{{short description|Irish born suffragette}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Use British English|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Olive Beamish | image = File:Olive Beamish as Phyllis Brady.jpg | birth_name = Agnes Olive Beamish | birth_date = 17 June 1890 | birth_place = Cork, Ireland | death_date = 14 April 1978 (aged 87) | death_place = Suffolk, England | education = Girton College, Cambridge | occupation = Suffragette and later typist agency business | organisation = Women's Social and Political Union | political_party = Communist Party (1926-9) later Labour Party }}
'''Olive Beamish''' (17 June 1890 – 14 April 1978) was an Irish-born suffragette, women's rights campaigner, and trade unionist educated at Girton College Cambridge. Beamish wore a Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) badge while still at school. Also known as "Phyllis Brady",<ref name=":0" /> Beamish became involved in the militant suffragette movement, including attacking postboxes and arson.<ref name=":0" /> Beamish was imprisoned and force-fed and was one of the first to be released under the "Cat and Mouse" Act. She was later sentenced to 18 months with hard labour.<ref name=":0" /> Beamish was fluent in six languages and was recognised by her movement with a medal for valour.<ref name=":3" />
== Early life == Agnes Olive Beamish was born in Cork in Ireland.<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=386–7, 457, 493|oclc=1016848621}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> Her father was a Protestant farmer.<ref name=":0"/> Her parents supported their daughter joining Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906 and she wore their badge to school, whilst living in Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, England, where they were had moved to by 1901.<ref name=":0"/> Beamish felt the inferior status of women when her brothers were able to engage in politics for the 1905 election, saying "I felt the position keenly, that I would never be equal to them in the political world, and I also realised the inferior position of women, everywhere."<ref name=":0" /> Beamish graduated from Girton College Cambridge<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=21 April 1978 |title=Equal rights doyen dies, 87 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002186/19280113/014/0002 |url-status=live |access-date=3 May 2026 |work=Bury Free Press |page=14 |via=British Newspapers Archive}}</ref> and then worked for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).<ref name=":2" />
== Suffrage activism == thumb|'Cat and Mouse Act' poster by the Women's Social and Political Union|alt=A woman wearing a suffragette sash is limp in the mouth of an oversized cat with a bloodied tooth. 'THE LIBERAL CAT. ELECTORS VOTE AGAINST HIM! KEEP THE LIBERAL OUT!' Beamish began to organise for the WSPU at Battersea London as well as in the East End where she attacked a pillarbox. On 19 March 1913, Trevethan, a mansion house in Egham, Surrey (whose owner Lady White was out of the country) was ruined in an arson attack and fire, and messages were found in the garden referring to suffragette slogans, including "Stop torturing our comrades in prison" and "Votes for Women".<ref name=":0" />
Beamish was said by a local policeman to be one of two women cycling very fast, without lights, at one a.m. She was identified under the pseudonym 'Phyllis Brady'.<ref name=":0" /> Less than a month later, she was setting fire to Sanderstead station but she was not caught. "Phyllis Brady" (i.e. Beamish was with Elsie Duval when both were arrested in Mitcham, with paraffin and other inflammables in suitcases.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Crawford, Elizabeth. |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |title=The women's suffrage movement: a reference guide, 1866–1928 |date=1999 |publisher=UCL Press |isbn=0-203-03109-1 |location=London |oclc=53836882}}</ref> Beamish was sentenced to six weeks in Holloway prison.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/b0d30b35-bf00-4430-b0bf-57b8b77e6b4e|title=Papers of Hugh Franklin and Elsie Duval|date=1910–1959|last1=Duval | first1 = Elsie | last2 = Franklin | first2 = Hugh | publisher = The National Archives | location = Kew, Richmond, UK | language=en}}</ref>
Beamish went on hunger strike and she was force fed. She and Elsie Duval were the first to be released on 28 April 1913 under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, which became known as the 'Cat and Mouse' Act.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Suffragette Movement in the Local Area |url=http://chertseymuseum.org/local_suffragettes |access-date=2019-08-03 |website=Chertsey Museum |language=en}}</ref> This allowed prisoners who may be at risk of dying from hunger strike to be released on licence to recover and they would then be re-arrested to complete their sentence.<ref name=":1" /> Beamish went to the Regents Park area of London and continued militant activities. The WSPU HQ was asked about the whereabouts of the three released under the Act by the Daily Mirror. A WSPU spokeswoman talked about the cat being away and the mice able to play, and she explained their intention to make this Act as "ridiculous as anything the Government has done to frustrate our movement". She threatened that the suffragettes had plans "of which they little dream."<ref name=":0" />
Dr Flora Murray wrote to the ''Glasgow Herald'' that she had carried out urine tests on Kitty Marion and Beamish during their hunger strike, and found high levels of a hypnotic drug bromide which was used as a muscle relaxant (to prevent vomiting during force feeding) which the doctor said "could only be harmful", and that as Beamish was preparing her defence for the trial, she may have tried to obtain an emetic to make herself vomit the hypnotic drugs.<ref name=":0" />
A surveillance image of Olive Beamish (Phyllis Brady), taken in Holloway prison in 1913, is in the London Museum archive.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-451256/photograph-surveillance-image/|title=Photograph, surveillance image {{!}} London Museum|website=collections.museumoflondon.org.uk|access-date=3 May 2026|date=1913|url-status=live}}</ref>
== Later life == During the First World War, Beamish was a social organiser based in Hoxton. She then ran her own typing agency business<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 May 1919 |title=Typewriting |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000681/19190516/121/0006 |url-status=live |access-date=2 May 2026 |work=Daily Herald |page=6}}</ref> and was the vice president of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 January 1937 |title=British Trade Union Officials in Spain |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000540/19370119/078/0010 |url-status=live |access-date=2 May 2026 |work=The Scotsman |page=10 |via=British Newspapers Archive}}</ref> In 1928, Beamish spoke at an open meeting of the Women's Freedom League, arguing that the political enfranchisement of women would help to improve working conditions for women clerks. (The Offices Regulation Bill proposed to improve working conditions had failed to progress in parliament.)<ref>{{Cite news |title=Equal political rights campaign |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002186/19280113/014/0002 |url-status=live |access-date=3 May 2026 |work=Vote |page=2 |via=British Newspapers Archive}}</ref> Beamish was active in the trade union movement for more than 50 years and was a member of the Sudbury and Woodbridge Labour Party when she retired.<ref name=":3" />
Beamish was a member of the Communist Party from 1926-29 {{Citation needed|date=May 2026}}, later joining the Labour Party and becoming Secretary of the Chelmsford Labour Party {{Citation needed|date=May 2026}}. Beamish supported the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War {{Citation needed|date=May 2026}}. In 1926, Beamish was living in Billericay, Essex and then moved to Suffolk {{Citation needed|date=May 2026}}.
Beamish died in Stowmarket in 1978, aged 87.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Women from Hackney's History II |publisher= The Hackney Society: Hackney History |year=2025 |isbn=9781800492103 |location=London, England |page=17}}</ref><ref name=":3" />
== References == <references />{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beamish, Olive}} Category:1890 births Category:1978 deaths Category:Irish suffragettes Category:Force-feeding victims Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge