke with a strong accent. Her release was celebrated by the suffragettes and her achievement was recognised with flowers. Watts believed that actions and not words were required and in September she was again making trouble in Leicester where Winston Churchill was making a speech. She was released from Leicester Prison after a 90-hour hunger strike.

Like the Blathwayts, Watts did not agree when the WSPU hardened its militancy to include acts of arson. Like many suffragettes Watts left the WSPU and joined the Women's Freedom League. During the war she was a nurse at the Mineral Water Hospital in Bath, Somerset.

In March 2016, Nottingham Women’s History Group planted a juniper tree in Helen’s honour in Nottingham Arboretum. Two years later, on 14 December 2018, and 100 days years to the day when the first women in the UK were able to vote in a general election, a commemorative plaque was placed next to the tree.