{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[File:Violet Mary Doudney 1921.jpg|thumb|right|Violet Mary Doudney at St Hilda's College ({{circa}}1921)]] thumb|Certificate awarded to Violet Doudney for her support and dedication to the Suffragette Movement, after she had endured a hunger strike and solitary confinement at Holloway Prison in 1912. Designed by Sylvia Pankhurst and signed by Emmeline Pankhurst. [[File:Hunger Strike Medal awarded to Violet Doudney.jpg|thumb|Hunger Strike Medal awarded to Violet Doudney by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) after her imprisonment at HM Prison Holloway in 1912]] '''Violet Mary Doudney''' (5 March 1889 – 14 January 1952) was a teacher and militant suffragette<ref>[https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/1789/violet-mary-doudney Violet Mary Doudney - Women's Suffrage: History and Citizenship Resources for Schools]</ref> who went on hunger strike in Holloway Prison where she was force-fed. She was awarded the Hunger Strike Medal by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
==Early life== Violet Doudney was born in 1889 in Barkby in Leicestershire, the daughter of Laura Annie ''née'' Rice (1858–1939) and George Richard Doudney (1859–1913), a corn merchant.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/6598/LEIRG12_2493_2495-0419/9622877?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/16764206/person/400174434626/facts/citation/1100397429985/edit/record 1891 England Census for Violet M Doudney - Leicestershire, Bushby, District 7] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref> She matriculated at St Hilda's College at the University of Oxford in 1908, from where she graduated in 1911 aged 21.<ref>[https://www.sthildas.ox.ac.uk/content/violet-mary-toy-received-medal-emmeline-pankhurst-joining-hunger-strike-holloway-prison Violet Mary Toy received a medal from Emmeline Pankhurst for joining the hunger strike in Holloway Prison] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112224636/https://www.sthildas.ox.ac.uk/content/violet-mary-toy-received-medal-emmeline-pankhurst-joining-hunger-strike-holloway-prison |date=12 November 2019 }} - St Hilda's College, University of Oxford website</ref>
==Militancy== The following year in 1912 she moved to London with the intention of becoming a teacher. Here she joined the Women's Social and Political Union and took part in a window-smashing campaign of the homes of senior politicians to protest against the treatment of suffragette prisoners who were on hunger strike. On 28 June 1912 Doudney smashed the windows at the home of Home Secretary Reginald McKenna following which she was arrested and taken before magistrates the next morning.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61005/45597_625537_0094-00024?pid=327&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D61005%26h%3D327%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3Ddjv1967%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv1967&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.132572750.1388217596.1573504626-1197399642.1515349816 England, Suffragettes Arrested, 1906-1914 for Violet Doudney - HO 45/24665: Suffragettes: Amnesty of August 1914: Index of Women Arrested, 1906-1914] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref> In court she was asked if she regretted her actions; she replied that she did not and had taken the action in protest against the Home Secretary's policies. Sentenced to two months hard labour in Holloway Prison she went on hunger strike and despite her frailty was force-fed. On her release from prison she was awarded a Hunger Strike Medal by Emmeline Pankhurst.<ref name=News>[https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/scarborough-man-tells-mothers-suffragette-story-710666 Scarborough man tells mother's suffragette story; A Scarborough man has told the astonishing tale of how his mother joined the suffragettes and was sent to prison for smashing the home secretary's window] - ''The Scarborough News'' - 6 February 2018</ref>
Doudney's influential Leicestershire businessman father and her mother wrote to the Home Secretary requesting her early release from prison due to her ill health, stating that if the request was granted they would ensure she would take no further part in suffragette campaigns. When she discovered why she had been released from prison after only three weeks the enraged Violet Doudney wrote at once to the Home Secretary pointing out that as a 23-year-old woman she was capable of making her own decisions, adding:<ref name=News/>
<blockquote> "I understand that you ordered my release from H.M Prison Holloway on account of an undertaking given by my parents that I would do no more militant work. I wish you to understand that no pledge of any kind whatsoever has been even offered to me and that I have give no undertaking whatsoever. Moveover I am of age and I do not consider myself in any way bound by any pledge given without my knowledge or consent and I certainly intend to take, "militant" or otherwise which may appear necessary to me to be necessary and justifiable in advancing a cause which I have at heart... If upon receipt of this letter you think you have released me on false pretences and wish me to return to Holloway I am willing to do so."<ref name=News/> </blockquote>
She did not receive a reply and undertook secretarial work for the suffragette cause for the next two years before becoming a teacher of English Literature and drama in 1914, a career she followed for 25 years.
==Later years== Violet married the architect Sidney Toy (1875–1967) on July 11, 1929<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/8753/ons_m19293az-0379/50449402?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/16764206/person/400174434626/facts/citation/1100397429957/edit/record England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 for Violet M Doudney - 1929, Q3-Jul-Aug-Sep] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref> at Holy Trinity Church, Leicester. She had met him the year before in Constantinople, modern day Istanbul, <ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Guy |first=Neil |date=2011–2012 |title=Sidney Toy - a biography |url=https://castlestudiesgroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CSGJournal2011-12X5Toyrev8.pdf |journal=The Castle Studies Group Journal |volume=25 |page=210}} {{free access}}</ref> on the same evening she had attended a ball where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk attempted to persuade her to stay and teach girls as part of his effort to modernise and secularise the new Republic of Turkey.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Toy |first=David |title=Flight of Our Genes |pages=91}}</ref> Together Violet and Sidney had three sons,<ref name=":0" /> John Toy (1930-2022), Mark Toy (1932-2019), and Alaric Toy (1933-2004). In 2018, the eldest son John recalled: "My father was a typical Victorian man and wasn't in favour of women having the vote. He asked her not to talk about this episode and she didn’t tell us until the day the Second World War broke out. I’m very proud of what she did. She always taught us to be angry at any injustices."<ref name=News/> (Sidney Toy was the author of a number of books on fortifications including ''The Castles of Great Britain'' and ''The Strongholds of India''. The 1939 edition of ''Castles: A Short History of Fortifications'' is dedicated "To my wife, in gratitude for consistent help and encouragement the book is affectionately dedicated"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Toy |first=Sidney |title=Castles: A Short History of Fortifications from 1600B.C. to 1600A.D. |date=1939 |publisher=William Heinemann LTD |year=1939}}</ref>)
In 1939 she retired from teaching at which time she and her husband were living in the City of London near the Temple Church where they were both ARP Wardens, with Violet Toy also undertaking first-aid duties.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/61596/tna_r39_0003_0003c_005/5843182?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/16764206/person/400174434626/facts/citation/1102040013218/edit/record 1939 England and Wales Register for Violet M Toy - London, City of London] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref>
Violet Mary Toy died in Epsom in Surrey in 1952.<ref>[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/1904/32858_635001_2133-00499/16263181?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/16764206/person/400174434626/facts/citation/1102040013645/edit/record England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Violet Mary Toy (1952)] - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}</ref>
== Legacy ==
=== Brent Women of Renown === Violet Doudney was celebrated, amongst Dame Stephanie Shirley and Amy Johnson, as one of the "Brent Women of Renown" in a project that shared her story to students in Brent schools throughout 2023. On November 6 2023, a documentary about the "Brent Women of Renown" was premiered at the Kiln Cinema in Kilburn, where Doudney's granddaughter, Maggie Toy, was interviewed alongside other guests.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sellar |first=Damean |date=2023-10-06 |title=From Protests to Pictures |url=https://cricklewood.net/from-protests-to-pictures/ |access-date=2026-03-28 |website=Cricklewood Town Team |language=en-GB}}</ref>
=== Epsom College, Doudney House (Lower School) === In 2025, Epsom College named one of its new Houses 'Doudney' in recognition of Violet's time spent teaching English and Drama at the college during the Second World War.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Worthy |first=Rebecca |date=6 February 2025 |title=House Histories Series – Doudney House (Lower School) |url=https://www.epsomcollege.org.uk/news/house-histories-series-doudney-house-lower-school/ |website=Epsom College}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doudney, Violet Mary}} Category:1889 births Category:1952 deaths Category:Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford Category:Schoolteachers from Leicestershire Category:20th-century English women educators Category:20th-century English educators Category:English suffragettes Category:English feminists Category:British women's rights activists Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Category:Hunger Strike Medal recipients Category:People from the Borough of Charnwood