A Shropshire auction house has sold a rare and culturally significant suffragette medal.
Halls auctioneers of Battlefield, Shrewsbury, were instructed to sell a unique suffragette medal in its October sale of pictures, jewellery, coins and medals. The cultural significance of the medal and its provenance caused a stir amongst bidders both in the room and online.
The ‘Hunger Strike Suffragette Medal’ was awarded to Clara Giveen circa 1912 and was sold at Halls for £12,000 (plus buyer’s premium) which far exceed the initial estimate.
Giveen joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) after being angered by the treatment of women at the Black Friday protect outside the Houses of Commons in 1910. She is remembered for her part in the arson attack on Hurst Park grandstand in 1913 when she and the actress and suffragette Kitty Marion set fire to the racecourse. They were arrested the following morning and Giveen was sentenced to three years in prison, forcibly fed and later released under the Cat and Mouse Act. The pair planned the attack in retaliation for the death of Emily Wilding Davison, who died after being trampled by King George V’s horse during a protest in 1913.
The medal awarded to Giveen was engraved ‘Hunger Strike’ on the one side and had her name on the other. The title ‘For Valour’ was engraved on a scrolled enamelled bar above two further enamelled bars carrying the dates July 3rd 1913 and November 24th 1913. However, most significant was the engraving on the reverse of the medal ‘fed by force 1/3/12’. Many suffragettes were force fed in prison following lengthy hunger strikes. Giveen was sentenced to three years in prison following an arson attack on Hurst Park, a race course in West Molesey, Surrey and was forcibly fed on multiple occasions before her release.
Included in the lot was a small hammer brooch engraved ‘March 1912’, a suffragette enamelled prison badge and a ‘Union of Licensed Vehicle Workers’ badge. Hammers were used by suffragettes including Giveen to break windows as part of the ‘Window Smashing Campaign’ in 1912 and those who were successful were awarded brooches to signify their bravery.
Commenting on the sale, specialist valuer, Derek Ainsworth said:
“The interest in suffragette medals has been strong recently and we are delighted to have realised such a high price for this example. The medal was part of a probate and was owned by a Shropshire resident near Ellesmere. I’ve never seen another like this and it is no surprise that there was so much interest.”