User:Leela0808/sandbox4

Hilda Burkitt
Sources Background
 * https://historywm.com/file/historywm/e07-the-fight-for-the-vote-30607.pdf
 * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/04/hearts-and-minds-jane-robinson-rise-up-women-diane-atkinson-review-womens-suffrage
 * https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/16/pictures-day-16-november-2018/giant-65ft-mosaic-portrait-militant-suffragette-hilda-burkitt/
 * https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2012/dec/06/suffragette-autograph-album-pictures
 * https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-46117128
 * https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-42949175/hilda-burkitt-suffragette-who-spoke-out-against-force-feeding
 * https://www.joybounds.co.uk/hilda-burkitt-force-fed-end/
 * https://birminghamsuffragettes.wordpress.com/tag/hilda-burkitt/
 * https://thepeoplespicture.com/hilda-burkitt/

Career in the Suffragist movement
Director of Publicity for Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) (dates?).

Activism
Repeated presence at demonstrations throughout 1909 including in Hull (9th August), Leeds (10th August) and Birmingham (17th September).

Forced feeding
Letters exchanged in the correspondence section of sucessive issues of the British Medical Journal in 1909 and 1910 debate the condition of several suffragists following hunger strikes and forcible feeding. Dr E.D. Kerry treated Burkett, reporting in late 1909 that she, "...was very weak when she left the prison, having three times attempted the hunger strike. Her temparature was 97.2°, her pulse 52 and her weight 8st 4lb...on movement her heart was markedly irregular. On one occassion after fasting forty-six hours, a pint of food, she believes milk and egg, was poured into the stomach, after which she suffered with acute indigestion.".

His report as to the serious impact on the health of women thus treated was promptly countered in a letter from William Cassells, which reported, "...[Burkitt] was nursed back to strength (her diet then consisting of fish, chicken, beef-tea etc.) with such good effect that she told us before leaving hte prison that she used to amuse herself by walzing around the small ward, which has a polished floor, where she was located alone. She also said she felt fit to tackle ten policemen, but this may possibly have been an exageration.".. Kerry's reply a week later rebutted this, noting again how Burkitt was, In a very weak state of health when she left the prison.