Edith Bessie New (17 March 1877 – 2 January 1951) was an English suffragette who was one of the first two suffragettes to use vandalism as a tactic. She and Mary Leigh were surprised to find their destruction was celebrated, and they were pulled triumphantly by lines of suffragettes on their release from prison in 1908.
Early life
She was born Edith Bessie New at 24 North Street,
Swindon,
one of five children of Isabella (née Frampton; 1850–1922), a music teacher, and Frederick James New, a railway clerk, who died when Edith was less than a year old when he was hit and killed by a train. By age 14, she was working as a teacher, later moving to
East London in 1901.
Suffrage activism
In the early 1900s, New left her teaching career and began working as an organiser and campaigner for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She travelled around England, speaking to groups about the women's movement. In January 1908, New and Olivia Smith chained themselves to the railings of 10 Downing Street shouting "Votes for Women!", to create a diversion for their fellow suffragettes
Flora Drummond and
Mary Macarthur to sneak in before being arrested.
In June 1908, during a protest, New and another suffragette,
Mary Leigh, broke two windows at 10 Downing Street. They were arrested and sentenced to two months in prison at Holloway.
It was the first time in the suffrage movement that vandalism had taken place. The women were at first concerned that other suffragettes would not approve of their actions, but Emmeline Pankhurst, a leader of the suffrage movement, visited the women in prison and gave them her approval for using vandalism as a tactic for getting their voices heard. Additional acts of vandalism and arson were planned by the women soon after.
During their court sentencing, the women threatened that next time they would use bombs. When they were released from prison in August 1908, a parade was held in their honour by a delegation of suffragettes that included Christabel Pankhurst.
The WSPU presented Edith New with a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' in recognition of her contributions to the suffrage movement. While in prison, she had gone on hunger strike in protest for the woman's right to vote.
In 1909, New was pictured in
Hawick, Scotland addressing crowds outside the Tower Hotel. That year the WSPU and the rival
NWSPU both took shops in Hawick and the police had to intervene when the crowd began to shake the speaker's carriage.
In 1911, New left the WSPU and moved to
Lewisham to resume her teaching career.
Later life and legacy
New retired to the small town of
Polperro in Cornwall
and died in early 1951, aged 73.
In 2011, a street in Swindon was renamed in her honour.
Portrayal in media
In the 2015 film
Suffragette, a character partially based on New is portrayed by English actress Helena Bonham Carter.
