Myra Sadd Brown Facts for Kids

Myra Eleanor Sadd Brown in 1937

Myra Eleanor Sadd Brown (born October 3, 1872 – died April 13, 1938) was a dedicated campaigner for women's rights. She was an activist who worked for change both in her country and around the world. As a suffragette, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1907. In 1912, she was arrested for breaking a window at the War Office. She was sentenced to two months in prison. While in prison, Sadd Brown went on a hunger strike. This meant she refused to eat. Because of this, she was force-fed. After she was released, the WSPU gave her a special Hunger Strike Medal.

Myra's Early Life
Fighting for Women's Vote
Arrest and Time in Prison
Later Life and Her Impact
Images for kids
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Myra's Early Life

Myra Eleanor Sadd was born in October 1872 in Maldon in Essex. She was the tenth of eleven children. Her family ran a successful business selling timber. Myra went to a private school in Colchester. She was interested in the campaign for women's right to vote from a young age.

In July 1896, she married Ernest Brown. They met because they both loved cycling. Ernest was a co-founder of Brown Brothers, a company that sold bicycle parts. They decorated their wedding place with purple, white, and green. These colors later became important symbols for the Women's Social and Political Union. Like many couples at the time, they combined their last names to Sadd Brown. They moved to London and had four children. Ernest's company, Brown Brothers, grew to sell electrical items, prams, and even aeroplanes. They also started making cars in 1898. The company became very successful, giving the Sadd Brown family financial security.

Myra Sadd Brown's family belonged to the Congregational church. Later in life, she became a Christian Scientist. She loved art and enjoyed plays by George Bernard Shaw. She was also friends with artists like Henry Holiday and Jessie Mothersole.

Fighting for Women's Vote

Drawing of Myra Sadd Brown at a Suffragette meeting by Jessie Mothersole (1912)

After her marriage in 1896, Myra Sadd Brown continued to be very interested in the women's suffrage movement. This movement worked to get women the right to vote. In 1902, she started supporting the Central Society for Women's Suffrage. In 1907, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She was also a member of other groups like the Women's Freedom League.

Myra often wrote letters to newspapers to share information about the cause. She even involved her children in the fight. She encouraged her teenage daughter, Myra, to sell copies of The Woman's Dreadnought on the street. Later, she worked with Sylvia Pankhurst's East London Federation of Suffragettes. She would invite groups of women from London's East End to her home near Maldon in Essex.

Arrest and Time in Prison

On March 4, 1912, Myra Sadd Brown was arrested. She had thrown a brick through a window at the War Office. She was sentenced to two months of hard labor in Holloway Prison. Many other suffragettes, including Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, were also there.

In prison, Myra Sadd Brown, like many other suffragettes, went on a hunger strike. This meant she refused to eat. Because of this, she was force-fed. This involved rubber tubes being put down her throat. During one force-feeding, Sadd Brown said her nose was broken. But the prison officers continued, saying any pain was because she resisted. Her husband, Ernest, read about her force-feeding in the newspaper. He wrote to the Prison Governor to ask for an explanation.

Myra was not allowed writing materials. So, she wrote letters home using a dull pencil on brown prison toilet paper. These letters were secretly taken out of the prison. Her letters to her husband show how determined she was to fight for women's political rights. She wrote: "I feel therefore we have begun to strike the fear of woman if not of God into the hearts of the authorities." While on hunger strike, she told him: "I want you to tell all inquiring friends that I am quite well, my spirit not in the least cooled & that I think we still have the noblest cause in the world, one well worth fighting and suffering for."

In a letter dated March 20, 1912, she wrote: "Mrs Pankhurst and Ethel Smyth came back to this wing yesterday... Oh just fancy these two great women sitting sewing all afternoon on garments for prisoners – can you imagine anything more ironic, it certainly does seem that the world is topsy-turvy. Why not put Asquith and Sir E. Grey to blacking boots?" She also wrote to her children on toilet paper: "I have such a funny little bed, which I can turn right up to the wall when I don't use it. I am learning French & German so you must work well or mummy will know lots more than you." She wanted her children to know she was okay and that she was fighting for a good cause. After she was released from prison, she received a Hunger Strike Medal from the WSPU.

Later Life and Her Impact

The Hunger Strike Medal awarded to Myra Sadd Brown in 1912

During World War I, groups like the Women's Social and Political Union stopped their protests. They focused on helping with the war effort instead. During this time, women took on jobs usually done by men. They proved they could do these jobs just as well. This helped to silence arguments against women getting the vote. In December 1914, Myra Sadd Brown hosted a meeting of the Women's Freedom League in Hampstead. At this meeting, leaders like Charlotte Despard spoke about supporting women workers. Funds were also raised for the Women's Suffrage National Aid Corps.

After the war, the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed. This law gave the right to vote to women aged 30 and over who owned property or were married to property owners. After the war ended, Myra Sadd Brown became active in the International Suffrage Alliance. She helped set up the British Commonwealth League in 1925. This was a group dedicated to protecting the rights of women in countries of the Commonwealth. She became the League's Treasurer.

Her husband, Ernest Sadd Brown, who had supported her activism, passed away in 1930. In 1937, Myra Sadd Brown traveled to south-east Asia. She visited Angkor Wat and Malaya. Then she went to Hong Kong. She planned to return home by the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, she had a stroke and died in Kowloon Hospital in Hong Kong in April 1938. She was cremated the next day. In the churchyard of the United Reformed Church in Maldon in Essex, there is a tree-shaped memorial to the Sadd family that mentions Myra Eleanor Sadd Brown.

After her death in 1938, the Commonwealth Countries League created the Sadd Brown Library. This library is now part of the Women's Library at the London School of Economics. Her papers and letters from prison are kept there. A radio program has also featured Myra Sadd Brown's experiences in prison, using her letters and interviews with her granddaughter.

Her 1912 Hunger Strike medal is now part of the collection at Museums Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.