Dora Beedham (née Spong; 3 June 1879 – 1969) was a British nurse from the social activist Spong Family and
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
who joined the
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and ...
(WSPU) in 1908 and was imprisoned and
force-fed
Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose ( nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into t ...
.
Biography
Born as Dora Spong in
Balham
Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as B ...
, London in 1879, she was the fourth daughter of Frances Elizabeth Scott (1843-1929)
and father James Osborne Spong (1839-1925) who ran a labour-saving device engineering company,
Spong & Co,
who made and sold devices which may 'help women move out of the kitchen'
like coffee grinders, corkscrews,
knife cleaners, burglar and fire alarms, animal traps and a meat mincer which had sold 200,000 by 1882. Spong & Co. mincers were used in the largest public and private institutions in the land.
Her mother was a
vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism m ...
- Dora and the other daughters followed suit. In June 1910 Dora Spong began training as a
midwife
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...
, a career she was still following in 1915. She married Ralph John Beedham (1879-1975) on 14 October 1910
with whom she had two children:,
Ruth (born 1914) and David (born 1918.
Ralph was a woodcut engraver for artists (a
formschneider
Woodcut is a relief printing
Relief printing is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix, which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will ...
),
a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
and pacifist, and
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Both vegetarians, they had farmed in
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...
, but later had to give it up, living with the Spong family. They were known to wear loose clothing and sandals.
Imprisonment and protest
Dora Spong's parents supported her activism and that of her sisters. Their mother Frances Spong attended WSPU demonstrations.
Initially working in the poorest areas of London,
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
and
Battersea
Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park.
History
Batter ...
, Spong was a nurse and midwife
and sanitary inspector to slum residents. She was a member of the
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
,
Finsbury
Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London.
The Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn ...
branch.
She joined the
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and ...
, the suffragette activists, in 1908.
![Votes for Women poster, ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Votes_for_Women_poster%2C_ca._1903-1926._%2817311553535%29.jpg)
Spong was involved in WSPU poster protests, where small groups of women carrying and selling ''
Votes for Women
A vote is a formal method of choosing in an election.
Vote(s) or The Vote may also refer to:
Music
*''V.O.T.E.'', an album by Chris Stamey and Yo La Tengo, 2004
*"Vote", a song by the Submarines from ''Declare a New State!'', 2006
Television
* " ...
'' or other publications for handing out could progress through London streets, raising awareness and publicity, with less risk of violent reactions from objectors, compared to mass demonstrations.
A picture in the
Museum of London
The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...
(see above) shows Spong with
Dorothy Hartopp Radcliffe,
Hilda Dallas
Hilda Mary Dallas (1878–1958) was a British artist and a suffragette who designed suffrage posters and cards and took a leadership role for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). A pacifist, she raised funds from a cross-section of so ...
and
Charlotte Marsh
Charlotte Augusta Leopoldine Marsh (3 March 1887 – 21 April 1961), known as Charlie Marsh, was a militant British suffragette.
She was a paid organiser of the Women's Social and Political Union and is one of the first women to be force fed ...
with a placard promoting the "Women's Parliament" in
Caxton Hall on 30 June 1908.
Following that event, the suffragettes tried to march from Caxton Hall to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
into a crowd of around 10,000 who tried to harass them, with only 1,700 police to keep order, Spong was amongst the seventy-five suffragettes were arrested in the ensuing aggression. She was charged for the first time the next day on 1 July 1908
for obstruction and sentenced to a month in
Holloway prison
HM Prison Holloway was a closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, until its closure in 2016.
Hist ...
, where her fellow members of Finsbury ILP wrote to her in support and 'admiration of the courage and determination in submitting to the onus of the prison cell in the women's cause'. Spong became ill and was released early. Another arrest along with a hundred suffragettes marching on the House of Commons on 12 July 1909 has no complete record of her sentence.
And only a month after her marriage, in November 1910, Beedham was arrested at
Black Friday; as with other suffragettes, no charges brought.
In 1911, Beedham (''née'' Spong) was one of the seventeen WSPU members of the forty-two signatories to the petition from Ellen Avery to
Constance Lytton
Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton (12 February 1869 – 2 May 1923), usually known as Constance Lytton, was an influential British suffragette activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform, votes for women, and birth control. Sh ...
's brother
Lord Lytton expressing gratitude for his faith in women's suffrage movement such that "in the years to come the Women of our Race - strong in the Freedom that you have done so much to win - will abundantly justify that faith."
Beedham's name was not found on the
1911 Census nor are her sisters apart from Annie (when many suffragettes refused to be 'counted' without the right to vote).
In 1912, she was charged with breaking windows with a hammer, with Constance Moore who had a poker at
Westbourne Grove
Westbourne Grove is a retail road running across Notting Hill, an area of west London. Its western end is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its eastern end is in the City of Westminster; it runs from Kensington Park Road in th ...
Post Office. Their sentence was two months with
hard labour in
Holloway Prison
HM Prison Holloway was a closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, until its closure in 2016.
Hist ...
.
Dora Beedham was given a
Hunger Strike Medal
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving th ...
For Valou''r'.
From 1920 to 1936 she, her husband and family were living in
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...
in North London, in the latter year moving to
Finchley
Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. Finchley is on high ground, north of Charing Cross.
Nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, Mill Hill and H ...
where they were still living in 1949.
Dora Spong Beedham died in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
in 1969.
Legacy
Beedham's grand-daughter Joanna Wickenden Ibarra wrote about her brother Peter discovering her WSPU certificate signed by
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst ('' née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Impo ...
stating she was 'ever ready to obey the call of duty' and her
Holloway brooch
The Holloway brooch was presented by the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) to women who had been imprisoned at Holloway Prison for militant suffragette activity. It is also referred to as the "Portcullis badge", the "Holloway Prison brooc ...
- a portcullis with a broken chain - which her family knew from childhood 'celebrated victory in the fight for women's suffrage.'
Her great-nephew
Roger Spong
Roger Spong (23 October 1906 – 27 March 1980) was a rugby union international who represented England from 1929 to 1932.
Early life
Roger Spong was born on 23 October 1906 in Barnet into the family that had founded and ran Spong and Co. Sp ...
was an English international rugby player and a director of her father's company (which continued in business until the hardware division was finally taken over by Salters in the 1980s).
Spong Family
![Frances Elizabeth Scott 1902](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Frances_Elizabeth_Scott_1902.jpg)
The Spong Family were a family of political and social activists. The children of Frances Elizabeth Scott and James Osborne Spong were: Minnie Frances Spong (1869–1953); Dora Spong (1879–1969); Annie Eliza Spong (1870-1957); Florence Spong (1873–1944) and Irene Osborn Spong (1882–1960). There were also two brothers: James William Spong (1879-1944),
who succeeded his father in running Spong & Co., and Francis Osborne Spong (1875-1878).
Minnie 'Frances' Spong
The oldest daughter Minnie Spong (1863-19 June 1953), who became a teacher in Africa, wanted to be known as 'Frances' after their carnivore father named his meat mincing gadget 'the Minnie', and she only returned to Britain in 1911.
Annie Spong
![Annie Eliza spong 1880](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Annie_Eliza_spong_1880.jpg)
Annie Eliza Spong (1870-1957) was born in
Streatham
Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
Streatham was in Surrey ...
in London. She was a
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
, embroiderer and portrait artist who painted several
Lord Mayors of London in her career. Active from 1888 when she was a student at the
Herkomer Art School to at least 1910. She was unmarried but lived with a fellow artist Joseph Sydell, whom she met at art college. Annie took up dancing under the direction of
Raymond Duncan, whose sister
Isadora
Isidora or Isadora is a female given name of Greek origin, derived from Ἰσίδωρος, ''Isídōros'' (a compound of Ἶσις, ''Ísis'', and δῶρον, ''dōron'': "gift of he goddessIsis").
The male equivalent is Isidore.
The name surviv ...
was more well known for modern expressive dance. She opened the Spong School in Hampstead in 1919, where Spong Rhythmic Dancing was taught and which in 1920 became known as Natural Movement Dancing.
[Diane Atkinson,]
''Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes''
Bloomsbury Publishing (2018) - Google Books With her sister the singer Irene Spong she performed in the Greek drama ''
Lysistrata
''Lysistrata'' ( or ; Attic Greek: , ''Lysistrátē'', "Army Disbander") is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponne ...
'' at the
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...
.
Irene Spong
Sister Irene Osborn Spong (1882-21 June 1960) was a singer and put on concerts to raise money for the
WSPU
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership an ...
, and gave
elocution classes to suffragette speakers.
[ Annie danced whilst Irene sang, and spoke of the balance achieved from gymnastic dance moves: 'our awkwardness drops away, and we become more evenly balanced in body and mind, and instinctively become more human'. Irene also was imprisoned in Holloway for suffrage activism, and although married to her father's company managing clerk, Norman Parley in 1910, she retained her maiden name for her singing career.]
With Annie, Irene performed in ''Lysistrata
''Lysistrata'' ( or ; Attic Greek: , ''Lysistrátē'', "Army Disbander") is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponne ...
,'' a Greek drama at the Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...
.
Florence Spong
Another sister, Florence (1873-30 March 1944), was a weaver, dressmaker and made lace and wood-carvings. She studied lace-making in Spain and wood-carving under Hubert von Herkomer
Sir Hubert von Herkomer (born as Hubert Herkomer; 26 May 1849 – 31 March 1914) was a Bavarian-born British painter, pioneering film-director, and composer. Though a very successful portrait artist, especially of men, he is mainly remembered fo ...
.[Elizabeth Crawford]
''The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928''
Routledge - Google Books
Florence and her sister Minnie Spong became poultry farmers in Felbridge __NOTOC__
Felbridge is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey with a playing field within its focal area, narrowly in West Sussex. Felbridge village forms a contiguous settlement with East Grinstead and had 829 homes ...
, East Grinstead and advertised in ''Votes for Women'' for female students. With her sister Dora Spong she joined the WSPU in 1908. Florence was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for stone-throwing in June 1909, and went on hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
and was given another two month's sentence on Black Friday in November 1910. Her signature is on the Holloway banner made by WSPU members in prison, now in the Museum of London
The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beedham, Dora
Women's Social and Political Union
1879 births
1969 deaths
Women activists
Independent Labour Party
Hunger Strike Medal recipients
Holloway brooch recipients
English suffragettes