The mystery of nurse Catherine Pine's suffragette medal—and its solution

ABSTRACT

When writing her will shortly before her death in 1941, Nurse Catherine Pine intended her ‘suffragette medal to be sent to the History Section of the British College of Nurses ’. But for decades no information was available to tell us what form Nurse Pine’s ‘suffragette medal’ took or where it was. For, although caring for Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the Women’s and Social Union, both during and after the suffragette campaign in Edwardian Britain, Nurse Pine had never been imprisoned and on hunger strike, the usual qualification for receiving a ‘suffragette medal’, and all effects held by the British College of Nurses were dispersed when it closed in 1956. Employing a range of internet resources—and a measure of serendipity—this Viewpoint unravels the mystery surrounding Nurse Pine’s medal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement: a reference guide (London: UCL Press, 1999). For Pine’s entry see pp. 533–4.

2 Pine also left Gertrude Townend ‘My gramophone if she wants it’ and to Mabel Lambert (unidentified) her sewing machine. Maude Estelle Townend (sometimes Estelle Maude) was born in June 1916, a ‘war baby’, and was adopted by Gertrude Townend. Even before discovering documentary proof, the choice of the name ‘Estelle’ was suggestive of adoption, at least to those acquainted with Great Expectations. However, it might, perhaps, reference ‘Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst’, at one of whose meetings Nurse Townend was arrested in 1913.

3 The British College of Nurses had been founded in 1926 by Mrs Ethel Gordon Fenwick (1857–1947), former matron of St Bartholomew’s, with herself as president and her husband Dr Bedford Fenwick (1855–1939) as treasurer.

4 The books, too, were probably also acquired but have been merged, unidentified, into the Museum of London collection.

5 However, although born in the second quarter of 1864, Pine’s age was noted as ‘29’ when she enrolled as a probationer at St Bartholomew’s in 1895. Her mother died in November 1895. See DS/UK/3773 (Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums).

6 Husband of Ernestine Mills, artist and suffrage supporter.

7 Mrs Pankhurst was convicted for inciting persons unknown to commit damage by placing explosives in a house being built for Lloyd George in Surrey. Although unable to compromise its acceptability to the authorities by permitting ‘mice’ to escape from the premises, the Pembridge Gardens nursing home was continually surrounded by police when tending hunger-strikers. It was, therefore, necessary for Nurse Pine to care for Mrs Pankhurst elsewhere, such as at Hertha Ayrton’s house in Norfolk Square and the Brackenburys’ home on Campden Hill, and, in Surrey, at Ethel Smyth’s cottage.

8 British Journal of Nursing, March 1942, 40. An earlier issue had reported that Pine’s medal, together with a letter from her and ‘the Ribbons of the Union’ had been handed over in person to the British College of Nurses by two, unspecified, ladies. British Journal of Nursing, October 1941, 164.

9 The British Journal of Nursing, March 1942, 40.

10 See https://www.coradibrazza.com/index.html (accessed 1 July 2024).

11 See The Observer, 24 June 1990, 34 and The Evening Standard, 30 May 2008, 20. The Observer article is available at https://www.virtuesofpeace.com/PineAuction1990.pdf (accessed 1 July 2024).

12 Talk by Dr Hope Elizabeth May, ‘Appearance and Disappearance What a Suffragette's Last Will and Testament can teach us about Posthumous Harm' given on 22 March 2023 (Central Michigan University).

13 The notice appeared in Kenneth Florey (ed). The Clarion, a publication of the Woman’s Suffrage and Political Chapter of the American Political Items Conservators, 58 (Winter 2024).

14 British Journal of Nursing, April 1930, 90. The report also mentioned that ‘Mrs Marshall’ (ie Mrs Kitty Marshall, close friend of Emmeline Pankhurst) had given two photographs of the unveiling of the statue for inclusion in the ‘History Section’.

15 Address by Miss Bunch, acting president of the BCN to an extraordinary meeting of the fellows and members of the BCN, 12 May 1956. Miss Bunch cited the Nationalisation of the Railways as causing the BCN to lose funds of £3000. (Archives, King’s College London. RBNA10/BCN66).

16 Papers relating to Florence Nightingale that also once formed part of the ‘History Section’ of the BCN, deemed more worthy of rescue than Nurse Pine’s medal or Mary Hilliard’s handkerchief, are now included in the King’s College Archive.

17 Lot 421, Sotheby’s Auction, 28 June 1990. Lot 334, Morton and Eden Auction, 3 July 2008.

18 Elizabeth Crawford, ‘The Mystery of Nurse Pine’s Medal’. womanandhersphere.com, May 2016, https://wp.me/p2AEiO-1cJ (accessed 1 July 2024).

19 The entry on Emmeline Pankhurst in the Reference Guide (pp 499–514) contains the precise dates on which she was released from prison, taken from the Home Office Papers.

20 Bought at Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas, USA, Lot 44318, 26 April 2024.

21 Dr May has created a comprehensive website, with an interactive ‘map’ of Nurse Pine’s medal, see https://nursepinemedal.com (accessed 1 July 2024).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Crawford

Elizabeth Crawford’s books include The Women’s Suffrage Movement: a reference guide 1866–1928 (UCL Press, 1999), The Women’s Suffrage Movement: a regional survey (Routledge, 2006), Enterprising Women: the Garretts and their circle (Francis Boutle, 2002), Art and Suffrage: a biographical dictionary of suffrage artists (Francis Boutle, 2018), and, as co-editor, Millicent Garrett Fawcett: Selected Writings (UCL Press, 2022). She has contributed chapters to multi-authored volumes, such as Suffrage and the Arts (Bloomsbury, 2019), The British Women’s Suffrage Campaign: national and international perspectives (Routledge, 2021), Women’s Suffrage in Word, Image, Music, Stage and Screen: the making of a movement’ (Routledge, 2021), and The Routledge Companion to British Women’s Suffrage (Routledge, 2024). She is the owner of Women and Her Sphere, a business selling antiquarian books, pamphlets and ephemera by and about women, and of the website womanandhersphere.com. Email: [email protected].