{{Short description|British Australian suffragette}} {{distinguish | text = Louis Cullen, the Irish diplomat and academic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Louie Cullen | image = Louie Cullen Holloway (cropped).jpg | caption = Cullen in Holloway in 1908 | birth_name = Louisa Clarissa Mays | birth_date = {{circa|1876}} | birth_place = England | death_date = 24 July {{death year and age|1960|1876}} | death_place = Sydney, Australia | known_for = Suffragette and feminist | movement = {{Nowrap|Women's Social and Political Union}} | awards = Holloway brooch }}
'''Louie Cullen''' ({{circa|1876}} – 24 July 1960) was a British suffragette and hunger striker who emigrated to Australia to continue her feminist activism. She was imprisoned for her activist work, and was awarded a Holloway brooch.
== Life == Born Louisa Clarissa Mays<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.myheritage.com/names/joshua_cullen |title=Joshua Cullen - Historical records and family trees - MyHeritage |publisher=MyHeritage |accessdate=12 November 2019 |quote=Joshua married Louisa Clarissa CULLEN (born MAYS). Louisa was born circa 1877, in Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk, UK.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ukcensusonline.com/search/?type=person&source=&search_type=person&master_event=&person_event=&fn=Louise+Clarissa&sn=Mays&kw=&yr=1877&range=10&search=Search|title=Free Search {{!}} UK Census Online|last=Mays|first=Louise Clarissa|date=1877|website=ukcensusonline.com|access-date=20 November 2019}}</ref> in about 1876,<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/1757/mrs-louisa-clarissa-cullen |title=Mrs Louisa Clarissa Cullen |accessdate=4 November 2019 |publisher=Women's Suffrage: History and citizenship resources for schools}}</ref> she preferred to be called Louie<ref name=":0" /> but is sometimes referred to as Louise. She left school at 14 and worked for some time<ref name=":1" /> before and, in 1900, she married a working-class man, Joshua William Cullen, who was sympathetic to the call for women to have the right to vote.<ref name=":0" />
=== Suffrage, imprisonment and recognition === thumb|upright=1.2|Women's March to Hyde Park, 1908|alt= Cullen became a radical suffragette who joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) near its start when there were no formal branches. By 1906, she was the organiser of the Kensal branch in London.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866-1928|last=Crawford, Elizabeth.|date=1999|publisher=UCL Press|isbn=0203031091|location=London|oclc=53836882}}</ref> In that year, Cullen and Hannah Mitchell had smuggled a 'Votes for Women' banner into the House of Commons whilst there with nineteen others and Emmeline Pankhurst and left during the scene caused when they opened up their banners there.<ref name=":2">{{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=51, 533|oclc=1016848621}}</ref> Cullen was arrested following the 1908 attempt by suffragettes to rush into the House of Commons hidden in a pantechnicon<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/181437838|title=Suffragettes' Raid|date=21 February 1908|work=The Week|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref> to get their voices heard on women's suffrage.<ref name=":0" />
Cullen was jailed<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ee5a777f-1d7c-416b-a249-c7cb64fcc0a8|title=Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914|date=1960|language=en}}</ref> in Holloway prison and went on a hunger strike for the cause of women's suffrage.<ref name=":0" /> Cullen was awarded a Holloway brooch by the WSPU and also spoke on a main platform No. 3 at the Women's Sunday march in Hyde Park on 21 June 1908.<ref name=":0" /> Cullen was encouraged to go for a few days to 'rouse' people to have a crowd ready to greet Winston Churchill, on his speech-giving in Norwich, in a 17 July 1909 letter from Christabel Pankhurst.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/755051.html|title=Letter from Christabel Pankhurst to Louie Cullen|website=Museum of London|language=en|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref>
Cullen's health suffered from her imprisonment, and she and her husband moved in December 1911, initially for a two-year period,<ref name=":2" /> to Melbourne, Australia.<ref name=":0" /> They ended staying for the rest of their lives in Australia.
=== Activism in Australia === The Cullens adopted a child who died soon after their arrival in Australia.<ref name=":4" />
In 1914, Cullen was undertaking speaking engagements on women's rights at the ''Women's Political Association'', Melbourne, convened by Vida Goldstein, saying "women do the scullery work of the world, unorganised and unpaid".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/blog/behind-the-scenes/2016/06/24/louie-cullen-part-two|title=Louie Cullen—part two|website=www.nla.gov.au|language=en|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref> Cullen also gave practical assistance to young women alone in the city, setting up the ''Wayfarers'' social club to create a welcoming community.<ref name=":3" /> Her support for the causes promoted by the Pankhursts continued in her participating in a march and handing Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes a petition with over 5,000 signatures<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152278283|title=Mrs. Adela Walsh|date=17 January 1918|work=Labor Call (Melbourne, Vic. : 1906 - 1953)|access-date=3 November 2019|pages=5}}</ref> for the release of Adela Pankhurst Walsh, imprisoned for protesting the price of food.<ref name=":3" />
In the 1930s, the Cullens moved to Sydney and she joined the Suffragette Fellowship, and described as an 'original suffragette' in the ''Sydney Morning Herald''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17260233|title=WOMEN'S RIGHTS.|date=13 August 1936|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=3 November 2019|pages=18}}</ref> Cullen supported more women becoming engaged in politics, writing in 1947 to congratulate a Mrs N. A. Parker on her election as the first alderwoman to Molong council.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139582893|title=Congratulations To Mrs. Parker From Sydney|date=5 September 1947|work=Molong Express and Western District Advertiser (NSW : 1887 - 1954)|access-date=3 November 2019|pages=2}}</ref> Cullen was widely reported for publicly objecting to the use of 'obey' in the marriage ceremony of the then Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) to Prince Philip, as 'positively antediluvian'.<ref name=":3" />
In 1953, Cullen donated items to the national collection, to commemorate 50 years of women's right to vote in Australia,<ref name=":3" /> including the Holloway Medal, a portcullis brooch with the WPSU ribbon colours of green, white and purple, designed and presented to her by Christabel Pankhurst.
=== Later life and legacy === Cullen's husband Joshua, who supported her feminism, died in 1956 at the age of 88.<ref name=":3" /> Cullen became known as "the last of the suffragettes".<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/behind-the-scenes/2016/07/01/louie-cullen-part-three|title=Louie Cullen—part three|website=www.nla.gov.au|language=en|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref> She was interviewed for the People<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/256939|title=People|date=1950|publisher=Associated Newspapers Ltd|location=Sydney, N.S.W}}</ref> and Women's Day.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1316088|title=Woman's day|date=1953|publisher=Herald and Weekly Times|location=Melbourne}}</ref> Cullen had her portrait photograph taken with the WSPU illustrated certificate, wearing her Votes for Women sash in 1958, in the National Library of Australia collection.<ref name=":4" /> In her 80th year, she took on officials to leave her home at Lidcombe, Sydney<ref name=":2" /> to the Children's Library and Crafts Movement, as a children's centre.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0062b.htm|title=Children's Library and Crafts Movement - Organisation - The Australian Women's Register|last=Melbourne|first=National Foundation for Australian Women and The University of|website=www.womenaustralia.info|language=en-gb|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref>
By 1958, Cullen was in a nursing home in Hammondville.<ref name=":4" /> She died on 24 July 1960 in Sydney.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/blog/behind-the-scenes/2016/06/15/louie-cullen-part-one|title=Louie Cullen—part one|website=www.nla.gov.au|language=en|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref> Her death was reported internationally, including in the ''Singapore Free Press'' and the ''London Daily Telegraph.'' Cullen had said she would "like the newspapers to know, in the hope that coming young folk will remember how some freedoms are bought."<ref name=":4" />
== Memorabilia == thumb|right|Photo of Cullen with the caption "Hyde Park" There are artefacts of Cullen's life in the National Library of Australia, in particular among the archive papers of Bessie Rischbieth, feminist and founder of the Australian Federation of Women's Societies (or Voters), who persuaded Cullen to donate her suffragette items to the collection.<ref name=":3" /> These include Cullen's sketch of her prison cell, with the caption, "stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-250831564/findingaid?digitised=y|title=Louisa Cullen's prison cell in Holloway Prison|website=Papers of Bessie Rischbieth|id=2004/3/310,nla.gov.au/nla.obj-250831564|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref> There is also Cullen's Holloway brooch<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-250831564/findingaid?digitised=y|title=Louisa Cullen's Holloway Prison brooch|website=Papers of Bessie Rischbieth|id=Series 3, MS 2004/3/276-312, nla.obj-250831564}}</ref> and her WSPU sash, which she is seen wearing in a duo photograph of her both in prison clothing and dressed in white wearing the sash for the Hyde Park Women's March, from her book written in 1959.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1316088|title=Louisa Cullen in Woman's Day|date=25 August 1959|website=National Library of Australia|page=9|id=nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1316088|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref> The collection has the original certificate from Emmeline Pankhurst, honouring Louise Cullen's contribution of "self-forgetfulness and self-conquest, ever ready to obey the call of duty, and to answer to the appeal of the oppressed",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/860233|title=Illuminated address presented to Louisa Cullen |last=Cullen |first=Louisa |last2=Pankhurst |first2=Emmeline |date=1909 |others=Women's Social and Political Union (Great Britain)}}</ref> which she is holding in her portrait.<ref name=":4" /> {{clear}}
== References == {{reflist}} {{Feminism}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cullen, Louie}} Category:1870s births Category:1960 deaths Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Australian feminists Category:British emigrants to Australia