Margaret Macfarlane (born 1888) was a Scottish

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 ...

and honorary secretary 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 and ...

in Dundee and East Fife.

Suffragette activity

From at least 1911, Macfarlane, a trained nurse, had started working for the cause of women's suffrage. In 1911, when

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 ...

embarked on a speaking tour of Scotland, Macfarlane helped to co-organise a "crowded" public meeting in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

, which was chaired by the secretary of the St Andrews branch 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 ...

. Her increasingly militant advocacy for women's suffrage led to her arrest in London in November 1911, at the age of 23. She was charged with breaking one of the largest windows in London at the office of the

Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...

Cockspur Street Cockspur Street is a short street in the City of Westminster, London, within which a very short part of Trafalgar Square links Charing Cross to Pall Mall/Pall Mall East at the point where that road changes name, opposite the traffic exit from ...

, valued at £104, and sentenced in March 1912 to four months in

HM Prison Holloway 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 ...

. She was one of 68 women who added their signatures or initials to

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 ...

embroidered by prisoners in Holloway in March 1912, and kept until 1950 by

Mary Ann Hilliard Mary Ann Hilliard (1860–1950) was an Irish nurse and suffragette. She was arrested for breaking windows in March 1912, and while imprisoned contributed to the Suffragette Handkerchief. Biography Mary Ann Hilliard was born in Cork in 1860, ...

, and still available to view at the Priest House West Hoathly. Macfarlane refused to eat in prison and was regularly

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 ...

until her release at the end of June 1912. Her weight, she said, dropped from 7st 5lb on her entry to prison to 6st 6lb on her release. She later described her experience of force feeding: Macfarlane continued her political work on her release, appearing in court again in January 1913 on charges of breaking a window of the Home Office and doing damage worth £2. She was ordered to pay the damage and a fine of 40 shillings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macfarlane, Margaret Scottish suffragists Scottish suffragettes British women's rights activists 1888 births Year of death missing Hunger Strike Medal recipients