It’s often forgotten how passionately the Suffragette movement embraced martial arts. Here’s part of “The Amazons of Edwardian London; martial arts-trained Suffragette Bodyguards”, a fascinating article at Bartitsu.org:
‘…To keep their leaders free as long as possible, as well as to protect them against run of the mill assaults by irate defenders of the status quo, the Women’s Social and Political Union created a secret society known as The Bodyguard. Numbering 25 or 30 athletic and dedicated women, the Bodyguard was charged with providing security at Suffragette rallies throughout the UK.
The Bodyguard took their duties seriously and, following Sylvia Pankhurst’s advice, started training in the Japanese martial art of jujitsu, which had been introduced to London some 15 years previously by Edward William Barton-Wright, the founder of the eccentric and eclectic self defence art of Bartitsu. They were trained in a succession of secret locations by Edith Garrud, who was among the very first professional jujitsu instructors in the Western world. Journalists, delighted by this colourful wrinkle in an already juicy story, quickly dubbed the Bodyguard the “jujitsuffragettes”…’
Below is a series of pictures from a short and entertaining 1911 play in which ‘Liz, the coster’s wife… having been taught Ju-jutsu by Mrs. Garrud, tames her drunken husband into subjection.’