{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[File:Master Thornhill Birmingham 1914.jpg|thumb|right|The damage caused to [[George Romney (painter)|Romney]]'s ''Master Thornhill'' by Bertha Ryland in 1914]] '''Bertha Wilmot Ryland''' (12 October 1882 – April 1977) was a militant [[suffragette]] and member of the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] (WSPU) who after slashing a painting in [[Birmingham Art Gallery]] in 1914 went on [[hunger strike]] in [[HM Prison Birmingham|Winson Green Prison]] in [[Birmingham]]<ref name=Gauld>Nicola Gauld, [https://historywm.com/file/historywm/e07-the-fight-for-the-vote-30607.pdf 'The Fight for the Vote'], Centre for West Midlands History, University of Birmingham, pg 1</ref> for which she was awarded the WSPU's [[Hunger Strike Medal]].<ref name="Crawford">[[Elizabeth Crawford (historian)|Crawford, Elizabeth]] [https://womanandhersphere.com/2013/03/22/suffrage-stories-from-frederick-street-to-winson-green-the-birmingham-womens-suffrage-campaign/ Suffrage Stories: ‘From Frederick Street to Winson Green’: The Birmingham Women’s Suffrage Campaign - Woman and Her Sphere]</ref>
==Early life== Born in [[Edgbaston]] in [[Birmingham]], Bertha Ryland was the youngest of five children of Alice Felicia ''née'' Wilmot (1846–1927) and William Henry Ryland (1844–1925), an architect.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/7572/WARRG11_2953_2957-0584/22233995?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/163060128/person/142122857125/facts/citation/582192642346/edit/record 1881 England Census for William Ryland - Warwickshire, Edgbaston, District 15] - [[Ancestry.com]] {{subscription required}}</ref> Her pedigree as a campaigner for [[women's suffrage]] was long: her mother Mrs Alice Ryland of 19 Hermitage Road in [[Edgbaston]] had been a member of the executive committee of the Birmingham Women's Suffrage Society (BWSS) in the mid-1870s.<ref name=Gauld/> Unhappy with the progress being made by the BWSS, in 1907 Mrs Ryland and Bertha joined the Birmingham branch of the [[Women's Social and Political Union]]<ref>[[Elizabeth Crawford (historian)|Elizabeth Crawford]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=8uoe5GSopaUC&pg=PA115 ''The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey''], Routledge (2006) - p. 115.</ref> where Bertha Ryland worked closely with [[Gladice Keevil]] and [[Evaline Hilda Burkitt|Hilda Burkitt]]. In 1910 Ryland established a new WSPU branch in [[Lichfield]].<ref name=Suffrage>[http://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/2406/miss-bertha-ryland Miss Bertha Ryland - Women's Suffrage: History and Citizenship Resources for Schools]</ref>
==Militancy== [[File:HM Prison Birmingham c1920.jpg|thumb|left|In 1912 Ryland was sentenced to six months in [[HM Prison Birmingham|Winson Green Prison]] - seen here in the 1920s]] In November 1911 Bertha Ryland was sentenced at [[Bow Street Magistrates' Court]]<ref name=Arrest>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61005/45597_625537_0094-00083?pid=988&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc%3Ddjv1973%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue%26indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D61005%26gsfn%3DBertha%26gsln%3DRyland%26gsln_x%3D1%26cp%3D0%26new%3D1%26rank%3D1%26uidh%3Drc8%26redir%3Dfalse%26gss%3Dangs-d%26pcat%3D36%26fh%3D0%26h%3D988%26recoff%3D%26ml_rpos%3D1&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv1973&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true Arrests of Bertha Ryland - England, Suffragettes Arrested, 1906-1914 for Bertha Ryland, HO 45/24665: Suffragettes: Amnesty of August 1914: Index of Women Arrested, 1906-1914] - [[Ancestry.com]] {{subscription required}}</ref> to a week's imprisonment in [[HM Prison Holloway|Holloway Prison]]. After taking part in the window-smashing campaign on [[Bond Street]] in London in March 1912 she was sentenced at the London Sessions to six months’ imprisonment, serving four months in [[HM Prison Birmingham|Winson Green Prison]]<ref name=Arrest/> where she was strip-searched and went on [[hunger strike]] and was [[Force-feeding|force-fed]] 14 times, for which she received the [[Hunger Strike Medal]] from the WSPU.<ref name=Crawford/> Her treatment caused permanent damage to her kidney.<ref name=BBC/> [[File:George Romney - John Bensley Thornhill as a Boy (c.1784-85).jpg|thumb|upright|In 1914 Ryland damaged the painting of John Bensley Thornhill known as 'Master Thornhill' by [[George Romney (painter)|George Romney]] in [[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery|Birmingham Art Gallery]]]] On 8 June 1914 the 31 year-old Ryland slashed the painting of John Bensley Thornhill known as 'Master Thornhill' by [[George Romney (painter)|George Romney]] in [[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery|Birmingham Art Gallery]] three times with a [[Cleaver|meat cleaver]] she had concealed in her jacket causing £50 worth of damage.<ref name=BBC>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-45892002 Blue plaque for Birmingham 'painting attack' suffragette] - [[BBC News]] 16 November 2018</ref> During the attack she had on her a letter containing her name and address which justified her action, stating: 'I attack this work of art deliberately as a protest against the government's criminal injustice in denying women the vote, and also against the government's brutal injustice in imprisonings, forcibly feeding, and drugging suffragist militants, while allowing Ulster militants to go free.' This she left behind after she left the Gallery.<ref name=Mail>[https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/woman-who-attacked-museum-painting-15228367 Woman who attacked museum painting with meat cleaver to be commemorated in Birmingham] - ''[[Birmingham Mail]]'' 4 October 2018</ref> Following the attack the Gallery closed for six weeks and on its reopening security was increased so that it not open after 5 p.m. and was closed all day on Sundays, at the same time enforcing a new rule of 'No [[Muff (handwarmer)|muff]]s, wrist-bags or sticks'. After her arrest Ryland appeared before magistrates on 10 June 1914 for her committal hearing<ref name=Arrest/> during which she refused to take part in the proceedings and shouted 'No surrender!' as she was taken out of court. She again went on hunger strike while held on remand. Accepting bail, Ryland was too ill to stand trial at the July [[Assizes]]<ref name=Arrest/> after a doctor at [[Birmingham Accident Hospital|Queen's Hospital]] in Birmingham stated that her attending the hearing would cause her mental condition to deteriorate and she still had not received a sentence when [[World War I]] broke out.<ref name=Mail/> She suffered permanent kidney damage as a result of her force-feeding in prison.<ref name=Crawford/><ref name=Suffrage/>
The July 1914 edition of ''The Suffragette''<ref>"Miss Berth Ryland's Experiences in Prison: Torturing a Sick Woman" - ''The Suffragette'' 10 July 1914 pg. 219</ref> contained a statement by Ryland about her force-feeding during which she was held down by four prison wardresses and a thick rubber tube forced down her nostril into her throat: <blockquote> "I resisted, and was seized round the waist by wardresses, and once tied around the waist in the operating chair. This mauling of the unprotected kidney together with the retching and choking, strained and twisted the kidney and caused chronic inflammation... the acute agony, the inevitable retching and choking, and the feeling of suffocation, accompanied by the utter helplessness, all combined to make this the most unutterably hideous experience... I lay in bed practically all the time... feeling too ill and exhausted to do anything. In addition to this feeling of exhaustion there came long periods of mental depression... Besides an unaccountable feeling of misery and depression, my memory seemed to be going, and it was a great effort to think clearly or fix my attention on anything... the mental anguish caused by forcible feeding is, of course, quite indescribable."<ref>Nicola Gauld, [https://books.google.com/books?id=deBqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 ''Words and Deeds: Birmingham Suffragists and Suffragettes 1832-1918''], West Midlands History Limited (2018) - Google Books pg. 91</ref> </blockquote>
==Later years== [[File:Bertha Ryland blue plaque.jpg|thumb|[[Blue plaque]] at the [[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery]] commemorating Ryland.]]In 1939 Ryland was living in a guest house in [[Stroud]] in [[Gloucestershire]] where the register described her as "incapacitated through illness."<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61596/tna_r39_5125_5125d_003?pid=31811602&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D61596%26h%3D31811602%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3Ddjv1975%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv1975&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true 1939 England and Wales Register for Bertha Ryland - Gloucestershire, Stroud] - [[Ancestry.com]] {{subscription required}}</ref>
She received a [[Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal|1953 Coronation Medal]]; this with her [[Hunger Strike Medal]] from the WSPU were sold by [[Christie's]] in 1999 for £6,325.<ref>[https://www.christies.com/LotFinder/print_sale.aspx?saleid=9216 Lot 644: Medal Pair to Suffragette Bertha Ryland- Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria Sale] - [[Christie's]] 30 November 1999</ref> Bertha Ryland never married and died in [[Birmingham]] in April 1977.
In November 2018 in commemoration of her attack a century before a [[blue plaque]] was unveiled in her honour by [[Birmingham Civic Society]] in the Round Room at [[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery]].<ref name=BBC/><ref name=Mail/><ref>[https://www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk/a-blue-plaque-to-bertha-ryland/ A Blue Plaque to Bertha Ryland] - [[Birmingham Civic Society]] website</ref> The inscription on the plaque reads: "Bertha Ryland (1882-1977) Edgbaston suffragette. Member of the Women's Social and Political Union who slashed a painting at this museum on 9th June 1914 as part of militant campaigning across Birmingham to secure votes for women".<ref>[http://openplaques.org/plaques/50694 Blue Plaque for Bertha Ryland - Open Plaques website]</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryland, Bertha}} [[Category:1882 births]] [[Category:1977 deaths]] [[Category:People from Edgbaston]] [[Category:Women's Social and Political Union]] [[Category:British feminists]] [[Category:British women's rights activists]] [[Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales]] [[Category:Hunger Strike Medal recipients]]