# Ellen Pitfield

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{{Use British English Oxford spelling|date=June 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}  

'''Ellen Pitfield''' (''c.'' 1857 – August 1912) was a British [midwife](/source/midwife), nurse, [suffragette](/source/suffragette) and member of the [Women's Social and Political Union](/source/Women's_Social_and_Political_Union) (WSPU).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cowman |first=Krista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6cbvP3XF0yMC&dq=ellen+pitfield&pg=PA246 |title=Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organisers of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), 1904-18 |date=2007-07-15 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-7002-0 |pages=139 |language=en}}</ref>  

== Life ==
Pitfield joined the suffragette movement in 1908 and became involved with militant action for women’s enfranchisement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ellen Pitfield |url=https://map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/items/show/229 |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Mapping Women's Suffrage}}</ref> This caused her to get arrested twice throughout that same year. Pitfield went on [hunger strike](/source/hunger_strike) whilst in prison. After being released from prison in 1909, she is reported to have said: "there are only two things that matter to me in the world: principle and liberty. For these I will fight as long as there is life in my veins. I am no longer an individual, I am an instrument."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Meeres |first=Frank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJqIAwAAQBAJ&dq=ellen+pitfield&pg=PA67 |title=Suffragettes: How Britain's Women Fought & Died for the Right to Vote |date=2013-05-15 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-2057-2 |pages=67–68 |language=en}}</ref> Pitfield was awarded a [Hunger Strike Medal](/source/Hunger_Strike_Medal) 'for Valour' by WSPU.{{cn|date=July 2023}} 

On 18 November 1910, Pitfield was present at '[Black Friday'](/source/Black_Friday_(1910)) and sustained injuries, which never fully healed.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Morrell |first=Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0vaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Black+Friday%22+and+violence+against+women+in+the+suffragette+movement |title='Black Friday' and Violence Against Women in the Suffragette Movement |date=1981 |publisher=Women's Research and Resources Centre |isbn=978-0-905969-08-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Heagerty |first=Brooke Victoria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FNlH4E9KB4MC&q=ellen+pitfield |title=Class, Gender, and Professionalization: The Struggle for British Midwifery, 1900-1936 |date=1990 |publisher=Michigan State University. Department of History |pages=59 |language=en}}</ref> In 1911, Pitfield participated in the suffragette [1911 census](/source/1911_United_Kingdom_census) boycott, whilst she was working and residing at the [New Hospital for Women](/source/Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson_and_Obstetric_Hospital) in Euston Road, [London](/source/London).<ref name=":0" /> Around this time, she discovered she had [terminal](/source/Terminal_illness) cancer.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Godfrey |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQ4PEQAAQBAJ&dq=ellen+pitfield&pg=PT17 |title=Secret Missions of the Suffragettes: Glassbreakers and Safe Houses |date=2024-07-04 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-3990-1397-0 |language=en}}</ref> 

In March 1912, Pitfield wrote to WSPU leader [Emmeline Pankhurst](/source/Emmeline_Pankhurst) stating that "I am with you heart and soul in the great demonstration on March the 4th 1912"<ref>{{Cite web |first= |title=A Soldier to the Death |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/suffragettes-on-file/soldier-to-the-death/ |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=The National Archives |language=en-GB}}</ref> and declaring herself "A Soldier to the death".<ref name=":2" /> She travelled into central London on 3rd March, then entered the King Edward Street Post office and set fire to a basket of wood shavings soaked in paraffin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosen |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5XurnRG_BAC&dq=ellen+pitfield&pg=PA158 |title=Rise Up, Women!: The Militant Campaign of the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-1914 |date=2013-01-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-24754-5 |pages=158 |language=en}}</ref> She also threw a brick, wrapped in copies of the ''[Votes For Women](/source/Votes_for_Women_(newspaper))'' newspaper, through a window of the building and immediately gave herself up to a nearby police constable to raise publicity for the cause.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Atkinson |first=Diane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwNbEAAAQBAJ&dq=ellen+pitfield&pg=PA301 |title=Rise Up, Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4088-4405-2 |pages=301 |language=en}}</ref> She was arrested, sentenced to six months of imprisonment and was carried from court to the prison hospital. Despite her illness, Pitfield refused to sign a statement against committing further militant action to secure an early release.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />

== Death ==
According to [Sylvia Pankhurst](/source/Sylvia_Pankhurst), Pitfield was released in May, after the [Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement](/source/Men's_Political_Union_for_Women's_Enfranchisement) started a petition on her behalf.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pankhurst |first=Estelle Sylvia |author-link=Sylvia Pankhurst |url=https://archive.org/details/suffragettemovem0000pank |title=The suffragette movement : an intimate account of persons and ideals |date=1977 |publisher=London : Virago |isbn=978-0-86068-025-3 |orig-date=1934 |via=[Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive)}}</ref> She was cared for at Pembroke Garden nursing home by nurses [Catherine Pine](/source/Catherine_Pine) and [Gertrude Townend](/source/Gertrude_Townend), and died three months later, in August 1912.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jorgensen-Earp |first=Cheryl R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lV2NAAAAMAAJ&q=ellen+pitfield |title=Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes: The Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-1918 |date=1999 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |isbn=978-0-8386-3788-3 |pages=123 |language=en}}</ref> 

''[The British Journal of Nursing](/source/The_British_Journal_of_Nursing)'' reported her imprisonment and later death, calling her "a faithful and devoted servant of suffering humanity".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2-ojAQAAMAAJ&q=ellen+pitfield |title=The British Journal of Nursing with which is Incorporated the Nursing Record |date=1912 |volume=48 |pages=310 |language=en}}</ref> 

==References==
{{reflist}}{{Portal bar|Biography|England|Feminism}}

{{Suffrage|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitfield, Ellen}}
Category:1912 deaths
Category:19th-century English people
Category:20th-century English people
Category:British feminists
Category:British women's rights activists
Category:English women in politics
Category:Feminism and history
Category:Women of the Victorian era
Category:Women's Social and Political Union
Category:British women civil rights activists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ellen Pitfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Pitfield) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Pitfield?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.