Suffragettes: Emma Birchell & Agnes Buckton

​Emma Birchell or Buchell was arrested in October 1913.

​Beatrice Sanders, financial secretary of the WSPU, and Harriet Kerr, manager of the WSPU, had been released under the Cat and Mouse Act, in June 1913, and, in accordance with the terms of their release, refrained from any overt WSPU activities.

In October, it was announced that both women were to return to their posts at Lincoln’s Inn House, the WSPU offices.

​In no time, several plain clothes policemen were dispatched to the premises. When the two women left for lunch, the officers informed Beatrice and Harriet, they were under arrest for infringing the conditions of their release. Several women, including Emma, rushed out to rescue Beatrice and Harriet. After a struggle, and an influx of uniformed officers, the two were taken away. Emma, Annie Ford, Alice Virtue and Gwendoline Cook were arrested and charged with assault and obstructing the police. Each was fined 40 shillings or one month in gaol. It is not known which option Emma took.

Agnes Buckton was found guilty of maliciously damaging three windows, at 65-66 Piccadilly the property of De Castro & Sons, valued at four shillings and sixpence during March 1912. Agnes was sentenced to one month in prison with hard labour.

​If the value of the windows is correctly recorded, this is a very harsh sentence for a first offence and reflects a pattern which can be seen in sentencing; increasingly harsher sentences as the authorities tried to stay on top of the suffragette actions.

On the records her year of birth is given as 1868 but no further details have been located.