22 Facts About Flora Drummond

Flora McKinnon Drummond was a British suffragette.

Flora Drummond was an accomplished orator and had a reputation for being able to put down hecklers with ease.

Flora Drummond McKinnon Gibson was born on 4 August 1878 in Manchester to Sarah and Francis Gibson.

Flora Drummond's father was a tailor and whilst Flora was still a small child the family moved to Pirnmill on the Isle of Arran, where her mother had her roots.

Flora Drummond became the main earner when her husband lost his job.

Flora Drummond was a manager at the British Oliver Typewriter Factory.

Shortly afterwards Flora Drummond moved to London and by the end of 1906 had served her first term in Holloway after being arrested inside the House of Commons.

Flora Drummond was known for her daring and headline-grabbing stunts, including in 1906 slipping inside the open door of 10 Downing Street whilst her companion Irene Miller was being arrested for knocking on the door.

That year, Flora Drummond became a paid organiser at the WSPU headquarters and hired a boat so that she could approach the Palace of Westminster from the River Thames to harangue the members of parliament sitting on the riverside terrace.

Flora Drummond welcomed Catherine Corbett and others released from hunger strike at Dundee Gaol after riot at Winston Churchill's meeting in Dundee.

Flora Drummond was a key organiser of the Trafalgar Square rally in October 1908 which led to a three-month term in Holloway along with Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst for "incitement to rush the House of Commons".

Flora Drummond was in the first trimester of pregnancy when she was imprisoned and after fainting and being taken to the hospital wing she was granted early release on the grounds of ill-health.

Flora Drummond had been given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU, after 9 imprisonments and a number of hunger strikes.

In October 1909, Flora Drummond was the organiser of the first militant procession in Edinburgh as a response to a critical comment from the WSPU leadership in their newsletter Votes for Women which said 'Beautiful, haughty, dignified, stern Edinburgh, with your cautious steadfast people, you have not yet woken up to take part in our militant methods.

Flora Drummond was leader of the WSPU Cycling Scouts, setting out to the country from the capital with women's suffrage message.

Flora Drummond supported the government during the war; for example pleading for volunteers in Trafalgar Square in 1915 'We have given up our fight for the vote.

Flora Drummond remained prominent within the movement and in 1928 she was a pall-bearer at the funeral of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Flora Drummond's politics moved away from the labour socialism of her youth, as she travelled around the country persuading workers not to strike, and in 1926 Drummond again led a parade, the Great Prosperity March against the unrest predating the General Strike.

Flora and Joseph Drummond divorced in 1922 and later that year she married a cousin, Alan Simpson.

Five years previously, Flora Drummond had written a series of articles about her life for The Aberdeen People's Journal.

Flora Drummond returned to Arran but was denied permission to build a cottage and so lived in a makeshift corrugated iron roofed shed, until her neighbours took her in when she became ill.

Flora Drummond died in Carradale on 17 January 1949, following a stroke at the age of 70.