On this day, 27 January 1866 Alice Wheeldon, British suffragette, socialist and anti-war campaigner, was born in Derby. She was later sentenced to 10 years’ penal servitude, alongside her daughter Winnie and son-in-law, on bogus charges of conspiracy to murder the prime minister, Lloyd George.
She fought for women’s right to vote, then with the outbreak of World War I began opposing the war, and sheltered young men on the run from conscription. One man she let into her home was a convicted criminal who had been declared criminally insane and was working for MI5 (Britain’s domestic secret service) who then framed her family.
Her health was permanently damaged by prison, and she died shortly after her release. Her son emigrated to the Soviet Union but was shot by the Cheka (secret police).
Pictured left-right: a prison warder, Alice’s two daughters and Alice https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1639202572931553/?type=3