Dora Spong and others

Ellen Beaver was arrested on February 14th 1907.

In the newspapers, Ellen is described as a housekeeper, aged thirty five, from Crosland Moor, Huddersfield who was sentenced to a fine or fourteen days imprisonment. This is the same protest that Pattie Barrett and Ann Alice Older participated in; when the women attempted to enter the House of Commons.

Ellen’s correct name is Ellen Beever. She is often stated to be the aunt of Ann Beever, whereas she is, in fact, her great aunt. Born in 1848, the daughter of Samuel and Mary, she grew up in Holmfirth, Yorkshire. Her father was a weaver in the local mill and each of her siblings, as they became old enough, joined him. Ellen became a woollen weaver but by 1891 she has left the mill to work as a domestic. Her younger brother, James, had joined the police force which possibly placed him in a difficult position when Ellen joined the suffragette movement.

The 1901 census records Ellen as the only sibling still living at home, caring for her elderly mother.

Ten years later, her mother has died and Ellen is living alone.

She died in 1913.

Clara Bechstein was arrested on February 19th 1909, one of a group of eight arrested and charged with obstruction for trying to enter the House of Commons. The group included one of the suffrage leaders, Charlotte Despard, and one man. They were attempting to deliver to the Prime Minster a written statement.

At court, the usual options as to sentence were a fine and agreeing to be bound over to keep the peace or imprisonment. Clara elected to be bound over which was, potentially, because she was needed at home.

It seems probable, from research, that Clare Bechstein is actually Helena Clara Kathleen Broadbent, born in 1882. This use of a combination of her own name and her mother’s, is a ruse often used by suffragettes.  Clara's mother, Henriette Clara Katharina Bechstein, was born in Germany. Henriette married Howard Broadbent. The couple settled in Mirfield, Yorkshire.

Clara was the eldest of five children, one of whom died, aged two, in 1888. Her father worked as a bookkeeper, but in 1898 he died leaving her mother to care for her four surviving children, the youngest of whom was four years old.

Only months after Clara's arrest, her mother died and, only two years later, her only sister, Doris, also died. By the time of the 1911 census, Clara is running the family home caring for her two brothers and two lodgers.

Tragedy struck the family again, when her brother Oscar was killed, in 1917, at Flanders. 

Helena died in 1963.

Ethel M Beckett was arrested twice on November 28th 1911 and January 29th 1913.

The first offence was obstruction, following her participation in an attempt to enter the House of Commons by trying to break through the police cordon. Ethel commented in court that hers was a protest against the cowardly behaviour of the Government against defenceless women. She was sentenced to five days in prison.

In January 1913, she was arrested for throwing a spanner twice at the windows of the Post Office in Dover Street, Piccadilly. She gave her address as the Woburn Palace Hotel. She was found guilty of malicious damage and was sentenced to three months imprisonment. The damage was valued at in excess of £5.

An appeal was lodged against the sentence by her barrister George Rivers Blanco White, a supporter of women’s rights, on the grounds that no evidence had been presented at trial to verify the actual value of the damage. The judge dismissed the appeal in a matter of minutes remarking “...the point is an ingenious one, but there was no substance in it.”

Dora Beedham is recorded on the arrest record and as Spong, which was her maiden name.  She was arrested a total of five times.

Born in 1879 to James and Frances, she was their fourth daughter. Her elder sisters were Minnie born in 1869, Annie born in 1871 and Florence born in 1873 who herself was an active suffragette and like Doris was arrested. A fifth daughter, Irene, was born in 1882. Dora also had an elder brother, James, born in 1869 and a younger brother, Francis, born in 1875, who died the year before she was born. Her father founded Spong and Co, a company manufacturing household appliances such as coffee grinders, mincers or corkscrews, which became a household name.

Dora was intent on being a working woman qualifying as a midwife. In 1908, she joined the WSPU and was first arrested, soon after, on July 1st 1908, for her part in an attempt to enter the House of Commons. Dora was sentenced to one month imprisonment but, due to ill health, she was released early.

Dora was arrested for a second time on July 12th 1909, one of over hundred suffragettes principally charged with disorderly conduct or obstruction in connection with a march to the House of Commons. No record of her sentence has been found. Only a few days later, her sister, Florence, was arrested and imprisoned in Holloway for one month. Research suggests that all the sisters supported each other, although none were as active as Dora and Florence. The youngest sister, Irene, for example, advertised in Votes for Women, her availability as a singing teacher.

On October 14th 1910, Dora married Ralph Beedham who had trained as a formschneider, a wood engraver, responsible for carving an artist’s design into a wood block. Weeks later, Dora was arrested for her part Black Friday but as for all the participants the charges were dropped.

While Ralph is recorded on the 1911 census, Dora is not along with all of her sisters apart from Annie.

The final two entries on the Amnesty Record are March 2nd 1912, recorded as Dora Spong, and March 5th recorded as Dora Beedham. These relate to two separate appearances in court for the same charge of smashing windows. Found guilty, she was sentenced to two months imprisonment with hard labour.

Dora and Ralph went on to have two children: Ruth born in 1914 and David born in 1917.

Dora died in 1969.

Dora is the one carrying the Votes for Women newspaper. She was arrested the next day. © Museum of London