Gertrude Mary Ansell
(1861-1932), Suffragette and member of the Fabian Women's GroupSitter in 2 portraits
After the death of her father, Ansell set up a successful typing bureau and her experience in business shaped her belief that women's economic position could not change without equal rights in politics being established first. As well as being a member of the Fabian Women's Group, Ansell was deeply involved with animal welfare and activism. After joining the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she was arrested in 1908 for her involvement in the raid on the House of Commons. In May 1914, she attacked Hubert von Herkomer's portrait of the Duke of Wellington with an axe in the Royal Academy and was sentenced to six months imprisonment, enduring force feeding a shocking 236 times.
'Surveillance Photograph of Militant Suffragettes'
by Criminal Record Office
silver print mounted onto identification sheet, 1914
NPG x132846
by Criminal Record Office
silver print mounted onto identification sheet, 1914
NPG x45555
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