Not known

25

Single

25 West Park Road, Kew TW9 4DB

WSPU

Evades

Eileen Casey was born in Australia, the daughter of a doctor, and moved to England as a child. All the members of the Casey family became involved in the suffrage movement. Eileen had joined the WSPU by 1911 and on census night only Dr Casey was at home – his wife and daughters evaded. In March 1912 Eileen was imprisoned after taking part in a WSPU-organised window-smashing campaign in Oxford Street. She went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed. She was arrested again on several occasions, charged with setting fire to pillar boxes and imprisoned. After being released under the Cat and Mouse Act in late 1913 she evaded the police for eight months until she was arrested on a charge of possessing explosives in Nottingham in June 1914 at a time when a visit was due to be made to the city by the King and Queen. On 28 July she was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment but was released a few days later under the general amnesty granted to suffragette prisoners on the outbreak of the First World War. Eileen’s mother and sister were also arrested as a result of their suffrage activities, her mother spending some time in prison. Dr Casey fully supported their commitment to the suffrage campaign and in June 1913 allowed the family home to be used by Kitty Marion and Clara Giveen immediately after they had set fire to the stadium at Hurst Park. For more information see the entry for Eileen Casey in Elizabeth Crawford: The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A reference guide,1866-1928 (London: Routledge, 2001).