SUFFRAGETTE HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL – RONA ROBINSON with 2 photographs

SUFFRAGETTE HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL – RONA ROBINSON Hunger strike medal awarded by the WSPU to Rona Robinson, in silver and enamel construction, the top bar fitted with pin, the obverse engraved 'For Valour', the suspension bar in silver engraved with the date 'August 20th 1909', one additional silver bar in scroll form engraved 'October 15th 1909', the disc 22mm. diameter, engraved 'Hunger Strike' on the obverse and 'Rona Robinson' on the reverse, maker's name engraved on reverse of top bar ('Toye 57 Theobalds/ Rd London'), overall 78 x 40mm., lacking original presentation box, [1909]; with two later photographs of Rona Robinson, one with date stamp 13 May 1938 on reverse, 104 x 86mm. and smaller (3) Footnotes: THE HUNGER STRIKE MEDAL OF PIONEER CHEMIST RONA ROBINSON. The date on Rona Robinson's hunger strike medal reads 20 August 1909, the day of her arrest. Just six weeks earlier, in early July, the first hunger strike was undertaken by Marion Wallace-Dunlop (see lot 269), making this among the first hunger strike medals to be awarded by the WSPU. The first medals had been presented by the WSPU in early August 1909 and, according to the records of the Royal Albert Hall online, Robinson received hers from Emmeline Pankhurst, along with Emily Wilding Davison, at a meeting there on 9 December (catalogue.royalalberthall.com). The military style medals became known as the suffragette Victoria Cross and were made by Toye & Co at a cost of £1.00. Each hang on a length of ribbon in the WSPU colours with silver bars added in recognition of periods of hunger strike, or striped enamelled bars to denote forcible feeding. After graduating in 1905 Rona Robinson became a teacher under headmistress and militant suffragette Dora Marsden who introduced her to the cause, and she soon became an organiser at the WSPU Manchester branch – she unfurled the new WSPU banner for the branch with Mary Gawthorpe on 22 June 1908 (the banner now in the People's History Museum). On 20 August 1909 she was one of the 'Seven Viragos' who disrupted a speech by Minister of War Richard Burdon Haldane at Sun Hall, Liverpool. Missiles were thrown, windows smashed and the women were arrested and charged with wilful damage (supposedly singing the Marseillaise as they were taken away in a Black Maria). Once in prison, they went on hunger strike, which continued for several days until the authorities were forced to release them. She wrote of the terrible conditions they endured in prison in Votes for Women, 3 September 1909. On 4 October, she was again arrested – with Mary Gawthorpe and Dora Marsden – for dressing in full academic regalia (some press reports accused her of masquerading as a student) and interrupting a speech by the Chancellor of the university at the opening of the new chemical laboratories, demanding that he speak out against the forcible feeding of imprisoned Manchester alumni. On 16 October she requested the assistance of Thomas Lamartine Yates, expressing her intentions: '...I shall refuse all food & in case forcible feeding is resorted to I shall require the aid of a solicitor...' (LSE Library collection). Rona Robinson (1884-1972) studied at Owens College, Manchester (later Victoria University of Manchester) and was the first woman in the UK to graduate with a first-class degree in chemistry. A fellow alumnus of the college was Christabel Pankhurst, who graduated with a first-class degree in law in 1906, and although she was often depicted in her academic robes (such as on the playing card game Panko), as a woman she was not allowed to practice. Robinson was one of the first documented female industrial chemists. After researching dyes in laboratory at her home, in 1915 she joined W.B. Sharpe as an analytical and research chemist and was promoted to Chief Chemist in 1916. In 1920 she became a Research Chemist at Clayton Aniline Co. and became a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry in 1922. She was also a joint founder of The Freewoman, a feminist journal. On her death in 1962 a legacy in her will established the Rona Robinson scholarship to support female postgraduates in chemistry at the University of Manchester. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing