Miss Ellen (Nellie) Crocker

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

Family information: Cousin of suffragette Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.

Additional Information: Nellie joined the WSPU in 1907 and was a speaker at the first meeting of the Bath WSPU. She was also one of the key speakers at the WSPU procession to Hyde Park in June 1908. In 1909, she became WSPU organiser in Yorkshire but, between 1909 and 1912, was mostly based in Nottingham. She was arrested twice in 1909, first for taking part in the WSPU deputation to the House of Commons and later for interrupting a meeting being held by Winston Churchill in Leicester. She was imprisoned and went on hunger strike, leading to her release four days later. She was present in November 1910 for 'Black Friday', and when later arrested for taking part in 1912 in the WSPU window-smashing campaign, she cited women's ill treatment on Black Friday as her reason for participating. She was imprisoned in Holloway Gaol between March and June 1912 and went on hunger strike. She worked as a WSPU organiser until 1912, when she resigned ? perhaps because of the split between the Pankhursts and the Pethick-Lawrences within the WSPU.

Other Suffrage Activities: Nellie had been honorary secretary of the Wellington, Somerset, Women's Liberal Association but resigned over the Liberal government's lack of support for women's suffrage.