{{short description|British suffragette}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Helen MacRae | years_active = 1909–1914 | known_for = Suffragette activism | movement = Women's Social and Political Union | relatives = Sisters: Georgiana (Georgie), Betty | honours = Hunger Strike Medal for Valour }}
'''Helen MacRae''' (fl. 1909–1914) was a British suffragette who won a Hunger Strike Medal from the Women's Social and Political Union, and was one of those who embroidered the ''Suffragette's Handkerchief'' whilst in prison.
== Life == Macrae and her sister Georgiana supported women's suffrage. In 1909, they both adopted a 2-year-old girl from South Wales, Hilda Maud.<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=298, 463–4|oclc=1016848621}}</ref> Their third sister was Betty.<ref name=":0" /> The sisters lived together as adults and opened their home to recovering suffragettes.<ref name=":0" />
== Activism == MacRae was a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) but soon joined the militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU),<ref name=":0" /> and in 1911, she joined with Muriel Sackville (Countess de la War) and her daughter, Marie Corbett and daughters Margery and Cicely, Lilla Durham,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=THE EAST GRINSTEAD SUFFRAGISTS |url=https://www.eastgrinsteadmuseum.org.uk/the-east-grinstead-suffragists/ |access-date=2019-10-27 |website=East Grinstead Museum |language=en-GB}}</ref> and others to establish the East Grinstead Suffrage Society (EGSS).<ref name=":0" /> In an EGSS parade through the town on their way to join the Women's Grand March in London, they were jeered by local people and had rotten tomatoes, eggs and turf thrown at them.<ref name=":1" />
MacRae left NUWSS to join WPSU and got to know Edith Downing and Emily Davison.<ref name=":0" /> Her first four-month prison sentence in 1910, was for breaking windows in Whitehall.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2015-03-21 |title=Suffragette gallantry medal sold |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-31988534 |access-date=2019-10-27 |work=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 1912, MacRae broke the windows of London toyshop, Hamleys in Regent Street, causing damage valued as £200. On 6 March she appeared at Bow Street Court and was bailed by Mrs Cecil Chapman (whose husband was a magistrate at Tower Bridge Court and was sympathetic to the women's cause).<ref name=":0" />thumb|Force feeding used on suffragettes on hunger strikeMacRae was sentenced to two months in Holloway Prison, went on hunger strike and was force-fed.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Godfrey |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SeMSEAAAQBAJ&dq=helen+macrae+suffrage&pg=PT126 |title=Suffragettes of Kent |date=2019-12-19 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1-5267-2352-9 |language=en}}</ref>She was awarded the WSPU Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour.'<ref name=":0" /> An image of her medal is on East Grinstead Museum website.<ref name=":1" />
MacRae's signature was one of those along with 67 others who embroidered their signature in prison on a rough cloth<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.homespunstitchworks.co.uk/2018/02/the-suffragette-embroidery-of-1912.html|title=The Suffragette Embroidery of 1912|last=|first=|date=|website=Homespun Stitchworks|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=27 October 2019}}</ref> known as The Suffragette Handkerchief'.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2019-10-27 |archive-date=2021-05-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513063659/https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf|title=The Suffragette Handkerchief|last=|first=|date=|website=Priest House, West Hoathly|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=27 October 2019}}</ref> The cloth was smuggled out by Mary Ann Hilliard and is now held in the collection at Priest House, West Hoathly.<ref name=":1" />
By 1914, sisters Georgie (Georgiana) and Helen MacRae had a house, called Comforts Cottage in Edenbridge, Kent. in which they allowed fellow suffragettes to recover and recuperate 'to be restored by quiet and country air'.<ref name=":0" /> One of those who benefitted was Gladys Schütze (also known as 'Henrietta Leslie') who had been hurt at Buckingham Palace protest after she was kicked by a police horse.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Schütze [née Raphael; other married name Mendl], (Gladys) Henrietta [pseud. Henrietta Leslie]|date=2004-09-23|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71774|pages=ref:odnb/71774|editor-last=Elizabeth J.|editor-first=Morse|access-date=2023-03-18|place=Oxford|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/71774}}</ref> Leslie/Schütze described MacRae as 'gentle and sweet' and whose interests were "darning, embroidering, cooking, bottling, jam-making' whilst Georgie was more of an outdoorsman and Betty interested in local children and country-dancing.<ref name=":0" />
== Legacy == left|thumb MacRae's WSPU medal, described as 'incredibly rare' was auctioned by Lockdales Auctioneers in 2015,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Suffragette Medal in original personally inscribed case. Named to Helen MacRae, medal (silver hal |url=https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/lockdales/catalogue-id-lo10036/lot-c26cc3a7-21b0-416f-8704-a44a00f2ad50 |access-date=2019-10-27 |website=www.the-saleroom.com |date=21 March 2015 |language=en-gb}}</ref> and was sold to academic collector<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://antique-collecting.co.uk/2015/10/08/suffragette-memorabilia-separating-the-fact-from-the-fiction/|title=Suffragette memorabilia - separating the fact from the fiction|date=2015-10-08|website=Antique Collecting|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-10-27}}</ref> for £12,300.<ref name=":2" /> Auction manager, James Sadler said 'these are among the most historically important items we have ever dealt with.' <ref name=":3" />
A collection of MacRae's postcards including image of suffragettes on horse-drawn carriage outside their Clements Inn HQ, and one of Emily Davison, who died under the King's horse at Epsom,<ref name=":2" /> and another of Godstone sent by Olive Walton,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Godstone view postcard sent to Helen Macrae from Olive Walton, both suffragettes |url=https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/lockdales/catalogue-id-lo10037/lot-60927b69-4fdf-48f3-9410-a44a00f5e536 |access-date=2019-10-27 |website=www.the-saleroom.com |date=21 March 2015 |language=en-gb}}</ref> were also sold.<ref name=":2" />
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== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:MacRae, Helen}} Category:British suffragettes Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:People from East Grinstead Category:Hunger Strike Medal recipients