{{short description|Scottish suffragette and hunger striker (1886–1980)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Arabella Charlotte Scott | alt = Photograph of Arabella Scott | image = Arabella_Scott.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1886|05|07|df=y}} | birth_place = Dunoon, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|1980|08|27|1886|05|07|df=y}} | death_place = Palmdale, New South Wales, Australia | death_cause = | other_names = | alma_mater = University of Edinburgh | occupation = School teacher | known_for = Suffragette Hunger Strike Medal | political_party = Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Women's Freedom League (WFL), Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage }} '''Arabella Scott''' (7 May 1886 – 27 August 1980) was a Scottish teacher, suffragette hunger striker and women's rights campaigner.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-hgXAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Arabella+Scott%22|title=Martyrs in our midst:Dundee, Perth and the forcible feeding of suffragettes|last=Leneman|first=Leah|publisher=Abertay Historical Society|year=1993|location=University of Stirling Library|pages=21–26|isbn=9780900019296}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/two-million-reasons-why-women-should-always-use-their-vote-1-734145|title=Two million reasons why women should always use their vote|date=14 December 2006|website=Scotsman|access-date=22 February 2018}}</ref> As a member of the Women's Freedom League (WFL) she took a petition to Downing Street in July 1909.<ref name=":1" /> She subsequently adopted more militant tactics with the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).<ref name=":0" /> She was one of a group who attempted arson at Kelso racecourse in May 1913.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Arabella Charlotte Scott |url=https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/exhibitions/women-suffrage/arabella-charlotte-scott.html |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=www.nrscotland.gov.uk}}</ref> She was arrested many times and went on hunger strikes when she was sent to jail.<ref name=":0" /> Whilst in Perth Prison in 1914, she was force-fed for an extraordinarily long time under the supervision of Dr Hugh Ferguson Watson,<ref name=":5" /> the only prison doctor in Scotland prepared to use this method.<ref name=":11" /> She was released under the controversial Cat and Mouse Act.<ref name=":1" /> WSPU activism ceased when the First World War began and Scott became a field nurse, later she married emigrated to Australia.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Leneman |first=Leah |title=The Scottish suffragettes |date=2000 |publisher=NMS Pub |isbn=1-901663-40-X |location=Edinburgh |oclc=46650355}}</ref> She wrote about her experiences in her autobiography ''A Murky Past''.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Scott |first=Arabella Charlotte |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHhgAAAACAAJ |title=My murky past : a suffragette's sacrifice in the struggle for votes for women |date=2018 |publisher=Transpareon Press |others=Frances Wheelhouse, Anne Woodin |isbn=978-0-908021-03-1 |location= |oclc=1204370314}}</ref>
== 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" />
She graduated with an MA from the University of Edinburgh along with her sister Muriel Scott and went on to become a school teacher in Leith, living with Muriel at 88 Marchmont Road in Edinburgh.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928 |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |location=London |pages=620–621}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />
alt=Photo of Muriel sitting and Arabella Scott standing, showing their graduating from University of Edinburgh. Held in Castle House Museum archive, Dunoon.|thumb|Graduation photo of Muriel and Arabella Scott, University of Edinburgh. Held in Castle House Museum archive, Dunoon.
== 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.<ref name=":13" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":12" />
=== Arrests and hunger strike === In July 1909, Arabella and her sister Muriel Scott were both arrested on the charge of obstruction in London after they tried to hand a petition to the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, and were sentenced to serve 21 days at HM Prison Holloway.<ref name=":1" /> thumb|political image of 'Cat and Mouse' Act 1914 Arabella Scott was arrested and released several times over the following years, under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, known by suffragettes as the Cat and Mouse Act. The Act was brought in so that suffragettes could not die in prison due to hunger strikes, instead when they became too weak they were released on licence. They would be re-arrested at a later time to complete their sentences,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2017/10/petrol-scented-spring-ajay-close/|title=Petrol Scented Spring by Ajay Close Review|last=Enstam|first=Gwen|date=2017|website=The Bottle Imp|access-date=22 February 2018}}</ref> if they did not return voluntarily or provide a current address and all Scottish police forces were informed of the need to find and arrest them, as per the case file.<ref name=":8" />
On the 6 April 1913, Scott was arrested for trying to set fire to a racecourse stand at Kelso Racecourse along with Agnes and Elizabeth Thomson, Edith Hudson,<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 February 2003 |title=Scotland's forgotten sisters |language=en |work=The Scotsman |url=https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/scotlands-forgotten-sisters-2463894 |access-date=23 April 2022}}</ref> and Donald McEwan. Following their trial, at Jedburgh Sheriff Court<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=Criminal Case File HH16/44 |url=https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/exhibitions/women-suffrage/hh16-44.html |access-date=2023-10-28 |website=www.nrscotland.gov.uk}}</ref> on 19 May 1913, Arabella Scott, Edith Hudson and Donald McEwan were sentenced to nine months, Elizabeth Thompson, three months, and Agnes was released.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elizabeth Thomson |url=https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/exhibitions/women-suffrage/elizabeth-thomson.html |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=www.nrscotland.gov.uk}}</ref> They were imprisoned at Calton Gaol Edinburgh and the women went on hunger strike.<ref name=":1" /> Scott was released under the Cat and Mouse Act on 24 May but when her licence ran out she failed to return to Calton Gaol,<ref name=":1" /> as reported by the prison governor to the H.M. Prison Commissioners.<ref name=":8" />
Scott was caught on 12 June 1913 at the house of sympathiser Miss de Pass<ref>{{Cite book |last=Godfrey |first=Emelyne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=odSUEAAAQBAJ&dq=arabella+scott+nurse&pg=PT242 |title=Mrs Pankhurst's Bodyguard: On the Trail of 'Kitty' Marshall and the Met Police 'Cats' |date=2023-04-13 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-1-80399-178-8 |language=en}}</ref> and rearrested, when she returned to Calton Gaol she went on hunger strike again. She only served a few days of her sentence, as on 16 June she was assessed as too weak by a medical officer and was released on licence again<ref name=":0" /> but did not return to the jail.<ref name=":1" /> Scott was found in London on the 24 August and returned to Calton Gaol where she went on hunger and thirst strike.<ref name=":1" /> On 28 August the medical officer put her forward for immediate discharge due to her health, however she had to be removed from the jail by force as she did not want to be placed on leave under licence once more.<ref name=":1" /> When she was released she worked as an organiser for the WSPU in the south of England.<ref name=":0" /> The licence expired on 10 September 1913, but Scott was not found until May 1914, again resisting arrest.<ref name=":1" />
Scott continued to work as an organiser for the Women's Social and Political Union in the Brighton branch under the name, 'Catherine Reid'.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Leneman |first=Leah |title=A Guid Cause: the women's suffrage movement in Scotland |publisher=Mercat Press |year=1995 |isbn=1873644485 |edition=2nd |location=Edinburgh |pages=194–208, 269 |language=en}}</ref> Scotland Yard and the Brighton Police both had to help the police that had come from Scotland to arrest Scott and return her to prison there, as she refused to walk and had to be lifted and dragged onto trains.<ref name=":1" />
She started her hunger and thirst strike on 2 May when she was arrested, and by 8 May was ill and allowed to leave the Calton Gaol under licence.<ref name=":1" /> On 17 May Scott departed for London so that she could help the WSPU campaign against the liberal candidate in the Ipswich by-election.<ref name=":1" /> She was due to return to jail on 22 May.<ref name=":0" /> She was found on 19 June during a raid at a suffragette house, where she was rearrested and forced to return to jail, this time in Perth Prison, where she was force-fed.<ref name=":1" />
Scott was given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title=Arabella Scott |url=https://wealothianwomensforum.org.uk/ScottishSuffragists/arabellascott.html |access-date=2023-10-28 |website=wealothianwomensforum.org.uk}}</ref>
== Force-feeding at Perth prison == thumb|Force feeding (suffragettes) Scott was taken to Perth Prison on 20 June and released on 26 July 1914.<ref name=":4" /> Perth Prison was a jail where suffragette prisoners were sent to be force-fed.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Bonn |first=Melanie |date=2021-03-08 |title=Suffragette force-fed at Perth Prison in 1914 - a story for Women's Day |url=https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/heroine-suffragette-movement-force-fed-23630319 |access-date=2023-10-28 |website=Daily Record |language=en}}</ref> She knew this as she had sent a bunch of sweet peas to Ethel Moorhead in March that year, when she had been suffering from this treatment and was eventually being released in health grounds.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethel Moorhead Force feeding and beyond |url=https://ethelmoorhead.org.uk/chapter-5-force-feeding-and-beyond/}}</ref> Despite an appeal to prison authorities by Janie Allan on Scott's own behalf, warning of dangerous protests during a royal visit if Scott was force-fed,<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|last=Diane|first=Atkinson|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=472 –3, 558|oclc=1016848621}}</ref> she suffered force feeding throughout her imprisonment three times a day for a period of five weeks.<ref name=":0" />
She was not allowed visitors or letters during her imprisonment, and her mother was not informed of her whereabouts.<ref name=":1" /> Scott was also denied access to a lawyer or permission to write to the Secretary of State for Scotland, nor given access to a copy of the prison rules. All this was to prevent 'unnecessary excitement' that may have hampered her 'treatment'.<ref name=":5" />
Her autobiography, ''My Murky Past'', was compiled and edited by her niece, Frances Wheelhouse, from taped interviews, and has the details which Scott used to describe a force-feeding tube being driven into her stomach as bits of her broken teeth washed around with blood in her mouth.<ref name=":7" /> When she vomited after it was removed, Watson would shout at her "You did that on purpose". Scott also recalled that one day Watson had said to her, "Look here, it's a pity, why don't you give it all away? The government would send you over to Canada and I would personally conduct you there."<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/what-the-doctor-ordered-suffragettes-ordeal-relived-1-1369385|title=What the doctor ordered .. suffragettes' ordeal relived|date=2 October 2010|work=The Scotsman|access-date=2018-06-19|language=en}}</ref> She replied, "That would be tantamount to saying that all this protest of mine was in vain and wrong and I would be giving in."<ref name=":2" />
Scott was once more released under licence under the Cat and Mouse Act.<ref name=":1" /> Her sister Muriel had manned a stall by the river during Arabella's imprisonment, giving out suffrage materials and alerting people to the suffering her sister was undergoing,<ref name=":9" /> and regularly gathered a crowd of 3,000 people outside the prison to support her protest by singing and shouting to her to encourage her.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leneman|first=Leah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISBN0900019298|title=Martyrs in Our Midst: Dundee, Perth and the Forcible Feeding of Suffragettes|publisher=Abertay Historical Society|year=1993|isbn=978-0-900019-29-6|location=|pages=38|language=en}}</ref> Public buildings and films shows were cancelled, and an extra fifty police sent to the city.<ref name=":9" /> One Sunday, women interrupted the service at St. Ninian's Church saying that whilst they prayed her sister was being tortured.<ref name=":9" /> Upon her release to recover at Charlotte Street, near North Inch, Perth, the ''Dundee Courier'' reported that she was in 'good bodily health' which they reported as an unfortunate outcome from the Suffragettes point of view as an ending to this 'performance'.<ref name=":5" />
Scott was released on 26 June 1914, two days before Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and the First World War began, with the UK joining by declaring war on Germany on 4 August.<ref name=":0" /> The WSPU announced a truce on militant acts, the Secretary of Scotland announced on 10 August the mitigation of all suffragette sentences passed in Scottish courts including Scott's.<ref name=":0" />
== Later life == Arabella Scott went on to serve as a field hospital nurse during the war. She later married <ref name=":9" /> and as Arabella Colville-Reeves, emigrated to Sydney, Australia.<ref name=":6" /> She became a member of the Australian branch of the Suffragette Fellowship<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article256303735 |title=Suffragettes of Yore |newspaper=The Dawn |volume=27 |issue=1 |location=Western Australia |date=29 October 1947 |accessdate=5 October 2024 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref name=":13" /> and was proud of her past, encouraging girls she taught to stand up for their rights.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Luscombe |first=Eileen |title=History and Legacy of the Suffragette Fellowship |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2023 |isbn=9781000987102 |language=en}}</ref>
She died on 27 August 1980.
== Dramatic representation == A fictional account<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Close |first=Ajay |title=A petrol scented spring |publisher=Sandstone Press, Scotland |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-910124-61-1 |location=Scotland |oclc=923203362}}</ref> based on Arabella Scott's ordeal has since been dramatised by Ajay Close. The writer had researched the novel ''A Petrol-scented Spring,''<ref name=":10" /> following her play ''Cat and Mouse'' created during a writer-in-residence in Perth.<ref name=":11" /> The details were based on Watson's reports held in the National Archives of Scotland and from the select transcripts of taped interviews with Arabella Scott, provided by Frances Wheelhouse.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /> The play explores the chemistry and relationship between the suffragette and the doctor who force-fed her.<ref name=":11">{{Cite news |last=The Newsroom |date=4 October 2016 |title=Scotland's suffragette hunger strikes brought to life in play |work=The Scotsman |url=https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/scotlands-suffragette-hunger-strikes-brought-to-life-in-play-1465690 |access-date=28 October 2023}}</ref> alt=Photograph of a square metal grave marker bearing the name 'Arabella Charlotte Colville-Reeves', the dates '7.5.1886 - 27.8.1980' and the epitaph 'In loving memory'.|thumb|Arabella Scott's grave marker
== See also == * Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom * Hunger Strike Medal * Muriel Scott * Frances Gordon * Fanny Parker *Maude Edwards
== References == {{Reflist}} {{Women's suffrage in Scotland}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Arabella}} Category:1886 births Category:1980 deaths Category:Scottish suffragists Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:People from Dunoon Category:Scottish women activists Category:Scottish women's rights activists Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Hunger Strike Medal recipients Category:British women civil rights activists