Janie Terrero (14 April 1858 – 22 June 1944) was a militant suffragette who, as a member of 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 an ...

(WSPU), 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 ...

for which she received the WSPU's

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 t ...

.Mrs Janie Terrero - Women's Suffrage: History and Citizenship resources for schools
/ref>

Early life

Born as Jane Beddall in

Finchingfield Finchingfield is a village in the Braintree district in north-west Essex, England, a primarily rural area. It is approximately from Thaxted, farther from the larger towns of Saffron Walden and Braintree. Nearby villages include Great Bardfield ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

in 1858, she was the youngest daughter of Eliza, née Fitch, (1815-) and Thomas Beddall (1795–1865), a gentleman farmer. Hers was a comfortable middle-class upbringing with two servants. She married Máximo Manuel Juan Nepomuceno Terrero y Ortiz de Rosas (1856–1926), known as Manuel Terrero, the son of Manuela Rosas and the grandson of General Juan Manuel de Rosas, in December 1885.Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin (eds
''Women and Things, 1750-1950: Gendered Material Strategies''
Routledge (2016) - Google Books pg. 20 The couple lived at Fir Tree Lodge on Bannister Road in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

from 1898 to 1910 when they moved to 'Rockstone House' in

Pinner Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011. Originally a med ...

, Middlesex, which was built for them.

Activism

A Suffragist since the age of 18, she joined the

(WSPU) in 1908. She was also a member of the

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was ren ...

(NUWSS). She formed a local branch of the

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

in 1910, becoming its Honorary Secretary. At her home 'Rockstone House' she and her husband gave drawing-room parties in support of the WSPU in 1905 and 1907. In 1911

Lady Constance Bulwer-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. S ...

was the guest speaker at a garden party given by the Terreros in support of the WSPU at their home. Like many other suffragettes, Janie Terrero avoided the 1911 Census, which only lists her husband at their home address. By 1912 the Terreros were living in Harrow.Janie Terrero: Headstone Manor, Harrow - Digital Drama website
/ref> She was among 200 women arrested in March 1912 who had taken part in a window-smashing campaign in London to coincide with the reading of the Conciliation Bill in Parliament. Terrero had the support of her husband Manuel Terrero, who was a member of the

Men's League for Women's Suffrage The Men's League for Women's Suffrage may refer to: *The Men's League, United States women's suffrage group, also known as the Men's Equal Suffrage League and the Men's League for Women's Suffrage *The Men's League for Women's Suffrage (United King ...

. She had not wanted him to know of her involvement in the campaign beforehand “as I know with your usual kindness and consideration for me you would want to come too, this I could not allow” .... “I feel my honour as a woman at stake and I must take up my stand with the rest. If I should get into prison don't pay my fine but let me go through it properly ...”Women’s Suffrage in Southampton - Bevois Mount History website
/ref> On 2 March 1912 she appeared at

Bow Street Magistrates' Court Bow Street Magistrates' Court became one of the most famous magistrates' court in England. Over its 266-year existence it occupied various buildings on Bow Street in Central London, immediately north-east of Covent Garden. It closed in 2006 a ...

to answer charges of wilful damage after smashing windows. On being convicted at the London Sessions on 19 March 1912 she received a sentence of four months 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. Histor ...

where she 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 twice

. A prison doctor ended her force-feeding, presumably because of the effect it was having on her health, and she was released a few days before the end of her sentence. Her signature is among those embroidered on

The Suffragette Handkerchief The Suffragette Handkerchief is a handkerchief displayed at The Priest House, West Hoathly in West Sussex, England. It has sixty-six embroidered signatures and two sets of initials, mostly of women imprisoned in HMP Holloway for their part in the ...

in Holloway in March 1912. She later wrote an account of her experiences in Holloway:

“I was in close confinement for twelve days, was in two hunger strikes & was forcibly fed in April & again in June. To those who intend to be actively militant, I want to say this; you cannot imagine how strong you feel in prison. The Government may take your liberty from you & lock you up, but they cannot imprison your spirit. The only one thing the Government really fears is the hunger strike. They fear it not because of our pain & suffering, but because it damages their majorities. How strong that weapon made us feel. If they had only dared, they would have put us in a lethal chamber. Some people wonder at the courage of our women, but I believe physical courage is a common human attribute, & I do not see why women should possess it in a lesser degree than men... I should like to make it quite clear that the forcible-feeding was not carried out with any idea of saving life but as a deliberate act of brutality to terrorise and torture.”

Terrero refused to sign a petition calling for the 'ousting' of

Emmeline ''Emmeline, The Orphan of the Castle'' is the first novel written by English writer Charlotte Smith; it was published in 1788. A Cinderella story in which the heroine stands outside the traditional economic structures of English society and ...

and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence from the WSPU in 1912, and appears to have taken little part in the campaign for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

thereafter.

Legacy

In 1939 the widowed Terrero was living at 62 Hillfield Court in

Belsize Park Belsize Park is an affluent residential area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden (the inner north-west of London), England. The residential streets are lined with mews houses and Georgian and Victorian villas. Some nearby localities ar ...

in Hampstead; Jane Beddall Terrero de Rosas died in her home in 1944 aged 86. She and her husband Manuel are buried in the Anglican section of

Southampton Old Cemetery The cemetery has had various titles including The Cemetery by the Common, Hill Lane Cemetery and is currently known as Southampton Old Cemetery. An Act of Parliament was required in 1843 to acquire the land from Southampton Common. It covers an ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

.Janie Terrero - The Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery
/ref> She left extensive notes detailing her treatment in Holloway and these are held in the Suffragette Fellowship Collection 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 Museum (fou ...

. Under the terms of her husband's will she bequeathed 2,000 books to the library of the Working Men's College. These were dispersed when the library was disbanded in the 1990s.Elizabeth Crawford
''The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928''
Routledge (2002) - Google Books pg. 684 The

holds a tapestry in its collection decorated in the suffragette colours of purple, white and green which was embroidered in Holloway Prison by Janie Terrero. It is embroidered with the names of her fellow

rs who were imprisoned with her at

for their involvement in smashing windows as part of a suffragette campaign in March 1912.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terrero, Janie 1858 births 1944 deaths People from Finchingfield People from Pinner People from Southampton English suffragettes English feminists British women's rights activists Women's Social and Political Union Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Hunger Strike Medal recipients Holloway brooch recipients