Arabella Scott

Arabella Scott (7 May 1886 – 27 August 1980) was a Scottish teacher, suffragette hunger striker and women's rights campaigner. As a member of the Women's Freedom League (WFL) she took a petition to Downing Street in July 1909. She subsequently adopted more militant tactics with the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She was one of a group who attempted arson at Kelso racecourse in May 1913. She was arrested many times and went on hunger strikes when she was sent to jail. Whilst in Perth Prison in 1914, she was force-fed for an extraordinarily long time under the supervision of Dr Hugh Ferguson Watson, the only prison doctor in Scotland prepared to use this method. She was released under the controversial Cat and Mouse Act. WSPU activism ceased when the First World War began and Scott became a field nurse, later she married emigrated to Australia. She wrote about her experiences in her autobiography A Murky Past. Early life and education Arabella Charlotte Scott was born on 7 May 1886 in Dunoon, Scotland. Her mother was a teacher and her father served as a captain in the British army for more than 25 years. She graduated with an MA from the University of Edinburgh and went on to become a school teacher in Leith, living with her sister at 88 Marchmont Road in Edinburgh. Scott and her sisters were advocates for women's suffrage and were active speakers in Scotland for the cause, in particular at open air meetings, all over Scotland. Campaigning for women's suffrage Arabella Scott joined the Women's Freedom League during or before 1908. In the summer of that year and in the following year, she and her sister supported Hannah Mitchell's WFL campaigning in East Fife. She joined the group of WFL members taking a petition on women's suffrage to the British Prime Minister in Downing Street in 1909, which was the first time she was arrested. From 1909 to 1912, Scott continued to speak at open-air WFL meetings across Scotland. She then decided that the WFL was not going to achieve universal women's suffrage and joined the more militant Women's Social and Political Union both in Scotland and in the south of England, and was convicted of arson and other charges associated with militant action, and when in prison, Arabella Scott went on hunger strikes, and was awarded the Hunger Strike Medal.