Janie Allen 1868-1968

Janie was one of eight children from a wealthy philanthropic Glasgow shipping family.

She was a member of Glasgow suffrage society from 1902. She was inspired by Theresa Billington-Greig on her tour of Scotland in 1906 and joined the WSPU. Remained a member of the WSPU after the WSPU/WFL split but also supported the WFL financially. She was one of the most important financial supporters of Women’s suffrage campaign giving £650 to WSPU alone.

She was also a member of the ILP and Editor of the Women’s suffrage column in the socialist paper ‘Forward’.

She participated in the window-smashing raid which resulted in a four month prison sentence in Holloway. Whilst she was inside, Emmeline Pankhust was imprisoned and the WSPU members were ordered to hunger strike. Janie was force fed. She said that it took her five months to recover her health.

She refused to pay taxes in 1913 where she pleaded that the statute referred to ‘persons’ - “If I am not a person for the purposes of the Franchise Acts, I ought not to be considered a person within the meaning of the Finance Acts”.

Emmeline Pankhust had been released under the Cat and Mouse Act and had not returned (so was liable for re-arrest) when she was due to speak at a meeting in Glasgow in March 1914. As soon as she appeared the police stormed and a battle ensued. Janie fired a blank bullet at a policeman and others threw flowerpots from the stage.

Many of the public were horrified and wrote to the press to complain. Janie pressed for an enquiry but chose the attend a WSPU deputation in London, which led to a spell in prison, rather than attend a critical stage of the enquiry campaign so it fell. A box of her papers can be seen at the National Library of Scotland.