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Louie Cullen ( – 24 July 1960) was a British suffragette and hunger striker who emigrated to Australia to continue her feminist activism. She was imprisoned for her activist work, and was awarded a Holloway brooch.
Cullen was jailed in Holloway prison and went on a hunger strike for the cause of women's suffrage. Cullen was awarded a Holloway brooch by the WSPU and also spoke on a main platform No. 3 at the Women's Sunday march in Hyde Park on 21 June 1908. Cullen was encouraged to go for a few days to 'rouse' people to have a crowd ready to greet Winston Churchill, on his speech-giving in Norwich, in a 17 July 1909 letter from Christabel Pankhurst.
Cullen's health suffered from her imprisonment, and she and her husband moved in December 1911, initially for a two-year period, to Melbourne, Australia. They ended staying for the rest of their lives in Australia.
In 1914, Cullen was undertaking speaking engagements on women's rights at the Women's Political Association, Melbourne, convened by Vida Goldstein, saying "women do the scullery work of the world, unorganised and unpaid". Cullen also gave practical assistance to young women alone in the city, setting up the Wayfarers social club to create a welcoming community. Her support for the causes promoted by the Pankhursts continued in her participating in a march and handing Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes a petition with over 5,000 signatures for the release of Adela Pankhurst Walsh, imprisoned for protesting the price of food.
In the 1930s, the Cullens moved to Sydney and she joined the Suffragette Fellowship, and described as an 'original suffragette' in the Sydney Morning Herald. Cullen supported more women becoming engaged in politics, writing in 1947 to congratulate a Mrs N. A. Parker on her election as the first alderwoman to Molong council. Cullen was widely reported for publicly objecting to the use of 'obey' in the marriage ceremony of the then Princess Elizabeth (now Elizabeth II) to Prince Philip, as 'positively antediluvian'.
In 1953, Cullen donated items to the national collection, to commemorate 50 years of women's right to vote in Australia, including the Holloway brooch with the WPSU ribbon colours of green, white and purple, designed and presented to her by Christabel Pankhurst.
By 1958, Cullen was in a nursing home in Hammondville. She died on 24 July 1960 in Sydney. Her death was reported internationally, including in the Singapore Free Press and the London Daily Telegraph. Cullen had said she would "like the newspapers to know, in the hope that coming young folk will remember how some freedoms are bought."
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