Uses of Suffrajitsu and Its Effect on Popular Culture
As the suffragists gained steam throughout the early 1900s, they became increasingly targeted by police. Emmeline Parkhurst and her daughter were both arrested for disturbing the peace along with countless other suffragists. Parkhurst stated in her autobiography that 159 suffragists were imprisoned in 1909, 182 in 1911 and 288 in 1912. In 1913, 183 women were arrested. 1913 also saw the passage of The Cat and Mouse Act, which allowed suffragists who staged hunger strikes to be released until their health improved at which point they could be re-arrested. The suffragists used Jiu-Jitsu in an attempt to prevent this reincarceration.
Garrud used her Baritsu lessons to train a group of 30 suffragists known as “The Bodyguards” whose primary function was to protect hunger-striking suffragists from being re-arrested and reincarcerated. These bodyguards learned weapons training in addition to Jiu-Jitsu. The bodyguards also safeguarded Pankhurst during public appearances and speeches as she was a high-level target for the police.
As awareness of the suffragist movement continued to grow, the public also learned about the martial arts training of some of the suffragists. Garrud herself wrote and published a one-act play titled What Every Woman Ought To Know, or Ju-Jutsu as a Husband-Tamer: A Suffragette Play with a Moral. In the play, a wife uses Jiu-Jitsu to reject the violent advances of her husband repeatedly. While they reconcile in the end, the message of the story is clear: with Jiu-Jitsu women are capable of defending themselves against men.
The trained women began to be referred to as Amazons in the Victorian press, a reference to the mythical women warriors. Public opinion on the women was mixed, especially once the Amazon name began to stick. Garrud fought back against the name and argued that the women were merely defending themselves when needed, not training for sustained violence against police. Pankhurst took a more direct approach in an interview, stating:
“we have not yet made ourselves a match for the police, and we have got to do it. The police know jiu-jitsu. I advise you to learn jiu-jitsu. Women should practice it as well as men. Don’t come to meetings without sticks in future, men and women alike. It is worth while really striking. It is no use pretending. We have got to fight.”
It took a great deal of time, but the women were eventually successful gaining the full right to vote without any property or status restrictions in 1928. As an interesting aside, the Jiu-Jitsu fad of the early 20th century made it all the way to the pages of Sherlock Holmes. In 1903, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle referenced “Baritsu,” most likely a misspelling of Bartitsu, in the short story “The Adventure of the Empty House” published in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. He later used Baritsu to explain how Holmes avoided falling into the Reichenbach Falls when fighting Moriarity in “The Final Problem.” Ironically, Doyle was an anti-suffragist so one can only imagine what his feelings were on the later widespread use of suffrajitsu.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“These Womens Rights Activists Trained as Black Belts to Beat Up Cops” Lassie Smith, Ranker. n.d.
Tanner, Michael. The Suffragette Derby. London: Robson Press, 2013.