{{Short description|English militant suffragette (1879–1963)}} {{Use British English|date=November 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person | image = Edith Doreen Allen suffragette.jpg | caption = Allen in 1905 | birth_date = 1879 | birth_place = Dartford, Kent, England | death_date = 18 June 1963 | organization = Women's Social and Political Union }}

'''Doreen Allen''' ({{Nee|<b>Allchin</b>}}, 1879 &ndash; 18 June 1963) was an English suffragette and member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), who on being imprisoned was force-fed, for which she received the WSPU's Hunger Strike Medal ''<nowiki/>'For Valour''<nowiki/>'.

== Life == Allen was born in Dartford, Kent, England<ref>{{cite web |title=Women's suffrage - History and citizen's resources for schools |url=https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/1516/mrs-edith-doreen-allen |website=Woman's suffrage |accessdate=31 January 2020}}</ref> as Edith Doreen Allchin, one of ten children of Mary Ann ''née'' Amos (1838–1924) and John James Allchin (1836–1903), a builder. In 1905 she married Melville Hodsoll Allen (1879–1932) who worked at the Stock Exchange in London<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/2352/rg14_02317_0361_03/545275 1911 England Census for Edith Doreen Allen: London, Wandsworth, Streatham - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}]</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Godfrey |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQ4PEQAAQBAJ&dq=doreen+allen&pg=PT131 |title=Secret Missions of the Suffragettes: Glassbreakers and Safe Houses |date=2025-11-04 |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=978-1-3990-1397-0 |language=en}}</ref> and who served in World War I as a captain in the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment.<ref name=Allen>[https://www.theauxiliaries.com/men-alphabetical/men-a/allen-mh/allen.html Capt. Melville Hodsoll Allen, Royal West Kents - The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary]</ref> thumb|Cartoon of a woman in suffragette colours smashing windows.|230x230px left|thumb|219x219px|Force feeding suffragettes on hunger strike Following Allen's arrest in March 1912 for taking part in a window smashing campaign she appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 12 March 1912, before being sent for trial at the London Sessions on 19 March 1912. She was sentenced to four months imprisonment in Holloway Prison for "causing willful damage."<ref name=":1" /><ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61005/45597_625537_0094-00003?pid=17&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc%3Ddjv2639%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue%26indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D61005%26gsfn%3Ddoreen%26gsln%3Dallen%26cp%3D0%26new%3D1%26rank%3D1%26uidh%3Drc8%26redir%3Dfalse%26msT%3D1%26gss%3Dangs-d%26pcat%3D36%26fh%3D0%26h%3D17%26recoff%3D%26ml_rpos%3D1%26queryId%3D076e0e8fd2ebb1fce51c810f65bcdb56&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv2639&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true England, Suffragettes Arrested, 1906-1914 for Doreen Allan: HO 45/24665: Suffragettes: Amnesty of August 1914: Index of Women Arrested, 1906-1914 - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}]</ref> She went on hunger strike in prsion and was force-fed.{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}} left|thumb|156x156px|The Suffragette Handerkerchief A fellow-prisoner in Holloway was Mary Ann Aldham and the signatures of the two appear on ''The Suffragette Handkerchief'' embroidered by Janie Terrero.<ref name=":0" /> To keep up morale in prison, the women were forced to make their own entertainment. Some such as Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence told stories while Doreen Allen sat at her feet with an arm on her knee; later Emmeline Pankhurst reminisced about the early days of the WSPU. On 10 June 1912 the three imprisoned grandmothers - Gertrude Wilkinson (aka Jessie Howard), Janet Boyd and Mary Ann Aldham sang together.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Norquay |first=Glenda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v4m-aqVKOqoC&pg=PA184 |title=Voices and Votes: A Literary Anthology of the Women's Suffrage Campaign |date=1995 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-3976-8 |language=en}}</ref> On another occasion some of the women performed a scene from ''The Merchant of Venice'' with Evaline Hilda Burkitt as Shylock and the role of Narissa played by Allen.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Purvis, June. (1995) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09612029500200073 'The prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain'], ''Women's History Review'', 4 ('''1'''), p. 112.</ref> On her release Allen resumed her political activities on behalf of women's suffrage.<ref name="Allen" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Suffragette Handkerchief at the Priest House, West Hoathly |url=https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513063659/https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf |archive-date=13 May 2021 |access-date=31 January 2020 |website=Sussex Past}}</ref>

When WSPU leader Emmeline Pankhurst returned to Great Britain from America in late 1913, she was met at Plymouth by a group suffragettes which included Allen. As Pankhurst disembarked from the ''Majestic'' she was arrested under the Cat and Mouse Act and taken to Exeter Prison.<ref name="Allen" /> in her later years Doreen Allen lived in Brighton in Sussex. She died in June 1963.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/1904/32858_611411_1966-00058/18513036?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/154173400/person/362064524311/facts England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Edith Doreen Allen 1963 - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}]</ref> thumb|150x150px|Example of WSPU Hunger Strike medal Allen's nephew was Sir Geoffrey Cuthbert Allchin KCBE, CMG, MC (1895–1968), British Ambassador in Morocco.{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}

== See also ==

* Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom * Hunger Strike Medal * The Suffragette Handkerchief

==References== {{reflist|2}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Doreen}} Category:1879 births Category:1963 deaths Category:People from Dartford Category:English suffragettes Category:English feminists Category:English women's rights activists Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Category:Force-feeding victims