Heritage Doncaster

Lilian Lenton – Rebel Suffragette

Lilian Lenton was born in Leicester in 1891. She was inspired by the women’s suffrage campaigns and by 1913 was an active militant Suffragette.  She was said to have a goal of setting fire to two houses a week.

In early 1913 she began a series of arson attacks in London and was arrested in the February for setting fire to the Tea House at Kew Gardens in London. She was sent to Holloway Prison where she went on hunger strike.  She would become one of the first Suffragettes to be forcibly fed.

After being force fed she became seriously ill and was diagnosed with pleurisy that was caused by food entering her lungs.  Her case resulted in public outrage that was made worse by Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna, denying that she had been force fed and claiming that her illness was actually caused by her hunger strike. The Times newspaper published evidence that disputed this.

The Government was keen to avoid more political embarrassment and rushed through its ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ in April 1913, which enabled hunger-striking Suffragettes to be released temporarily so they would get healthy again, before being re-arrested.

Lilian used safe houses, fake names, elaborate escapes and disguises to avoid capture by the police.  Whilst lying low from the police Lilian moved to Doncaster to live with other suffragettes at Violet Key-Jones’ safe house on Osborne Road. 

In June 1913 Lilian was arrested in Doncaster and charged as ‘May Dennis’ for setting fire to Westfield, a large house in Balby. She was released from Armley Prison in Leeds after several days. Her accomplice in the arson attack was a local journalist called Harry Johnson who was sentenced to 12 months with hard labour in Wakefield Prison. 

During the First World War Lilian served in Serbia with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals Unit and was awarded a French Red Cross medal. 

After the First World War, the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed giving the vote to women who owned property, or were the wives of householders, and were aged 30 and over. Lilian Lenton was unable to vote as she didn’t own property and wasn’t married to a homeowner. She could finally vote in 1928, aged 37, when women were given equal voting rights to men, lowering the voting age to 21. 

Lilian later worked in the British Embassy in Stockholm, and later as the financial secretary for the National Union of Teachers. She died in 1972.