Mary Jane Clarke

Mary Jane Clarke ( Goulden; 1862–1910) was a British suffragette. She died on Christmas Day 1910, two days after being released from prison, where she had been force-fed. She was described in her obituary by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence as the suffragettes' first martyr. She was the younger sister of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

Biography Clarke was born in Salford and was one of ten children, including older sister Emmeline, of Robert Goulden and Sophia (née Craine). Robert was a self-made man, managing director of a cotton-printing works, having worked his way up from being an errand boy at the time of his marriage; Sophia, a teacher, was an important influence on her daughters' political views. The Gouldens were a humble Manchester family with its own background of political activity; Robert's mother, a fustian cutter, worked with the Anti-Corn Law League, and his father was press-ganged into the Royal Navy and present at the Peterloo massacre, when cavalry charged and broke up a crowd demanding parliamentary reform.

She was educated at the École Normale (Sainte-Marie de Neuilly), avenue de Neuilly, in Paris, At the shop, her artistic skills added decoration of the shop's stock of art-enamelled fancy goods and was described in the 1891 census as a "decorative artist". After the Pankhursts moved to Manchester in 1893, she helped to reliance Emerson's there in 1898. on the south coast in Brighton. running the WSPU's election campaign for the January 1910 United Kingdom general election. She was arrested a few days later for window smashing after returning to protest, on 23 November 1910, and imprisoned for a month in HM Prison Holloway, where she was force-fed after going on a hunger strike. Clarke was released from prison on 23 December 1910, and spoke at a suffragette event, travelled to Brighton for another meeting,

She died two days later on 25 December 1910 at her brother's home in Winchmore Hill, London

Legacy and memorial The suffragette memorial to Emmeline Pankhurst carries the names of nearly 60 leading suffragettes and suffragists who were part of the successful campaign to give the vote to women. Clarke was not included.

A campaign began in 2018 to have a statue of Mary Jane Clarke in the Pavilion Gardens, Brighton. A design by sculptor Denise Dutton was approved in 2020 by the Mayor of Brighton & Hove. It has all party support and charitable purposes for education and human rights awareness, as 'an image of female courage and political leadership, encouraging women and girls to participate in civic life and fostering a better understanding of women's history.'

The design maquette includes references to Black Friday in Votes for Women newspaper, examples of force-feeding implements, the Hunger Strike Medal and words from Emmeline Pankhurst: "She is the first to die. How many must follow… and also will have 'a lamp at her feet which she has placed there for others to pick up'." The Mary Clarke Statue Appeal is fundraising to complete the project, and its chair, Jean Calder, said: "Nationally, women who have achieved a great deal are not commemorated. Mary was this extraordinary woman who made this huge sacrifice and yet she's been completely forgotten. I can't believe this would have happened to a man."

At the end of 2023 the Brighton and Hove City council agreed to award the freedom of the city to Clarke. The award was made to her great great great niece, Lena Goulden, in the presence of the mayor Jackie O'Quinn.