On March 9th 1913 Suffragettes cause damage to Croxley Green Station
© National Library of Australia
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This was global news and the extracts below are taken from an Australian newspaper during 1913. It shows the immense interest in the Suffragette story and the lengths the Suffragettes were willing to go to:
The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times (Tasmania) - showing how far the news travelled
WOMEN AT WAR / STILL MORE OUTRAGE AN AMAZING RECORD.
It is difficult to form an adequate idea of the amount of damage caused by the suffragettes in the United Kingdom during the past few weeks. The following list contains merely the more important outrages committed between the end of January and the middle of May:
January 29 - Wrecked windows of the Home Office, the Treasury, the Admiralty, and the Local Government Board in Whitehall, the Hamburg Imperial Shipping Company's office also damaged property in Regent Street. Oxford Street, Charing Cross and other business centres. During the day 22 arrests were made.
January 30 - Two hundred packets in a box at the Vere Street post office were set on fire and considerably damaged. A smaller device was tried with success at York and in many districts. Hamburg America Shipping Company had a second window broken costing £150.
January 31 - Case containing orders of merit at the Tower of London smashed; also other property damaged in various districts.
February 5 - Scottish suffragette threw red pepper in the face of a constable. Upon being fined £20 in court she repeated the act upon a police officer, and then smashed 12 windows of the court-room. Four live pinfire cartridges dropped into pillar boxes in Portugal Street and Northumberland Avenue, and destroyed a large number of letters. Eight shop windows smashed in Holborn.
February 6 - While being sorted a mass of letters burst into .flame at Dundee Central Post Office. Considerable damage and four sorters injured. Miss Sylvia Pankhurst sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment for attempting .to damage a picture in St. Stephen's Hall.
February 7 - Mr. C. E. Hobhouse, 'Chancellor of the Duchy, and Mr. D. Acland, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, were blinded for two hours by pepper and snuff, which was sent them in envelopes marked ''private”.
February 8 - Two women smashed 30 windows in one building and set fire to a second building, valued at £1,000 in the famous Horticultural Gardens at Kew, and .uprooted several priceless orchids. Great damage was done. At Selfridge's city establishment a suffragette broke two windows, each valued at £80. Thirty telephone and five telegraph wires cut.
February 10 - Windows smashed at the Reform, Carlton, Junior Carlton, Oxford,' and Cambridge Clubs, and also at the residence of Prince Christian. Case containing exhibits at the Royal Scottish Museum smashed.
February 13 - Set fire to the refreshment shed at the Regent's Park Cricket Ground. Damage £700
February 19 - House at Walton on the Hill, owned by Mr Lloyd George, wrecked by bombs. Damage £500.
February 21 - Suffragettes filled the keyholes of many houses at Mapseley with small shot. At Edinburgh 2,000 letters in 20 letter boxes damaged by lire. Old Manchester Gold Club’s pavilion set fire to.
February 22 - Reports of acts of violence received from all quarters. At Battersea 14 plate-glass windows were smashed. Letters in pillars damaged. Gold links at Ashford damaged. Shelter house at Horsforth set on fire.
February 24 - Telegraph poles near Newcastle-on-Tyne cut down. Damage for week ending February estimated at £6,000. Signal wires on Great Western railway line cut at Newport.
February 23. — Contents of pillar boxes at Nottingham damaged. Telephone wires at Belfast cut. Bookstall at Walsall, in Staffordshire, fired.
March 9 - Railway lamps and small trees in Nottingham Forest Recreation Ground destroyed. Bowler's Pavilion burned down at Newcastle. Two rail way stations destroyed by fire at Saunderton and Croxley Green.
"A local story is told of how a year after the opening of the station a group of ladies were directed to it by Croxley’s policeman P.C. Haggar. He bade them a cheery “Good-night” – to learn shortly afterwards that they were a band of suffragettes who had set fire to the new station."
The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times (Tasmania) - showing how far the news travelled
WOMEN AT WAR / STILL MORE OUTRAGE AN AMAZING RECORD.
It is difficult to form an adequate idea of the amount of damage caused by the suffragettes in the United Kingdom during the past few weeks. The following list contains merely the more important outrages committed between the end of January and the middle of May:
January 29 - Wrecked windows of the Home Office, the Treasury, the Admiralty, and the Local Government Board in Whitehall, the Hamburg Imperial Shipping Company's office also damaged property in Regent Street. Oxford Street, Charing Cross and other business centres. During the day 22 arrests were made.
January 30 - Two hundred packets in a box at the Vere Street post office were set on fire and considerably damaged. A smaller device was tried with success at York and in many districts. Hamburg America Shipping Company had a second window broken costing £150.
January 31 - Case containing orders of merit at the Tower of London smashed; also other property damaged in various districts.
February 5 - Scottish suffragette threw red pepper in the face of a constable. Upon being fined £20 in court she repeated the act upon a police officer, and then smashed 12 windows of the court-room. Four live pinfire cartridges dropped into pillar boxes in Portugal Street and Northumberland Avenue, and destroyed a large number of letters. Eight shop windows smashed in Holborn.
February 6 - While being sorted a mass of letters burst into .flame at Dundee Central Post Office. Considerable damage and four sorters injured. Miss Sylvia Pankhurst sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment for attempting .to damage a picture in St. Stephen's Hall.
February 7 - Mr. C. E. Hobhouse, 'Chancellor of the Duchy, and Mr. D. Acland, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, were blinded for two hours by pepper and snuff, which was sent them in envelopes marked ''private”.
February 8 - Two women smashed 30 windows in one building and set fire to a second building, valued at £1,000 in the famous Horticultural Gardens at Kew, and .uprooted several priceless orchids. Great damage was done. At Selfridge's city establishment a suffragette broke two windows, each valued at £80. Thirty telephone and five telegraph wires cut.
February 10 - Windows smashed at the Reform, Carlton, Junior Carlton, Oxford,' and Cambridge Clubs, and also at the residence of Prince Christian. Case containing exhibits at the Royal Scottish Museum smashed.
February 13 - Set fire to the refreshment shed at the Regent's Park Cricket Ground. Damage £700
February 19 - House at Walton on the Hill, owned by Mr Lloyd George, wrecked by bombs. Damage £500.
February 21 - Suffragettes filled the keyholes of many houses at Mapseley with small shot. At Edinburgh 2,000 letters in 20 letter boxes damaged by lire. Old Manchester Gold Club’s pavilion set fire to.
February 22 - Reports of acts of violence received from all quarters. At Battersea 14 plate-glass windows were smashed. Letters in pillars damaged. Gold links at Ashford damaged. Shelter house at Horsforth set on fire.
February 24 - Telegraph poles near Newcastle-on-Tyne cut down. Damage for week ending February estimated at £6,000. Signal wires on Great Western railway line cut at Newport.
February 23. — Contents of pillar boxes at Nottingham damaged. Telephone wires at Belfast cut. Bookstall at Walsall, in Staffordshire, fired.
March 9 - Railway lamps and small trees in Nottingham Forest Recreation Ground destroyed. Bowler's Pavilion burned down at Newcastle. Two rail way stations destroyed by fire at Saunderton and Croxley Green.
"A local story is told of how a year after the opening of the station a group of ladies were directed to it by Croxley’s policeman P.C. Haggar. He bade them a cheery “Good-night” – to learn shortly afterwards that they were a band of suffragettes who had set fire to the new station."
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Croxley Green Station near Watford also suffered a similar fate, although the attack was initially not attributed to the militants until a suffragette newspaper was delivered to the station master with the scribbled inscription: 'Afraid copy left got burnt.' Kitty Marion was also continuing her own attacks, such as the one which saw a train, left standing between Hampton Wick and Teddington, almost totally destroyed by fire in the early hours of Saturday April 26th.
If Kitty Marion was involved in the fire at Croxley Green station is subjective though. |
© Museum of London - Kitty Marion is arrested after heckling Lloyd George at the Royal National Eisteddfod, Wrexham, September 5th, 1912.
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A quote from the autobiography of Kitty Marion we find her justification for her actions – and those of others:
"I was becoming more and more disgusted with the struggle for existence on commercial terms of sex … I gritted my teeth and determined that somehow I would fight this vile, economic and sex domination over women which had no right to be, and which no man or woman worthy of the term should tolerate." |
March 12 - A quantity of half burnt rags found in lavatory in the British Museum.
March 18 - New house at Cheam in Surrey burnt.
March 21 - House of Lady White (widow of Field-Marshal Sir George White, the hero of Ladysmith), situated at Englefield Green, on the Thames, and destroyed by fire; damage £4,000. A golf pavilion at Weston-Super-Mare in Somersetshire was destroyed by fire.
March 23 - Eighteen trunk telephone wires, each 80 yards long, removed near Hull.
March 24 - Attempt to burn down house at Beckenham was discovered in time to prevent total destruction. Greens on the Sandwich golf links damaged.
April 2 - Free Church at Hampstead Garden Suburb set on fire
April 4 - Nearly succeeded in blowing up the railway station at Oxted, in Surry. A empty train near Stockford, in Cheshire, partly wrecked by explosive. Thirteen pictures in the Man Chester Art Gallery smashed with hammers. Suffragettes failed in their efforts to wreck a stationary train at Stockport, and to burn a racecourse grandstand. At Ayr, however, a party of women succeeded in destroying the racecourse grandstand. Unoccupied mansion at Hertfordshire, valued at £2,500, burned down.
April 7 - Abortive attempt was made to burn down the Dundee Tennis Club's pavilion. Flower beds in Armstrong Park, Newcastle, destroyed. Letters and windows were damaged in Glasgow. An elaborate plot to blow up the grandstand at the Crystal Palace, on the day before the association football Cup final, failed. A large unoccupied mansion in Norwich was entirely destroyed by fire.
April 9 - Telegraph wires between Grimsby and Immingham, in Lincolnshire, were cut for a distance of seven miles.
April 10 - Suffragettes set fire to a haystack near Nottingham, and a canister containing live cartridges exploded in a third-class compartment on a passenger train.
April 12 - Nevill Cricket Club's pavilion at Tunbridge Wells was blown up. Council school at Gateshead fired.
April 15 - Bowling green’s at Bella Houseton, in Glasgow, were destroyed. The seaside residence at St. Leonards of Mr. Arthur Du Cros, Unionist member for Hastings was burnt down; damage, £12,000.
April 16 - St. Luke's Church, at Abercain was damaged by fire. Letters and telephone wires damaged.
April I8 - Attempt to burn the offices of the 'Standard' newspaper was frustrated
April 22. — Four pleasure boats at Handsworth, Birmingham, were burnt.
April 24 - An explosion of a tin containing gunpowder wrecked the platform and smashed the windows of the Manchester Free Trade Hall.
April 25 - Slight damage- done by explosion of a bomb in the county hall at Newcastle.
April 26 - Train at Teddington rail way siding set on fire.
April 28 - Perth Cricket Club's pavilion destroyed by fire; damage £1.250.
May 7 - St. Catherine's Church, in the London suburb of New Cross, destroyed by fire damage £20,000. Believed to' have been the work of suffragettes, a champion dog, owned bv Miss Assheton Cross and valued at £2,000, poisoned.
May 8 - Cricket pavilion at Fulham destroyed by fire.
May 13 - Sheds of Nottingham Boat Club were destroyed by fire.
May 10 - Large empty house in Lancashire burned down. Every postal pillar box in Romford and Ilford drenched with acids.
May 11 - Bomb exploded at the University football pavilion at Cambridge. The residence of Mr Henry O'Grady, a former Lord Provost was destroyed by fire; damage, £10,000.
May 14. — Many windows at Norwich, valued at £600, destroyed, several houses at Folkestone destroyed. An historic parish church was also damaged by fire.
March 18 - New house at Cheam in Surrey burnt.
March 21 - House of Lady White (widow of Field-Marshal Sir George White, the hero of Ladysmith), situated at Englefield Green, on the Thames, and destroyed by fire; damage £4,000. A golf pavilion at Weston-Super-Mare in Somersetshire was destroyed by fire.
March 23 - Eighteen trunk telephone wires, each 80 yards long, removed near Hull.
March 24 - Attempt to burn down house at Beckenham was discovered in time to prevent total destruction. Greens on the Sandwich golf links damaged.
April 2 - Free Church at Hampstead Garden Suburb set on fire
April 4 - Nearly succeeded in blowing up the railway station at Oxted, in Surry. A empty train near Stockford, in Cheshire, partly wrecked by explosive. Thirteen pictures in the Man Chester Art Gallery smashed with hammers. Suffragettes failed in their efforts to wreck a stationary train at Stockport, and to burn a racecourse grandstand. At Ayr, however, a party of women succeeded in destroying the racecourse grandstand. Unoccupied mansion at Hertfordshire, valued at £2,500, burned down.
April 7 - Abortive attempt was made to burn down the Dundee Tennis Club's pavilion. Flower beds in Armstrong Park, Newcastle, destroyed. Letters and windows were damaged in Glasgow. An elaborate plot to blow up the grandstand at the Crystal Palace, on the day before the association football Cup final, failed. A large unoccupied mansion in Norwich was entirely destroyed by fire.
April 9 - Telegraph wires between Grimsby and Immingham, in Lincolnshire, were cut for a distance of seven miles.
April 10 - Suffragettes set fire to a haystack near Nottingham, and a canister containing live cartridges exploded in a third-class compartment on a passenger train.
April 12 - Nevill Cricket Club's pavilion at Tunbridge Wells was blown up. Council school at Gateshead fired.
April 15 - Bowling green’s at Bella Houseton, in Glasgow, were destroyed. The seaside residence at St. Leonards of Mr. Arthur Du Cros, Unionist member for Hastings was burnt down; damage, £12,000.
April 16 - St. Luke's Church, at Abercain was damaged by fire. Letters and telephone wires damaged.
April I8 - Attempt to burn the offices of the 'Standard' newspaper was frustrated
April 22. — Four pleasure boats at Handsworth, Birmingham, were burnt.
April 24 - An explosion of a tin containing gunpowder wrecked the platform and smashed the windows of the Manchester Free Trade Hall.
April 25 - Slight damage- done by explosion of a bomb in the county hall at Newcastle.
April 26 - Train at Teddington rail way siding set on fire.
April 28 - Perth Cricket Club's pavilion destroyed by fire; damage £1.250.
May 7 - St. Catherine's Church, in the London suburb of New Cross, destroyed by fire damage £20,000. Believed to' have been the work of suffragettes, a champion dog, owned bv Miss Assheton Cross and valued at £2,000, poisoned.
May 8 - Cricket pavilion at Fulham destroyed by fire.
May 13 - Sheds of Nottingham Boat Club were destroyed by fire.
May 10 - Large empty house in Lancashire burned down. Every postal pillar box in Romford and Ilford drenched with acids.
May 11 - Bomb exploded at the University football pavilion at Cambridge. The residence of Mr Henry O'Grady, a former Lord Provost was destroyed by fire; damage, £10,000.
May 14. — Many windows at Norwich, valued at £600, destroyed, several houses at Folkestone destroyed. An historic parish church was also damaged by fire.
