Miriam Pratt

Sitter in 2 portraits
Relatively little is known about the suffragette and teacher Miriam Pratt, but she is remembered for being involved in a high profile arson attack. In the early hours of 17 May 1913, Pratt and an accomplice set fire to two unoccupied homes with a paraffin-soaked cloth. A watch found at the scene of the crime was recognised as belonging to Miriam by her uncle, who was a police sergeant. Pratt was arrested on 22 May and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. She went on hunger strike and was subsequently released for seven days as part of the Cat and Mouse Act, as it became commonly known. The Act sought to deal with the problem of hunger striking suffragettes by allowing their early release only to then recall them to prison once their health was recovered, where the process would begin again. Pratt's story made international news and arson attacks became a strategy used by the more militant wing of the suffragette movement to highlight their campaign.