Mary Richardson

Mary Raleigh Richardson (1882/3 – 7 November 1961) was a Canadian suffragette active in the women's suffrage movement in the United Kingdom, an arsonist, a socialist parliamentary candidate and she later resigned as the head of the women's section of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) led by Sir Oswald Mosley.

For other people named Mary Richardson, see Mary Richardson (disambiguation).

Mary Richardson
by Special Branch circa 1912
Born1882/3
Died(1961-11-07)7 November 1961
NationalityBritish
OccupationJournalist
Known forSlashing the Rokeby Venus

Life

She grew up in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. In 1898, she travelled to Paris and Italy. She lived in Bloomsbury, and witnessed Black Friday.[1]

Militant actions

At the beginning of the 20th century, the suffragette movement, frustrated by a failure to achieve equal voting rights for women, began adopting increasingly militant tactics. In particular, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), led by the charismatic Emmeline Pankhurst, frequently endorsed the use of property destruction to bring attention to the issue of women's suffrage. Richardson was a devoted supporter of Pankhurst and a member of the WSPU. Richardson joined Helen Craggs at the Women's Press shop and told her of the abuse from men (obsence remarks) and customers tearing up materials.[2]

Richardson claimed to be at the Epsom races on Derby Day, 4 June 1913, when Emily Davison jumped in front of the King's horse. Emily Davison died in Epsom Cottage Hospital; Mary Richardson was reportedly chased and beaten by an angry mob but was given refuge in Epsom Downs station by a railway porter.[3]

She committed a number of acts of arson, smashed windows at the Home Office and bombed a railway station. She was arrested nine times, receiving prison terms totalling more than three years.[4][5] She was one of the first two women force-fed and released to recover and be re-arrested under the 1913 Cat and Mouse Act , Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, serving her sentences in HM Prison Holloway.[6]

Richardson had been given the Hunger Strike Medal ' for Valour' by WSPU.

Richardson would recover at the cottage of Lillian Dove-Willcox in the Wye valley. She was devoted to Dove-Willcox and wrote poetry about her love for her.[7]

Damaging the Rokeby Venus
Damage done to the Rokeby Venus by Mary Richardson's attack. The canvas was later fully restored.[8]
Arrest of Mary Richardson after attack

An act of defiance by Richardson occurred on 10 March 1914 when she entered the National Gallery in London to attack a painting by Velázquez, the Rokeby Venus using a chopper she smuggled into the gallery.[9] She wrote a brief statement explaining her actions to the WSPU which was published by the press:[10]

"I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history. Justice is an element of beauty as much as colour and outline on canvas. Mrs Pankhurst seeks to procure justice for womanhood, and for this she is being slowly murdered by a Government of Iscariot politicians. If there is an outcry against my deed, let every one remember that such an outcry is an hypocrisy so long as they allow the destruction of Mrs Pankhurst and other beautiful living women, and that until the public cease to countenance human destruction the stones cast against me for the destruction of this picture are each an evidence against them of artistic as well as moral and political humbug and hypocrisy."[11]

General election 1922: Acton[12]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Unionist Harry Brittain 10,208 49.9 −23.4
Labour Mary Richardson 5,342 26.2 −0.5
Liberal Neville Dixey 4,877 23.9 N/A
Majority 4,866 23.7 −22.9
Turnout 20,427 67.1 +13.2
Registered electors 30,425
Unionist hold Swing −11.5

As a Fascist

In 1932, after forming the belief that fascism was the "only path to a 'Greater Britain,'" Richardson joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF), led by Sir Oswald Mosley. She claimed that "I was first attracted to the Blackshirts because I saw in them the courage, the action, the loyalty, the gift of service and the ability to serve which I had known in the suffragette movement".[13] Richardson rose quickly through the BUF ranks and by 1934 was Chief Organiser for the Women's Section of the party. She left within two years after becoming disillusioned with the sincerity of its policy on women.[14]

Two other prominent suffragette leaders to gain high office in the BUF were Norah Elam[15] and Commandant Mary Sophia Allen.[16]

Later life

Richardson published her autobiography, Laugh a Defiance, in 1953. She died at her flat in Hastings on 7 November 1961.[1]

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See also

Notes
  1. Kean 2004.
  2. Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781408844045. OCLC 1016848621.
  3. Hastings Press Archived 18 February 2012 at the Wayback MachineGoogle Books
  4. English Women's History Archived 18 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Feminine fascism: women in Britain's fascist movement – Julie V. Gottlieb – Google Books
  6. Entry for Mary Richardson, Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
  7. "lillian dove-willcox | Woman and her Sphere". womanandhersphere.com. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  8. Potterton, Homan. The National Gallery. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977. 15
  9. BBC Radio 4 – Woman's Hour – Women's History Timeline: 1910 – 1919
  10. Gamboni, The Destruction of Art, p. 94.
  11. "Miss Richardson's Statement". The Times. 11 March 1914.
  12. Craig, F.W.S., ed. (1969). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. p. 421. ISBN 0-900178-01-9.
  13. Gottlieb, op cit at 164
  14. McCouat, P, "From Rokeby Venus to Fascism", Journal of Art in Society,
  15. McPherson, Angela; McPherson, Susan (2011). Mosley's Old Suffragette – A Biography of Norah Elam. ISBN 978-1-4466-9967-6. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012.
  16. Boyd, N, From Suffragette to Fascist, The History Press, 2013

References

Bibliography
  • Gamboni, Dario. The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution. Reaktion Books – Picturing History, 2007. ISBN 1-86189-316-7
  • Nead, Lynda. The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity, and Sexuality. Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-02677-6
  • Prater, Andreas. Venus at Her Mirror: Velázquez and the Art of Nude Painting. Prestel, 2002. ISBN 3-7913-2783-6
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