Miss Olive Grace Walton

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/arrest-of-olive-walton/tAErb5fgjDI29A
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)

Family information: Father was a wine merchant. He died when Olive was seven years old.

Additional Information: Olive joined the WSPU in her home town of Tunbridge Wells. She moved to London to carry out social work and, once in the city, got drawn further into WSPU militancy. In 1911, she was sent to prison for one week and later, in 1912, for taking part in a WSPU window-smashing campaign. She went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed. Her family put up money to get her released but were ashamed of her behaviour and had nothing else to do with her during this time. She returned to her home town to work as a WSPU organiser for a time in 1913, but by 1914 was an organiser in Dundee, Scotland. In July, when King George and Queen Mary visited Scotland, Olive was arrested for throwing a ball through their carriage window. It had a petition attached to it, requesting the King to stop the practice of forcibly feeding suffragettes in prison. Olive was arrested but the Queen asked the police not to press charges.

Other Suffrage Activities: When war broke out in 1914, Olive was one of the first to join the Women Police Volunteers, and became one of four inspectors at its headquarters. She eventually left the police force after being badly injured in a motorcycle accident. Olive never fit in with her family, and was described by her likely disapproving niece as not interested in 'fashion and frivolous things', and always wearing a suit and tie and cutting her hair short 'like a man's'.