The bravery medal awarded to an Otago-born suffragette who campaigned for British women to be given the vote is to go up for auction.
British auction house Dix Noonan Webb is selling the Medal for Valour given to suffragette Frances Parker recognising time served in jail, being force-fed during protest hunger strikes and suffering abuse in her struggle for equal voting rights.
Her vigorous campaigning included an attempt to burn down the cottage where Scottish bard Robbie Burns was born.
Miss Parker, who moved to Britain and became an important leader in the Scottish suffragette movement, was the great-niece of distinguished WWI military leader Lord Kitchener.
Auctioneer David Erskine-Hill said Miss Parker's story was one of the most remarkable of the suffragette history.
He says her actions not only outraged her famous uncle but resulted in her being physically and sexually abused when she was detained in prison for arson charges.
"She came from a classic establishment background, her uncle, Lord Kitchener, epitomising military traditionalism, but [she] rebelled against that and became an ardent suffragette," he said.
"She was imprisoned five times and force-fed on three occasions and was subjected to the most appalling abuse while she was in jail in Perth [in Scotland]. The medal she was awarded by her fellow campaigners must surely rank as one of the most important issued by the Women's Social and Political Union."
The gallantry medal is inscribed with the words "Hunger Strike" with her name on the front and dates of the hunger strikes and when she was force-fed on the reverse.
It also has a presentation box and an inscription recognising her acts "whereby through Endurance to the last Extremity of Hunger and Hardship, a Great Principle of Political Justice was Vindicated".
Mr Erskine-Hill said the suffragette suffered brutal treatment behind bars but was released to a nursing home on compassionate grounds after family intervened.
She then escaped and was on the run when World War I broke out. Through her lawyer she struck a plea bargain with authorities to devote herself to the war effort in exchange for the arson charges to be dropped.
Auctioneers are expecting the medal to fetch as much as $NZ33,000 when the medal is auctioned on February 25.
Miss Parker bequeathed the medal to her friend and fellow suffragette Ethel Moorhead. It is being sold on behalf of one of her descendants.
Miss Parker died in France in 1924, aged 49.
- NZ Herald
