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Clara Elizabeth Giveen

(born 1887), Militant suffragette

Sitter in 2 portraits
Giveen joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) after being angered by the treatment of women at the Black Friday protect outside the Houses of Commons in 1910. She is remembered for her part in the arson attack on Hurst Park grandstand in 1913, when she and the actress and suffragette Kitty Marion set fire to the racecourse. Both were arrested the following morning and Giveen was sentenced to three years in prison, forcibly fed and later released under 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. Giveen and Marion planned the attack in retaliation for the death of Emily Wilding Davison, who died after being trampled by King George V's horse during a protest in 1913.

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'Surveillance Photograph of Militant Suffragettes', by Criminal Record Office - NPG x132847

'Surveillance Photograph of Militant Suffragettes'

by Criminal Record Office
bromide print mounted onto identification sheet, 1914
NPG x132847

Clara Elizabeth Giveen, by Criminal Record Office - NPG x45564

Clara Elizabeth Giveen

by Criminal Record Office
silver print mounted onto identification sheet, 1914
NPG x45564

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