{{short description|20th-century English suffragette}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Edith New | image = Edith New by Peter McNairn of Hawick who died in 1923.jpg | imagesize = | caption = by Peter Nairn of Hawick | birth_name = Edith Bessie New | birth_date = 17 March 1877<ref name="SwindonAd">{{cite news |url=https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/14353548.plaque-will-mark-ediths-birthplace/ |work=Swindon Advertiser |date=18 March 2016 |title=Plaque will mark Edith's birthplace |author=Amber Hicks}}</ref> | birth_place = Swindon, England<ref name="SwindonAd"/> | death_date = 2 January 1951 (age 73) | death_place = Liskeard, England | known_for = First suffragette vandal}}
'''Edith Bessie New''' (17 March 1877 – 2 January 1951) was an English suffragette who was one of the first two suffragettes to use vandalism as a tactic. She and Mary Leigh were surprised to find their destruction was celebrated, and they were pulled triumphantly by lines of suffragettes on their release from prison in 1908.
==Early life== She was born Edith Bessie New at 24 North Street, Swindon,<ref>{{cite ODNB|first=Frances|last=Bevan|title=New, Edith Bessie|doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.56249}}</ref> one of five children of Isabella (née Frampton; 1850–1922), a music teacher, and Frederick James New, a railway clerk, who died when Edith was less than a year old when he was hit and killed by a train. By age 14, she was working as a teacher, later moving to East London in 1901.<ref name="SH2">{{cite web |url=http://www.swindonheritage.com/?s=edith+new |title=Suffragettes: Edith New |website=Swindon Heritage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125204514/http://www.swindonheritage.com/?s=edith+new |archive-date=2015-11-25 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/4669862.suffragette-jailed-for-votes-battle/ |title=Suffragette jailed for votes battle |last=Bevan |first=Frances |date=2009-10-07 |work=Swindon Advertiser |access-date=2015-06-14 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>
==Suffrage activism== thumb|Edith New and Mary Leigh's carriage being pulled from Holloway to Queen's Hall in 1908 In the early 1900s, New left her teaching career and began working as an organiser and campaigner for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She travelled around England, speaking to groups about the women's movement. In January 1908, New and Olivia Smith chained themselves to the railings of 10 Downing Street shouting "Votes for Women!", to create a diversion for their fellow suffragettes Flora Drummond and Mary Macarthur to sneak in before being arrested.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJqIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP30 |title=Suffragettes: How Britain's Women Fought & Died for the Right to Vote |last=Meeres |first=Frank |date=2013-05-15 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=9781445620572 |pages=30 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> In June 1908, during a protest, New and another suffragette, Mary Leigh, broke two windows at 10 Downing Street. They were arrested and sentenced to two months in prison at Holloway.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.maryneal.org/object/6034/chapter/1003/ |title=Votes for Women: A Timeline |first=Lyn |last=Haill |website=Mary Neal Project |access-date=2019-03-08 }}</ref> thumb|left|Edith New at Hawick addressing crowds in 1909 It was the first time in the suffrage movement that vandalism had taken place. The women were at first concerned that other suffragettes would not approve of their actions, but Emmeline Pankhurst, a leader of the suffrage movement, visited the women in prison and gave them her approval for using vandalism as a tactic for getting their voices heard. Additional acts of vandalism and arson were planned by the women soon after.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=raoHxq0A1iwC&pg=PA12|title=Votes for Women, C.1900–28 |last=Chandler |first=Malcolm |publisher=Heinemann|year=2001|isbn=9780435327316|page=12}}</ref> During their court sentencing, the women threatened that next time they would use bombs.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} When they were released from prison in August 1908, a parade was held in their honour by a delegation of suffragettes that included Christabel Pankhurst.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/1090684/london-news-agency-photos-ltd-mary-leigh-and-edith-new-the-first-suffragette-window-smashers|title=Mary Leigh and Edith New, the first suffragette window smashers|publisher=Museum of London|access-date=2015-06-14|archive-date=19 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150719020107/http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/1090684/london-news-agency-photos-ltd-mary-leigh-and-edith-new-the-first-suffragette-window-smashers|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[File:Theresa Garnett, Nelly Crocker, Gladys Roberts and Edith New.webp|thumb|New with Theresa Garnett, Nelly Crocker and Gladys Roberts in 1909]] The WSPU presented Edith New with a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' in recognition of her contributions to the suffrage movement. While in prison, she had gone on hunger strike in protest for the woman's right to vote.<ref>{{cite web |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |date=2013-05-02 |title=Suffrage Stories: Mrs Alice Singer, Miss Edith New And The Suffragette Doll |url=http://womanandhersphere.com/2013/05/02/suffrage-stories-mrs-alice-singer-miss-edith-new-and-the-suffragette-doll |access-date=2019-03-08 |website=Woman and Her Sphere}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyextra.com/suffragette|title=Where history happened: the fight for women's suffrage|website=History Extra|publisher=BBC|date=2010-06-15|access-date=2019-03-08}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="Biography">{{Cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/people/edith-new-091115|title=Edith New|website=Biography.com|access-date=2019-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529054013/https://www.biography.com/people/edith-new-091115|archive-date=2018-05-29|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1909, New was pictured in Hawick, Scotland addressing crowds outside the Tower Hotel. That year the WSPU and the rival NWSPU both took shops in Hawick and the police had to intervene when the crowd began to shake the speaker's carriage.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.hawick-news.co.uk/news/postcard-reveals-hawick-s-role-in-suffragette-fight-1-176086|title=Postcard reveals Hawick's role in suffragette fight|access-date=2018-05-16|work=Hawick News|date=2009-08-12}}</ref> In 1911, New left the WSPU and moved to Lewisham to resume her teaching career.<ref name="SH">{{cite web|url=http://www.swindonheritage.com/1301edith.html |title=Edith New: Remembering Our Forgotten Heroine|website=Swindon Heritage|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922183432/http://www.swindonheritage.com/1301edith.html|archive-date=2013-09-22|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-03-08}}</ref>
==Later life and legacy== thumb|Blue plaque at 24 North Street, Swindon marking Edith New's birthplace New retired to the small town of Polperro in Cornwall<ref name="SH" /> and died in early 1951, aged 73.<ref name="Biography" />
In 2011, a street in Swindon was renamed in her honour.<ref name="SH" /> A Swindon Heritage blue plaque in North Street, Swindon, was installed on 19 March 2016 marking her birthplace.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/14370933.swindons-first-blue-plaque-unveiled-to-honour-suffragette-edith-new|title=Swindon's first blue plaque unveiled to honour suffragette Edith New|date=19 March 2016|work=Swindon Advertiser|access-date=8 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Edith New: SUFFRAGETTE|url=https://www.swindonheritageblueplaques.com/edith-new.html |access-date=4 March 2022|website=SWINDON HERITAGE BLUE PLAQUES |language=en}}</ref>
==Portrayal in media== In the 2015 film ''Suffragette'', a character partially based on New is portrayed by English actress Helena Bonham Carter.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thedissolve.com/news/5402-teaser-for-suffragette-will-make-you-want-to-riot-|title=Teaser for Suffragette will make you want to riot in streets, hang out with Meryl Streep|date=2015-04-15|website=The Dissolve|first=Kate|last=Erbland|access-date=2019-03-08}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|40em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:New, Edith}} Category:English feminists Category:English suffragists Category:English women's rights activists Category:People from Swindon Category:People from Highworth Category:1877 births Category:1951 deaths Category:English female criminals Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Category:20th-century English criminals Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Hunger Strike Medal recipients Category:English women civil rights activists