{{short description|British suffragette}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Catherine Corbett | birth_name = Catherine Isobel Ida Vans Agnew | birth_date = 1869 | death_date = {{Death year and age|1950|1869}} | death_place = Surrey, England, UK | organisation = Women's Social and Political Union | known_for = suffragette hunger striker | honours = Hunger Strike Medal for Valour{{cn|date=July 2023}} }} thumb|alt=From her own photo album|Catherine Corbett '''Catherine Isobel Ida Corbett''' ({{née}} '''Vans Agnew'''; 1869–1950) was a British suffragette, one of those imprisoned and awarded the Hunger Strike Medal,{{cn|date=July 2023}} for the cause of the Women's Social and Political Union.
== Life == Catherine Corbett was born '''Catherine Isobel Ida Vans Agnew''' in 1869 to George Vans Agnew from Wigtownshire, Scotland and Rosa Coppard Wilson. She had four brothers and one sister.{{Citation needed|date=October 2019}} In the family, at least, she was always known as Ida.
She married Frank Corbett on 22 October 1895 and was widowed in 1912.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|last=Atkinson|first=Diane|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=144, 177, 532|oclc=1016848621}}</ref>
Corbett was described as "a tall, dark and handsome lady".<ref name=":0" />
== Suffrage activism == thumb|Votes for Women She became active in the WSPU and she was arrested for obstruction and she and Olive Fargus were photographed in the ''Daily Mirror'' with a suffragette deputation on 24 February 1908, and then imprisoned for four weeks. She was also called 'an aristocrat supporter of the suffragette movement' in the ''Los Angeles Herald'' 25 February 1909.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19090225.2.45&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|title=Los Angeles Herald 25 February 1909 — California Digital Newspaper Collection|website=cdnc.ucr.edu|access-date=2019-10-11}}</ref>
Corbett was one of those seen pestering the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith at 10 Downing Street to receive their women's suffrage group to discuss legislation and she then informed the waiting press that the Prime Minister had said 'I think you are very silly".<ref name=":0" />
The Museum of London has a photograph of these women walking along with the Prime Minister in Downing Street.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/217711/london-news-agency-photos-ltd-the-suffragettes-henrietta-helena-olivia-robarts-fargus-and-catherine-corbett-attempting-to-speak-to-the-prime-minister-herbert-asquith-in-downing-stree|title=The Suffragettes Henrietta Helena Olivia Robarts Fargus and Catherine Corbett attempting to speak to the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith in Downing Street, London News Agency Photos Ltd|website=Museum of London Prints|language=en|access-date=2019-10-11|archive-date=11 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191011200033/https://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/217711/london-news-agency-photos-ltd-the-suffragettes-henrietta-helena-olivia-robarts-fargus-and-catherine-corbett-attempting-to-speak-to-the-prime-minister-herbert-asquith-in-downing-stree|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Corbett's involvement is referenced in the updated (2007) fictional ''Suffragette Sally,'' originally published in 1911 but based on real incidents.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fAk8AwAAQBAJ&q=Catherine+Corbett+suffragette|title=Suffragette Sally|last=Colmore|first=Gertrude|date=2007-10-12|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=9781460404171|pages=173|language=en}}</ref>
Later the same year, in Dundee, Corbett was with Adela Pankhurst, Maud Joachim, Helen Archdale and Laura Evans and two Dundee men, Owen Clark and William Carr who supported their cause, to disrupt a meeting of Winston Churchill, MP in the Kinnaird Hall. Corbett and Helen Archdale made an impact by jumping off a tram and gathering local people around to 'rush' the barricades round the building, waving the WSPU colours and shouting 'Votes for Women'. The riot, supported by local Dundonians, lasted for three hours, attracting mounted police and the use of police batons was needed to clear the protestors and lock them in the basement.<ref name=":0" />
Corbett said the protestors were all courageous and 'would not stop until they got the barricades down, they were glorious'.<ref name=":0" /> Churchill was quoted in the ''Dundee Courier'' describing them as 'a band of silly, neurotic, hysterical women'.<ref name=":0" />
Corbett and the other women were arrested, imprisoned and went on hunger strike, but the two men were released without charge.<ref name=":0" />
== Hunger strike but not force-fed == The governor of Dundee Gaol, James Crowe consulted the medical officer Dr. A.W. Stalker and decided not to follow the prison authorities recommendation to force-feed the women prisoners. Official correspondence between them and Edinburgh based Prison Commissioners and the Home Office in London, shows that they assessed the individual women leaders (mental and physical) capability to take this treatment before deciding what to do, and also 'owing to local feeling' thought it unlikely that they would be able to get the services of 'more than one or two nurses' to assist.<ref name=":0" /> Corbett was described as appearing older than her age, and 'with a rapid action of the heart and palpitation on movement.' This treatment by the local prison authorities differed from that in English prisons, and the press and Secretary of State for Scotland got involved in debating this point.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=A guid cause : the women's suffrage movement in Scotland|last=Leneman|first=Leah|date=1991|publisher=Aberdeen University Press|isbn=0080412017|location=[Aberdeen]|pages=87–88|oclc=24510440}}</ref>
When Corbett and the others were released, they were greeted by 'General" Flora Drummond and suffragettes at the prison gate.<ref name=":0" />
Corbett is listed in the Role of Honour of suffragette prisoners in the National Archives.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ee5a777f-1d7c-416b-a249-c7cb64fcc0a8|title=Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905–1914|date=1960|publisher=National Archives|language=en}}</ref>
== Death == Corbett died in Surrey in 1950.<ref name=":0" />
{{Women's suffrage in Scotland}}
== References == <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbett, Catherine}} Category:1869 births Category:1950 deaths Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Scottish suffragettes