{{Short description|British suffrage activist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Use British English|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Catherine Pine | image = Emmeline Pankhurst with Nurse Pine, c.1913. (22926306562).jpg | alt = | caption = Pine in 1913, nursing Emmeline Pankhurst | birth_name = Catherine Emily Pine | birth_date = {{birth date|1864|5|7|df=y}} | birth_place = Maidstone, Kent, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1941|8|14|1864|5|7|df=y}} | death_place = Finsbury Extra, Rochester, Kent | alma_mater = | other_names = | occupation = Nurse and suffragette | known_for = }}
'''Catherine Emily Pine''' (7 May 1864 – 14 August 1941)<ref name="Doughan 2004">{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-63884|title=Pine, Catherine Emily|last=Doughan|first=David|date=23 September 2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/63884|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref> was active in the women's suffrage movement in Britain. She nursed the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and her son Henry.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vvelDgAAQBAJ&dq=Catherine+Pine+Nurse&pg=PT196|title=Hearts And Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote|last=Robinson|first=Jane|date=2018-01-11|publisher=Random House|isbn=9781473540866|language=en}}</ref> Pine travelled with Pankhurst before returning to Britain permanently in 1924.
==Family and education== Catherine Emily Pine was born in Maidstone on 7 May 1864.<ref name="Doughan 2004" /> Her parents were Robert Pine, a corn merchant, and his wife, Anne Bret. Catherine trained to be a nurse. Pine attended a school for nursing and trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital between 1895 and 1897.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/WpineC.htm|title=Catherine Pine|work=Spartacus Educational|access-date=2018-02-28}}</ref> After qualification she remained at St Bartholomew's until she was promoted to Hospital Sister in 1900.<ref name="Purvis 2003">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HEl-AgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Catherine+Pine%22&pg=PP1|title=Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography|last=Purvis|first=June|date=2003-09-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134341924|language=en}}</ref> She was described by the staff as "‘punctual, very kind and attentive, very patient and even tempered".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Catherine Pine |url=https://map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/items/show/228 |access-date=2024-11-18 |website=Mapping Women's Suffrage}}</ref>
==Career and support for suffragettes== Pine opened a nursing home in 1907 in Pembridge Gardens, Notting Hill, London, working with Nurse Gertrude Townend.<ref name="Doughan 2004" /> Suffragettes who had gone on hunger strike and were forcibly fed in prison were taken there after being released to receive medical care and recuperate.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |date=2016-05-26 |title=Suffrage Stories: The Mystery of Nurse Pine's Medal |url=https://womanandhersphere.com/2016/05/26/suffrage-stories-the-mystery-of-nurse-pines-medal/ |access-date=2018-02-28 |work=Woman and her Sphere}}</ref> Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the imprisoned suffragettes that underwent care at the nursing home and she soon viewed Pine as a friend and a competent nurse. Pine also took care of Pankhurst's son, who was suffering from an inflammation of the bladder,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8m-X9jgCEEC&q=%22Catherine+Pine%22|title=The Aftermath of Suffrage: Women, Gender, and Politics in Britain, 1918-1945|last1=Gottlieb|first1=Julie V.|last2=Toye|first2=Richard| author-link2 = Richard Toye |date=2013-05-28|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781137333001|language=en}}</ref> until he died of poliomyelitis in 1910.<ref name=":0" />
When the 1911 census was enumerated, Pine gave the details of her patients and wrote across her census form: "Above names at request. For the rest No Votes No Information."<ref name=":0" />
==Relationship with the Pankhursts== In 1912 Pine and Townend assisted Christabel Pankhurst in escaping arrest by providing her with a nurse's uniform and access to a friend's house.<ref name="Doughan 2004" />
From 1917 Pine worked in the Pankhurst family home at Tower Cressy, Campden Hill but was not in sympathy with the Montessori teaching methods used by Jenny (Jane) Kenney for the children there.<ref name="Doughan 2004" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Pankhursts|last=Pugh|first=Martin|date=2013|publisher=Allen Lane|isbn=9781448162680|location=London|oclc=615842857}}</ref> Pine accompanied the Pankhursts when they went to Paris in early 1919, while Emmeline worked in France for the suffrage movement.<ref name="Purvis 2003" /> That September, they sailed to the United States and Canada. Often, Emmeline was not at home, so Pine was charged with the duties of taking care of Pankhurst's children.<ref name="Doughan 2004" />
== Later life == Pine returned to England in 1923 and found employment at Cottage Hospital, Herne Bay, Kent.<ref name="Doughan 2004" /> She attended Pankhurst's funeral in July 1928.<ref name="Doughan 2004" />
Pine suffered a stroke and died in 1941.<ref name="Doughan 2004" />
== Suffragette Medal == Pine was awarded a suffragette medal and left it to the History Section of the British College of Nurses,<ref name=":1" /> which was founded in 1926 by Ethel Gordon Fenwick, a former matron of St Bartholomew’s where Pine had trained and worked.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |date=2024-07-25 |title=The mystery of nurse Catherine Pine's suffragette medal—and its solution |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2024.2376857 |journal=Women's History Review |language=en |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1080/09612025.2024.2376857 |issn=0961-2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The medal was likely sold when this organisation folded in 1956 and was later owned by an American collector before being acquired by a researcher.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |date=2024-04-27 |title=Suffrage Stories: The Mystery of Nurse Pine's Medal – Solved |url=https://womanandhersphere.com/2024/04/27/suffrage-stories-the-mystery-of-nurse-pines-medal-solved/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=Woman and her Sphere |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |date=2025-02-23 |title=The mystery of nurse Catherine Pine's suffragette medal—and its solution |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2024.2376857 |journal=Women's History Review |language=en |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=339–345 |doi=10.1080/09612025.2024.2376857 |issn=0961-2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Pine's medal has been put on show for the first time at the Florence Nightingale Museum in London from February to October 2026.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Plimmer |first=Joe |date=2026-03-06 |title=A Rio favela and a suffragette’s medal: photos of the day – Friday |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2026/mar/06/rio-favela-suffragette-medal-photos-of-the-day-friday |access-date=2026-03-09 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Nightingale |first=Florence |date=2026-01-19 |title=Exhibition ‘In Focus: Nurse Catherine Pine’ |url=https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/exhibition-in-focus-nurse-catherine-pine/ |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=Florence Nightingale Museum London |language=en-US}}</ref>
Pine's library and mementos were given to the Museum of London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.city.ac.uk/people/alumni/catherine-pine|title=Catherine Pine|website=City, University of London|language=en|access-date=2019-10-19}}</ref>
==References== <references></references> {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pine, Catherine}} Category:British suffragists Category:1864 births Category:1941 deaths Category:Nurses from London