{{Short description|British suffragette}} {{Use British English|date=January 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Nellie Hall | other_names = Nell Hall, Nellie Hall-Humpherson, Nell Humpherson, "Marie Roberts" (pseudonym) | birth_date = about 1893 | birth_place = Eccles, Lancashire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1976|7|26|1893|df=y}} | death_place = Cobourg, Ontario, Canada | parents = Leonard Hall | relatives = Spencer Timothy Hall (grandfather) }}
'''Nellie Hall''' (about 1893<ref name=":3" /> – 26 July 1976), later known as '''Nell Hall-Humpherson''', was a British suffragette, arrested and imprisoned several times for her activities with the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
== Early life == Nellie Hall was born in Eccles, Lancashire, the daughter of Leonard Hall and Martha Alice Hall. Her father was a journalist active in the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Her mother was a suffragette, with the Women's Social and Political Union from its founding in 1903.<ref name="Crawford">{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wo89DfZ-T6AC&dq=%22Nellie+Humpherson%22&pg=PA258 |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=0-415-23926-5 |pages=258–259}}</ref> Her grandfather Spencer Timothy Hall was a homeopathic doctor and writer. Nellie Hall was early exposed to political and cultural discussions in a home that hosted visitors such as Emmeline Pankhurst and George Bernard Shaw.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Tyrwhitt|first=Janice|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46042650/why-the-lady-horsewhipped-winston/|title=Why the Lady Horsewhipped Winston Churchill (continued)|date=1965-10-16|work=The Gazette|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=57}}</ref> She began her political activism while still in her teens, in 1909, when she joined the nightly protests against force-feeding outside Winson Green Prison.<ref name="Crawford" />
[[File:Dedication by Nellie Hall in WSPU prisoners scrapbook.png|thumb|Dedication by Nellie Hall in Mabel Capper's WSPU prisoners scrapbook October 1910 (Transcribed: "The thing that makes the trouble is not so much what actually happens but what we fear may happen and it is fear & imagination that cause panics. No Surrender!!! Nellie Hall, July 28, 1910; Victoria Square, November 26, 1909.")|left|320x320px]]
== Suffrage == Hall worked for the WSPU in Birmingham from 1911 to 1913 until she was arrested for throwing a brick through the window of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith's car on 21 July 1913.<ref name=":1" /> She was sentenced to three weeks in prison, for which she was awarded a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by the WSPU<ref>Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery hold a number of pieces related to Nellie Hall, including her Votes for Women sash, her hunger strike medal,leaflets, letters and other items</ref> but was released after eight days, suffering from mumps.<ref name=":1" />
Hall moved to London (disguised as a housemaid and using the name "Marie Roberts") and continued her activism as a covert organizer.<ref name=":1" /> In 1914 she was arrested along with her mother and sister Emmeline,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46048888/militant-women-and-their-plans/|title=Militant Women and their Plans|date=1914-06-03|work=The Times|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=3|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and three other women (Grace Arnes, Julia Jameson, and Grace Roe),<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46049114/the-conspiracy-charge/|title=The Conspiracy Charge|date=1914-05-27|work=The Times|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=29|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> for participating in a conspiracy and concealing an arsenal of pebbles and "window smashing equipment" in their Maida Vale flat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46048761/maida-vale-conspiracy-charges/|title=Maida-Vale Conspiracy Charges: Four Women Sent for Trial|date=1914-06-10|work=The Times|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=8|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> As she was carried out of court during her trial, she waved her handkerchief to supporters and cried, "It doesn't matter; we shall go on fighting, fighting, fighting".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46048539/maida-vale-conspiracy-charges/|title=Maida Vale Conspiracy Charges|date=1914-06-05|work=The Times|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=8|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She was sentenced to three months, went on hunger strike,<ref name=":4" /> and was force-fed at Holloway Prison.<ref name="Crawford" /> She wrote a pamphlet as "Marie Roberts" about her suffrage work and prison experience.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Purvis|first=June|date=1995-03-01|title=The prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain|journal=Women's History Review|volume=4|issue=1|pages=103–133|doi=10.1080/09612029500200073|issn=0961-2025}}</ref>
Nellie moved back to Birmingham during the First World War, where she joined the Post Office and became the first mail sorter for the British Expeditionary Force. in 1928, through the intervention of Flora Drummond, she was persuaded to act as secretary and liaison officer for Emmeline Pankhurst,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Purvis|first=June|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HEl-AgAAQBAJ&dq=Emmeline%20Humpherson&pg=PA347|title=Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography|date=2003-09-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-34192-4|pages=347–348|language=en}}</ref> whom she nursed through her final illness. She carried the WSPU flag at Pankhurst's funeral.<ref name="Crawford" />
== Personal life == In 1920 Nellie Hall married a schoolmaster, Herbert Humpherson,<ref name="GRO">{{cite encyclopedia|pages=62|volume=6d|date=1920|title=England and Wales Civil Registrations|encyclopedia=Kings Norton, Worcestershire|quote=Nellie Hall and Herbert S Humpherson}}</ref> and settled in Warwickshire.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Crawford|first=Elizabeth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2EK9P7-ZMsC&dq=Leonard%20Hall%20Labour%20Martha&pg=PA258|title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928|date=2003-09-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-43402-1|pages=258–259|language=en}}</ref> She had sons David Hall-Humpherson and Peter Hall-Humpherson.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://yourlifemoments.ca/sitepages/obituary.asp?oId=114714|title=David HALL-HUMPHERSON|website=Obituaries - Kingston, ON - Your Life Moments|access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|last=Tyrwhitt|first=Janice|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46042214/why-the-lady-horsewhipped-winston/|title=Why the Lady Horsewhipped Winston Churchill|date=1965-10-16|work=The Gazette|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=56|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Following Emmeline Pankhurst's death, the Humphersons emigrated to Canada in 1929.<ref name="LAC">{{cite journal|title=RG76 - IMMIGRATION, series C-1 (passenger lists)|journal=Canada Immigration Records|year=1929|volume=1|pages=129|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/immigration-1925/001012-119.01-e.php?&sisn_id_nbr=750480&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=jgv6k4uurflu7ujsca79lslid0|access-date=2010-01-26|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012175855/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/immigration-1925/001012-119.01-e.php?&sisn_id_nbr=750480&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=jgv6k4uurflu7ujsca79lslid0|archive-date=2012-10-12}}</ref> Nell Hall-Humpherson lived in Nova Scotia and Toronto, where she was president of the Soldiers' Wives Association during World War II,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lipad.ca/full/1944/07/06/7/|title=Browse the Canadian House of Commons|date=July 6, 1944|website=Lipad|access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref> and a life member of the Association of Women Electors in Toronto.<ref name=":3" />
In 1962, she appeared as the mystery guest on the Canadian television programme ''Front Page Challenge'', and in 1965 she gave several newspaper interviews about her suffrage years.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/politics-clipping-mar-08-1965-1575979/|title=Granny Recalls Turbulent Days|date=8 March 1965|website=Medicine Hat News|page=5|language=en|via=NewspaperArchive.com|access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref> She was interviewed again on Canadian television, by Pierre Berton, in 1971.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46044769/tv-highlights/|title=TV Highlights|date=1971-03-31|work=Edmonton Journal|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=80|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She died in 1976, aged 83, in Cobourg, Ontario.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46044939/suffragette-dies-at-83/|title=Suffragette Dies at 83|date=1976-07-27|work=The Leader-Post|access-date=2020-03-03|pages=5|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
== See also == *List of suffragists and suffragettes
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{IMDb name|id=8373265|name=Nellie Hall-Humpherson}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Nellie}} Category:1890s births Category:1976 deaths Category:People from Eccles, Greater Manchester Category:English suffragists Category:Hunger Strike Medal recipients Category:English emigrants to Canada Category:Year of birth uncertain