Lady Constance Lytton: Aristocrat, Suffragette, Martyr

Lady Constance Lytton was the most unlikely of suffragettes. The daughter of a Viceroy of India and herself a lady in waiting to the Queen, for forty years she did nothing but devote herself to her family, denying herself the chance of love and a career. Then came a chance encounter with a suffragette and her life suddenly acquired a purpose. Witnessing Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst on trial, she was converted to the cause of women’s suffrage, and herself went to prison. Once jailed, however, Constance soon found that her name and class singled her out for privileged treatment, though she was determined to express her support for the famous hunger-strikers by becoming one herself. Constance, therefore, decided to go to prison in disguise. Taking the name Jane Warton, she cut her hair, put on glasses and ugly clothes, and got herself arrested in Liverpool. Once in prison, she was force-fed eight times before her identity was discovered and she was released. Her case became a cause celebre, with debate raging in The Times and questions asked in the House of Commons. Constance Lytton became an inspiration to the other suffragettes and, in the end, a martyr.