Laura Ainsworth

Laura Frances Ainsworth (1885–1958) was a British teacher and suffragette. She was employed by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and was one of the first suffragettes to be force-fed. She left the WSPU in 1912 in protest at the ejection of the Pethick-Lawrences, but continued to work for women's suffrage.

Life Ainsworth was born in Blything in Suffolk in 1885, and she was brought up in Salisbury. She became a teacher but decided in 1909 to become a full time worker for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1909.

Ainsworth was drafted to co-ordinate WSPU activities in the Midlands with Gladice Keevil. She was involved in the protest on 17 September 1909 when Charlotte Marsh, Mary Leigh and Patricia Woodlock climbed onto the roof of Bingley Hall in Birmingham. They were protesting at women being excluded from a political meeting where the British Prime Minister Asquith was giving a speech. Marsh , Leigh and Woodlock threw roof tiles They went to trial and were sent onto Winson Green Prison, along with Hilda Burkitt and as they arrived were singing protest songs loudly and refusing to wear prison dress claiming 'political' not criminal status.

Ainsworth was with Hugh Franklin on the train that Churchill was travelling on when he challenged him on his attitude to suffragettes and caused a scene in which Franklin was arrested and went on hunger strike in prison himself . The league was started by Mary Adelaide Broadhurst and Margaret Milne Farquharson and in 1913 Ainsworth would be the NPL secretary.

First force-feeding In protest about not being treated as a political prisoner she, Mabel Capper, Marsh and Leigh went on hunger strike while in Winson Green Prison. Ainsworth was boarding locally with a WSPU supporter. Over 40 women gathered there to avoid being at home during the census. However they enjoyed themselves so much that the police were called and they tipped off the census enumerators and they were counted. The census return says "Party of Suffragettes assembled in Dancing Academy – 40 in number 1 male and 39 females", but carries no details of who was there.

Ainsworth was given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for valour' by the WSPU.

Ainsworth left the WSPU in protest in 1912 at the ejection of the Pethick-Lawrences from the WSPU.

After suffragettes Ainsworth was active in the Women's Section of the British Legion in the 1930s. She died in Yorkshire in 1958.