Lilias Mitchell 1884-1940

Edinburgh born. Lilias went to a suffrage meeting in 1906/7 to hear Emmeline Pankhurst speak. “Never shall I forget the blazing warmth of that meeting – we felt completely lifted out of ourselves, joined the society then and there and then and went home walking it seemed on air.”

She became the WSPU organiser in Aberdeen. She went on the WSPU window smashing raid in London in 1912 and was one of the 200 arrested. She went on hunger strike. She was scared of being force fed as she had a heart condition so she swallowed some of the food. Emmeline Pankhurst was released the next day but Lilias was held for a further three months. After a holiday she returned to her post in Aberdeen where she continued to lead militant protest.

On another occasion she and a companion replaced all the marker flags at Balmoral golf course with flags painted with the WSPU colours and attached messages about the forcible feeding of suffragettes and votes for women. She also confronted Prime Minister Asquith on Dornoch golf course.

She later campaigned in the Midlands, planting a bomb on a Birmingham railway station (along with Mary Richardson), for which she was imprisoned - and went on hunger strike. (*)

After the War she joined the Edinburgh Women's Citizens assn. and wrote for the Scotsman.

(*) Jan 2024. This claim, that Lilias was imprisoned for planting a bomb on a Birmingham railway station has no primary evidence to support it. Police and Home Office records clearly show that she was arrested only for smashing windows, assault, and speaking words of incitement. If she had ever been arrested, charged, tried for or imprisoned for bombing, official records would show it and the story would have been fully covered by the newspapers. These facts have been uncovered by Helena Wojtczak in her forthcoming book: Mary Raleigh Richardson