Arabella Scott 1885? - 1980

The daughter of an army officer and a teacher, Scott was brought up in Dunoon before attending Edinburgh University to gain a Master of Arts - a considerable achievement when few women had access to higher education. It was at university that she and her sister Muriel became involved in the women's suffrage movement.

Arabella was arrested with three other women and one man after an unsuccessful attempt to burn down Kelso Racecourse. She was sentenced to nine months imprisonment – as was the man whose cime was to drive them there. Janie Allen (suffragette journalist) bitterly compared his sentence with those who assaulted children and often got less than that.

She went on hunger strike and was released under the Cat and Mouse Act. Unlike others who went to ground once they were released Arabella stayed public. She had promised her employers, Leith School Board, that she would not take part in any more militant activity so she was kept on their list. She was arrested, went on hunger strike released and disappeared for 2 months. She was ‘found’ on a WSPU protest and returned to jail. She went on hunger strike again and was released again..

It took many months to ‘find’ her again, this time working as a WSPU organiser in Brighton. She was arrested and forcibly brought back to Edinburgh and jail. Again the same scenario ensued and she took the train to London before she was due back. She was ‘found’ accidentally while the house she was staying in was being searched for someone else. So, once again she was forcibly brought back but this time sent to Perth prison to be force fed. Outside the prison gates, 3,000 people kept a vigil, although they were not even told what exactly was going in inside.

She was kept in isolation and force fed for a month, a visible legacy of this remained in her chipped teeth. These were her battle scars, sustained when she tried to resist being force fed. She emerged feeling more militant than ever.

All her life Arabella Scott upheld a passionate commitment to women's rights.

References:

ed. Frances Wheelhouse: My Murky Past, A suffragette's sacrifice in the struggle for votes for women / Arabella Charlotte Scott.