Bertha Quinn was a British suffragette and socialist, from Leeds, who was arrested five times and once went to prison, becoming one of the first Catholic suffragette prisoners to be force-fed after going on hunger strike.
11 Facts About Bertha Quinn
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Bertha Quinn was awarded the Papal Bene Merenti Medal in 1946.
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Bertha Quinn became a worker in the garment industry and later joined the workers union.
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Bertha Quinn became involved in the Women's Social and Political Union in common with other working women who did not join the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies which was more aligned to the Liberal party and employers.
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Bertha Quinn took part in WSPU protests including chaining herself to the House of Commons railings and was arrested five times, and imprisoned after protesting when Prime Minister Asquith came to Leeds, brutally prevented from entering the venue by police, and resulting in five days in Armley Prison, Leeds in October 1908.
6.
At the planned time of 4pm, when Big Ben chimed, Bertha Quinn blew a whistle, went to the statue of Lord Somers, and attached a banner advertising a WSPU Albert Hall rally, whilst Theresa Garnett, Margery Humes and Sylvia Russell attached themselves to other statues, and another whistled and started a speech in nearby Central Hall.
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Bertha Quinn was among a large proportion of Catholics, in the Tailors and Garment Workers Union.
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In 1917, Bertha Quinn was one of the two delegates sent to the Leeds Convention of the Independent Labour Party and the British Socialist Party, with 1,150 people joining leading politicians of the day including Keir Hardie, Asquith, Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald, Bernard Russell, Ernest Bevin which was controversially inciting action in solidarity with Russian workers and soldiers after the Russian revolution.
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Bertha Quinn died in Leeds, in 1951, and her Requiem Mass at Leeds Cathedral was well attended.
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Bertha Quinn would stand in all weathers outside the cathedral and sell tickets for good causes.
11.
Bertha Quinn's life was an example to the younger generation.