Sarah Barbara Benett (1850 – 8 February 1924) was a suffragette, 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) and Treasurer of the

Women's Freedom League The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigned for women's suffrage and sexual equality. It was an offshoot of the militant suffragettes after the Pankhursts decide to rule without democratic support fro ...

(WFL). She was one of the "Brown Women" who walked from Edinburgh to London in 1912 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 ...

during her imprisonment 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 ...

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 ...

and Holloway brooch.

Early life

Sarah Benett was born in St Pancras in London in 1850, one of nine children born to William Morgan Benett (1813–1891), a solicitor, and Barbara Sarah Waring (1819–1894). Before Sarah Benett became involved in fighting 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 ...

she was active in social reform. She founded a

co-operative society A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratical ...

in the village she grew up in, in the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...

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 ...

. After the death of her mother in 1894 Benett moved to

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. ...

in Staffordshire where she started another co-operative society and a general store in nearby Hanley, which she managed. She campaigned in the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ...

to improve the health and working conditions of workers by trying to ban the use of lead in pottery glaze.

Activism

In 1907 after attending a meeting where the speaker was

Flora Drummond Flora McKinnon Drummond (née Gibson) (born 4 August 1878, Manchester – died 17 January 1949, Carradale), was a British suffragette. Nicknamed 'The General' for her habit of leading Women's Rights marches wearing a military style uniform 'wit ...

Bennet immediately realised that this important cause was where she needed to put her efforts and at the age of 57 joined the

(WSPU) and the newly formed

(WFL).Miss Sarah Benett - Women's Suffrage: History and Citizenship Resources for Schools
/ref> Later that year she was arrested for joining a WSPU deputation 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. T ...

. She refused to pay a 20s fine for which she received 14 days' imprisonment. In July 1907

Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exil ...

stayed with her while campaigning in the Potteries. Bennet was present at the founding of the Women's Tax Resistance League becoming a tax resister herself and in 1908 was a WFL delegate to the Amsterdam conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.Elizabeth Crawford
''The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928''
University College London Press (1999) - Google Books pgs 49-50 Benett joined the New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage (NCSWS) and was Treasurer of the Women's Freedom League from 1909 until her resignation in 1910 from which time she devoted her efforts to the more militant

. She was one of 120 women arrested for demonstrating outside the

on ' Black Friday' in 1910 when many women were seriously assaulted by the police.

Benett took part in the WSPU's window smashing campaigns of 1911 and 1912 and was released early from her three month jail sentence in

in 1912 after going on

, for which action she received the

and Holloway brooch from the WSPU. The application by the elderly Benett (she was 62 in 1912) for skipping ropes and balls for the suffragette prisoners to keep fit in Holloway Prison caused some amusement in the Home Office. A fellow inmate at this time was Kate Williams Evans on whose release Benett wrote a note to her maid Jane which reads: 'Miss Evans will be my guest till she is a little stronger. She has been starving so treat her as an invalid...' Benett's pencilled signature is included in an autograph book collected by Evans in Holloway which also contains the signatures of suffragettes

Emily Davison Emily Wilding Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was an English suffragette who fought for votes for women in Britain in the early twentieth century. A member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a militant figh ...

and Emmeline Pankhurst. Benett became a friend of Emily Davison for whom she arranged to smuggle a watch into

. In 1916 she organised the annual pilgrimage to Davison's grave in the churchyard of St. Mary's church at

Morpeth Morpeth may refer to: *Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia ** Electoral district of Morpeth, a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales * Morpeth, Ontario, Canada * Morpeth, Northumberland, England, UK ** Morpeth (UK ...

The march

When Florence Gertrude de Fonblanque decided to mount a march from Edinburgh to London to draw attention to the women's suffrage cause she initially thought that walking to Edinburgh would be a good idea but it was decided to march from Edinburgh so that the march could end its publicity in London. Only six women including Fonblanque,

Agnes Brown ''Mrs. Brown's Boys'' is a sitcom produced by BBC Scotland in partnership with BocPix and RTÉ, written by and starring Brendan O'Carroll. Originally a radio series starting in 1992, the series became more and more popular, which led to the tel ...

Eleanor Gordon, ‘Brown, Agnes Henderson (1866–1943)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200
accessed 18 November 2017
/ref> and Benett set off on 21 October 1912. As they and Fonblanque traveled from Scotland to London they gathered signatures on a petition and coverage in the newspapers. Fonblanque ensured that they were dressed in brown with rosettes and bright green cockades and they were known as the "Brown Women". They followed the route of the A1 and were joined by dignitaries along the way. On one day near Berwick they walked over 30 miles before the now seven marchers were welcomed by the local Member of Parliament. Their numbers swelled slowly – when they passed through

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

in November there were twelve walkers. Finally they got to London on 16 November 1912 when they went by tube to

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...

where the walkers entered to music. Benett later recalled that she "had walked her shoes off trying to get signatures to petition".

Later years

For her part in the smashing of windows at

Selfridges Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridg ...

in 1913 in protest over the government's withdrawal of the Franchise Bill Benett received a six month prison sentence. Until her death in 1924 she was involved in the Women's Tax Resistance League. In her later years Sarah Benett lived in Finchley in North London. She died in February 1924 having never married. Dr Elizabeth Wilks was an executor to her will. Her biography ''Rebel With a Cause: The Life and Times of Sarah Benett, 1850-1924, Social Reformer and Suffragette'' by Iain Gordon was published in 2018.Iain Gordon, ''Rebel With a Cause: The Life and Times of Sarah Benett, 1850-1924, Social Reformer and Suffragette'', Pen & Sword History (2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benett, Sarah 1850 births 1924 deaths English suffragettes Women's Social and Political Union British feminists British women's rights activists Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Women's Freedom League People from St Pancras, London Hunger Strike Medal recipients Holloway brooch recipients English tax resisters