Kathleen Brown, Suffragette

Kathleen Brown was a Suffragette from Newcastle. After throwing stones in Whitehall, Brown was sentenced to to seven days solitary confinement at Holloway Prison, where she went on hunger strike. On her release, in July 1909, a large group of supporters met her at Newcastle Central Station, bearing banners and carriages decorated in the suffragette colours of white, green and purple. Following a celebration tea at the Turks Head Hotel, she gave a speech to a large crowd at the Haymarket. At that time campaigning groups were opening up around the region, including  Hexham, Spennymoor and Morpeth.[1] Later that year there were protests when Chancellor, Lloyd George, visited Newcastle in October 1909. Lady Constance Lytton, Kathleen Brown, and Emily Wilding Davison, were amongst those who threw stones, in what was later reffered to as "the Battle of Newcastle". Windows in the Liberal Club on Pilgrim Street were broken and Lytton threw a stone was with a message attached "To Lloyd-George, Rebellion Against Tyranny is Obedience to God. Deeds, not Words".[2]

On the 8th of March 2017, to mark International Women’s Day, a heritage plaque was installed on the former Turks Head Hotel : "Meeting place where suffragettes celebrated the release of Kathleen Brown from Holloway Prison July 19th 1909 and stopped for refreshments on the march from Edinburgh to London, October 21st 1912.”[3]