Helen Millar Craggs

Helen Millar Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence (née Craggs; 1888–1969) was a British suffragette and pharmacist.

Early life and education Craggs was born in Westminster, London on 24 November 1888. Her father was Sir John Craggs, an accountant who donated money for tropical medicine research, and her mother was Helen Craggs . She had seven siblings.

Craggs was educated at Roedean School in the Sussex Downs. She wished to study medicine, but her father refused that idea Although Craggs' mother supported suffragism and was a lead committee member in the national and Kensington Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, she deplored activism.

Activism Craggs used a pseudonym 'Helen Millar' (perhaps to protect her family and her teaching post) when she joined the Women's Social and Political Union activists during the Peckham election in 1908. to become a full time WSPU organiser at 25 shillings per month, living in rented property in Bloomsbury.

Craggs was close to Emmeline Pankhurst's son Harry, who suffered from polio, and visited his nursing home throughout and was with him when he died in January 1910. Craggs was also in Wales and identified as the protester who jumped out at the Home Secretary at Llandaff Cathedral

In November 1910, Craggs went to the Paragon Theatre, Whitechapel at 2a.m. to hide in the freezing roof space overnight before Lloyd George was due to speak. Craggs broke through the crowd from her hideout shouting at the Chancellor about women's rights, and was thrown down a stone staircase. A bystanding man who said, "women pay taxes too" was beaten. Also in 1912, Craggs participated in the Great Militant Protest window smashing campaign in London. Unlike before, when she was arrested she gave her real name. She was imprisoned in Holloway Prison for carrying materials for causing arson, near Nuneham Courtney, the home of Government Cabinet member, Lewis Harcourt. Craggs wore "a striking costume prominently displaying the suffragist colours" when she appeared in Bullingdon Petty Sessions court the next day and admitted her intent but would not give her name. three years after his first wife suffragette Emmeline had died.

In 1969, Craggs, then Baroness Helen Pethick-Lawrence, died on 15 January in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.