Women’s Social and Political Union hunger strike medal to Rona Robinson, £17,000 at Bonhams.
It was given by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) to Rona Robinson (1884-1962), the first woman in the UK to gain a first-class honours degree in chemistry and later a women’s rights activist.
Robinson was arrested twice in 1909 for obstruction - the first time on August 20 when members of the WSPU threw missiles and smashed windows during a speech by minister of war Richard Burdon Haldane in Liverpool. In prison, Robinson and the other members went on hunger strike for several days until their release.
She was one of the first women to go on such a strike for the Suffragette movement, following Marion Wallace-Dunlop’s decision to do so just six weeks prior.
Robinson’s second arrest came on October 4 when she and two others interrupted a speech by the chancellor of the University of Manchester - urging him to speak out against the forcible feeding of imprisoned Manchester alumni.
‘For Valour’
The silver and enamel medal featuring green, white and purple stripes is engraved on the top pin For Valour with additional silver bars engraved with the dates October 15th 1909 and August 20th 1909 - the day of her arrest.
The medal is engraved Hunger Strike on the obverse with Robinson’s name on the reverse. The auction house believes Robinson received the award from Emmeline Pankhurst, along with Emily Wilding Davison, on December 9, 1909, at the Royal Albert Hall.
The medal came with an estimate of £10,000-15,000 and two later photographs of Robinson, one of which was marked 13 May 1938 on the reverse.
The lot was one of a number of Suffragette-related items for sale on the day. An autograph album containing around 200 signatures sold for £8500 against a £4000- 6000 estimate.
Institutions step in
Late last year it was revealed that Glasgow Women’s Library had bought a hunger strike medal at auction at Bonhams after more than 500 people donated to help secure the piece of suffragette history.
The medal was awarded by the WSPU to Maud Joachim in 1909 (the year these medals were instituted).
Hammered down at £32,500, it had come to auction as part of a 109- lot group of Suffragette memorabilia that had been amassed by collector Lesley Mees since the 1980s.
In 2019 a Suffragette medal with two ‘fed by force’ striped enamel bars (1909) sold for £27,000 at Nottingham auction house Mellors & Kirk. It was bought by a benefactor for the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.
It was awarded to Selina Martin and offered with a major archive of letters including ones from Christabel Pankhurst and other prominent figures in the movement and letters Martin wrote from prison.
A year earlier, amid many impressive results in the anniversary year of votes for women in the UK, a Suffragette archive including a ‘hunger strike’ medal sold for a hammer price of £40,000 at a Catherine Southon auction in Surrey. Relating to the Welsh-born Kate Evans, it was bought by National Museum Wales.
There are thought to be 82 known medal recipients in total.
