Evelyn Manesta (born ) was a British

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 ...

. There are few details about her birth or death but she is known for being identified as dangerous after attacking

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

Life (details known)

Along with Lillian Forrester and Annie Briggs she damaged several paintings in

on 13 April 1913 and was arrested. They broke the glass and four of which were damaged by the broken glass. Forrester, Manesta and Annie Briggs waited until the gallery was closing and then proceeded to break the glass on the most valuable paintings. The three attacked the glass of thirteen paintings including

The Shadow of Death ''The Shadow of Death'' is a religious painting by William Holman Hunt, on which he worked from 1870 to 1873, during his second trip to the Holy Land. It depicts Jesus as a young man prior to his ministry, working as a carpenter. He is shown s ...

, two by

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

and two by

George Frederic Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical work ...

. Staff were alerted by the sound of broken glass and the three were apprehended. Four of the paintings had been damaged by the broken glass. They were bailed to appear before magistrates the next day. During the subsequent court hearing she was described as a governess, aged 25. She was sentenced to one month in prison, while Forrester was sentenced to three months. During her trial Manesta made a speech to the jury in which she discussed the injustice of the law in treating men and women differently, especially with regard to the divorce law; she also stated that she was a political offender. The attack on the paintings was part of a wave of actions by suffragettes that day, in protest after

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 ...

had been sentenced to three years' imprisonment. Elsewhere in Manchester women had poured ink into eleven letterboxes damaging 250 letters. Manesta was photographed while in prison, with a warder's arm around her neck to hold her head upright so that her face could be seen, but that arm was edited out of the image before it was printed for circulation to other art galleries to help them recognise potential troublemakers. The National Portrait Gallery holds three copies of this doctored photograph: included in a collective "Surveillance Photograph of Militant Suffragettes", in a "Criminal Record Office memorandum, Issued 24 April 1914" along with Lillian Forrester, and as a single image.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manesta, Evelyn 1880s births Year of birth uncertain Year of death missing English suffragists English governesses