Subscribers can listen to the audio of today’s post here.
Women’s rights didn’t come about because they asked nicely. When fighting for the right to vote in the UK, Edith Garrud, an expert in jiu-jitsu, trained women to fight back against police brutality. And fight back they did.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: March 9, 1914--
Born in 1872 in Bath, England, Edith Garrud began studying jiu-jitsu in 1899 alongside her husband. Their teacher was Sadakazu Uyenishi, who opened the first jiu-jitsu school in the UK. When Uyenishi returned to Japan in 1908, the Garruds took over the dojo. Edith was also a member of the Women’s Freedom League, and she decided to teach women to literally fight for their freedom.
And she was audacious about it. The police back then (and now) were fucking dicks. They would regularly beat the shit out of these highfalutin women who wanted a say in who was running the government. Edith and William put on plays where her husband dressed as a police officer trying to arrest suffragette Edith, and she’d jiu-jitsu the fuck out of him. She also asked male members of the audience to “Come and test me, motherfucker.” Paraphrased. One cop tried, much to his regret. Continues below …
Apparently Substack has a new thing they just launched for those of you who want to:
The Women’s Social and Political Union was a militant suffrage organization led by Emmeline Pankhurst. After seeing Edith humiliate that cop in 1909 Pankhurst asked her to train their members in defending themselves. This led to twice-weekly classes at her dojo exclusively for WSPU members. The media was unkind, but Edith replied that it was “a necessary safeguard for the woman who has to defend herself through life.” My wife and daughter are both black belts, which is awesome.
In 1913, in response to imprisoned suffragettes going on hunger strikes, the government implemented the “Cat and Mouse Act.” They’d let the suffragettes out of prison so they could recover from their starvation at home, then re-arrest them once they were healthy enough to finish their sentence. WSPU leader Pankhurst was to be re-arrested; Edith was all I don’t fucking think so, creating “the Bodyguard” out of 30 women to prevent it.
On March 9, 1914, Pankhurst was an advertised speaker at St. Andrews Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. The police were there, and so was the Bodyguard. When Pankhurst took the stage, the police charged, wielding their clubs. Outnumbered about 50 to 30, the women of the Bodyguard pulled their own clubs, and a massive brawl took place in front of thousands of witnesses. That must have been fucking epic to watch.
Things were out of control, and in the interest of the safety of Pankhurst, who was frail, the group surrendered her to police. Another WSPU member took Emmeline’s place on the stage and continued the speech in favor of votes for women. There were a number of other militant actions by the WSPU and the Bodyguard, including raids and rescues of imprisoned women, but they wound down with the outbreak of World War I. Immediately following the war, women over 30 were given the vote; the age was lowered to 21 a decade later.
Support keeping this daily column free and get access to subscriber only content:
Get the book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.