None given

29

Single

Lenton Vicarage, 35 Church Street, Nottingham

WSPU

Complies

Helen Kirkpatrick Watts, was the daughter of the vicar of Lenton. She joined the Nottingham branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) after hearing Christabel Pankhurst speak in Nottingham on 9th December 1907. She was arrested at the House of Commons on 24th February 1909 for causing 'wilful obstruction' and when she appeared at Bow Street magistrates court she refused to be bound over to keep the peace and instead went to Holloway Prison for one month. On release she received an enthusiastic reception at Morley's Cafe on Wheeler Gate on 24th March 1909. She was also arrested in July at Nottingham's Albert Hall, but was released without charge. She was again arrested for 'disorderly conduct' in September in Leicester in 1909 at a meeting being addressed by Winston Churchill and in Leicester gaol she went on hunger strike for which she was awarded a medal from the WSPU. On release she gave her first public address on September 17th, again at Morley's Café, speaking of her experiences to great effect. She always wrote home to the Vicarage during this time to keep in touch with her family. Helen wasn't arrested again and may have resigned from the WSPU to join the Women’s Freedom League, because she did not agree with the WSPU’s later arson campaign. In March 1911 Helen stayed at Eagle House Batheaston, the home of the Blathwayts which they opened to those suffragettes recovering from imprisonment. She planted a juniper tree in the Suffragette orchard there and was photographed on 17th March 1911. This clearly meant a lot to her as she revealed in an interview in 1962 that she had carried a sprig of that tree in her purse. A couple of weeks later in April Helen went to stay at her brother's house in Somerset where she was recorded complying with the 1911 census. By 1912 she was training at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath and she nursed Belgian refugees there during WW1. She wrote a novel about this time ‘The Nevilles: a story for Girls’. After the war, Helen worked as a Civil Servant at the Ministry of Pensions though it may have been the War Office or the Ministry of Labour. She visited Canada perhaps to see her sister Ethel, but she returned to live in Somerset where she died aged 91 and is buried in St Vigor's churchyard at Stratton-on-the-Fosse. In the 1970s, a trunk containing various documents was found and the letters and speeches etc are in the Nottingham archives. The Nottingham Women’s History Group planted a tree and installed a commemorative plaque to Helen in the Arboretum in 2017. Researched and contributed by Nottingham Women's History group www.nottinghamwomenshistory.org.uk. Sources: Rowena Edlin-White 'Helen Kirkpatrick Watts: Suffragette' by Piecemeal Pamphlets: No Surrender Nottingham Women's History Group Nottingham Archives; www.bathintime.co.uk.