{{Short description|British suffragette}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Use British English|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Lillian Forrester | image = Lillian Williamson by Linley Blathwayt.jpg | caption = by Linley Blathwayt | birth_name = Lillian Williamson | birth_date = 1879 | birth_place = | death_date = 1973<ref name="npg">{{cite web |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw222556/Lillian-Forrester-Evelyn-Manesta?LinkID=mp58992&role=sit&rNo=1 |title=Lillian Forrester}}</ref> | death_place = | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = Militant suffragette | height = 5 ft 3.5 inches<ref name ="npg" /> | education = | employer = | occupation = | children = }}

'''Lillian Forrester''' ({{nee}} '''Williamson'''; 1879–1973) was a British suffragette who led an attack on paintings at Manchester Art Gallery.

==Life== She was born Lillian Williamson in 1879, and was the second daughter of Arthur Williamson, a commercial clerk, and Elizabeth Hall. She attended Owen's College, which later became Victoria University of Manchester. She had a degree in history.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Forrester joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and served as secretary of the Manchester branch.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Røstvik |first1=Camilla Mørk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7irXCgAAQBAJ&dq=Lillian+Forrester&pg=PA8 |title=Suffragette Legacy: How does the History of Feminism Inspire Current Thinking in Manchester |last2=Sutherland |first2=Louise |date=2015-10-19 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-8500-3 |pages=8 |language=en}}</ref> In 1911 Forrester was invited to Eagle House near Bath by Linley Blathwayt and Emily Blathwayt.<ref name="bit">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bathintime.co.uk/image/249315/blathwayt-col-linley-suffragette-lillian-williamson-1911|title=Suffragette Lillian Williamson 1911, Blathwayt, Col Linley|website=Bath in Time, Images of Bath online|language=en|access-date=2018-04-30}}</ref> The Blathwayts invited leading suffragettes to visit their house. They created over 40 memorial trees to celebrate these visits in what was known as "Annie's Arbour."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=Cynthia |title=Architects, angels, activists and the city of Bath, 1765-1965 : engaging with women's spatial interventions in buildings and landscape |date=5 July 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1351576123 |pages=chapter 8 |oclc=1003859930}}</ref> Forrester led an attack on the Manchester Art Gallery on 3 April 1913 against the imprisonment and ill treatment of Emmeline Pankhurst. She, Evelyn Manesta and Annie Briggs waited until the gallery was closing and then proceeded to break the glass on many of the most valuable paintings in gallery 5. The three attacked the glass of thirteen paintings including two by John Everett Millais and two by George Frederick Watts. Staff were alerted by the sound of broken glass and the three were apprehended. Four of the paintings had been damaged by the broken glass. They were bailed to appear before magistrates the next day.<ref name="out">{{Cite news |date=2016-03-08 |title=Manchester Art Gallery Outrage |url=http://manchesterartgallery.org/blog/manchester-art-gallery-outrage/ |access-date=2018-04-30 |work=Manchester Art Gallery |language=en-US |archive-date=1 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501093432/http://manchesterartgallery.org/blog/manchester-art-gallery-outrage/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>[[File:Militant Suffragettes as identified by the UK Criminal Record Office.jpg|thumb|left|Militant suffragettes as secretly identified by the Criminal Record Office (See No. 14)]]When on trial, Briggs persuaded the court that she had been present but had not been involved and was acquitted.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wiley |first1=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gRswEAAAQBAJ&dq=Lillian+Forrester&pg=PA1999 |title=Women's Suffrage in Word, Image, Music, Stage and Screen: The Making of a Movement |last2=Rose |first2=Lucy Ella |date=2021-07-13 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-40432-6 |language=en}}</ref> Manesta was given a sentence of a month.<ref name="out" /> Forrester was married by the time of her arrest,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Garrett |first1=Miranda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJwyEAAAQBAJ&dq=Lillian+Forrester&pg=PA185 |title=Suffrage and the Arts: Visual Culture, Politics and Enterprise |last2=Thomas |first2=Zoë |date=2019-01-01 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-01186-1 |pages=185 |language=en}}</ref> and told the jury that her husband approved of what she did.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Atkinson |first=Diane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwNbEAAAQBAJ&dq=Lillian+Forrester&pg=PA390 |title=Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes |date=2019-02-07 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |isbn=978-1-4088-4405-2 |page=390 |language=en}}</ref> As she had a previous conviction,<ref name=":1" /> her sentence was three months in the second division cells at Strangeways Prison for malicious damage.<ref name="out" /><ref name=":1" />

While Forrester was imprisoned she and Manesta were secretly photographed hiding in a van as the women took exercise in the yard and pictures of them were circulated with pictures of other militant suffragettes to police and art gallery staff.<ref name="mugshots">{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/suffragettes-surveillance-unseen-police-mugshots-militant-women/|title=Suffragettes under surveillance: Unseen police mugshots of the militant women who won the vote|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2018-04-30|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mooney |first=Jayne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZ7BDwAAQBAJ&dq=Lillian+Forrester&pg=PT216 |title=The Theoretical Foundations of Criminology: Place, Time and Context |date=2019-12-06 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-75119-2 |language=en}}</ref> Manesta's photograph was modified to hide that she was being held around the neck whilst the photograph was taken.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

After the Manchester branch of the WSPU was disbanded, Forrester joined the United Suffragists.<ref name=":0" />

==Paintings involved in attack== *The Last Watch of Hero and Captive Andromache by Lord Frederic Leighton *The Last of the Garrison by Briton Riviere *Birnam Woods by John Everett Millais *The Prayer and Portrait of The Hon J L Motley by George Frederick Watts *A Flood by John Everett Millais *When Apples were Golden by John Melhuish Strudwick *The Shadow of Death by William Holman Hunt *Astarte Syriaca by Dante Gabriel Rossetti *Sybilla Delphica by Edward Burne-Jones *Paola and Francesca by George Frederick Watts *The Syrinx by Arthur Hacker

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Eagle House}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrester, Lillian}} Category:1879 births Category:Year of death missing Category:British female criminals Category:British women's rights activists Category:Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom Category:British suffragists Category:Eagle House suffragettes Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Category:20th-century British criminals Category:British women civil rights activists