Many Suffragettes Had Medical Issues and Even Died Because of the Forced Feeding
There were serious consequences for the Suffragettes who went through forced feeding while they were in jail. One woman named Elsie Howey was arrested and went on hunger strikes several times. In a letter to the Suffragette Fellowship, Elsie’s mother wrote that her daughter required four months of medical treatment to recover from force feeding. She wrote, “her beautiful voice was ruined.” In another case, a young woman named Mary Clarke was released from jail after being force-fed during her hunger strike. Three days later, a blood vessel burst in her brain, and she died. Some believe that the violence Mary endured during the forced-feeding was the cause of the burst blood vessel, and she was called “the first woman martyr who has gone to death for this cause.”