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Emily Duval, née Hayes, (1860–1924) was a English suffragette and member of the Women’s Freedom League (WFL), which she left in 1911 as being insufficiently militant in the cause of women’s suffrage. While a member of the WFL, she took part in its campaign of protesting in police courts when women were in the dock, arguing that as women had no part in making the laws, they would not obey them.[1]
Emily was first arrested in 1908, together with her daughter Barbara. They had been with their fellow suffragette, Muriel Matters, when she chained herself to the grills that divided the public viewing section of the House of Commons. Emily paid her fine and 17-year-old Barbara was released after agreeing not to get involved in any further protests until she was 21 (i.e. an adult).[2]
Between 1908 and 1912 Emily was arrested on six occasions.[3] In 1911 she had become disillusioned with the WFL and rejoined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which she had first joined in 1906. After breaking the windows of the Local Government Board offices in 1911, and while under arrest breaking some more, she was sentenced to a term of two weeks imprisonment. In 1912 she was four months into a six-month sentence in Birmingham’s Winson Green prison when she decided to go on hunger-strike. She was force fed and then released to a nursing home.[1]
Personal life
In 1881 Emily married Ernest Diederichs Duval, a factory manager and future member of the Men’s Political Union. Together they had six children, four of whom were also imprisoned for the suffragette cause.[1]