Olive Beamish

Olive Beamish (17 June 1890 – 14 April 1978) was an Irish-born suffragette, women's rights campaigner, and trade unionist educated at Girton College Cambridge. Beamish wore a Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) badge while still at school. Also known as "Phyllis Brady", and then worked for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Beamish was sentenced to six weeks in Holloway prison.

Beamish went on hunger strike and she was force fed. She and Elsie Duval were the first to be released on 28 April 1913 under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, which became known as the 'Cat and Mouse' Act. This allowed prisoners who may be at risk of dying from hunger strike to be released on licence to recover and they would then be re-arrested to complete their sentence.

Later life During the First World War, Beamish was a social organiser based in Hoxton. She then ran her own typing agency business and was the vice president of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. In 1928, Beamish spoke at an open meeting of the Women's Freedom League, arguing that the political enfranchisement of women would help to improve working conditions for women clerks. (The Offices Regulation Bill proposed to improve working conditions had failed to progress in parliament.) Beamish was active in the trade union movement for more than 50 years and was a member of the Sudbury and Woodbridge Labour Party when she retired.