Miss Bertha Ryland

Gender: Female

Marital Status: Single

Born: 1882

Place of birth: Birmingham, Warwickshire, England

Main Suffrage Society: WSPU

Arrest Record: Yes

Recorded Entries: 5

Sources:

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)

Further Information:

Additional Information: Bertha joined the WSPU in 1908 with her mother, and ran the Midlands regional office for the WSPU. In 1910, she established a new WSPU base in Lichfield. She took part in window smashing in 1911 and was sentenced to one week in prison, and was sentenced again in 1912 for smashing windows in Bond Street, London. This time she was given six months in prison with hard labour in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham. She went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed then released. In 1914, she took a cleaver to a painting called 'Master Thornhill' by Romney in Birmingham Art Gallery. She went on hunger strike in prison pending her trial and was forcibly fed. She became too ill to stand trial and the Home Office suffragette amnesty came into effect before she was sentenced. Bertha suffered permanent kidney damage as a result of her treatment in prison.