| Henria Helen Leech Williams | |
| Birth Date: | 1867 1, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Oswestry, Shropshire, England |
| Death Place: | Corbets Ley, Upminster, England |
| Burial Place: | Cathcart Cemetery Glasgow, Scotland |
| Known For: | Suffragette Activism |
Henria Leech Williams (6 January 1867 – 2 January 1911) was a British suffragette, who organised local meetings and attended suffrage demonstrations. She died two months after the 'Black Friday' demonstration, probably as a result of an underlying health condition being aggravated by the violent treatment she received.
Henria Helen Leech Williams was born in Oswestry, Shropshire in January 1867, to Henria Helen Williams (née Leech), a governess and school mistress. Her father Henry Williams worked as a Railway Signal Engineer.[1] Williams was one of eight children and her maternal grandfather was the 'Primitive Methodist' Minister, Henry Leech.[2]
The family lived for some time in Nantwich, Cheshire. However, between 1881 and 1886, they moved to Cathcart, Glasgow where her father established the Henry Williams Railway Appliance Works. Census records from 1891 show the then 24 year old Henria living with her parents at Albert Road, Cathcart. By 1901, however, she had moved to The Peak Hydro, Buxton, Derbyshire, where she was recorded as a "boarder living on her own means".
Henria's mother died in 1904, leaving a bequest which included stocks and shares in several railway companies and South African diamond mines. Her will stipulated that "money left to her daughters was to remain outside the control of any future husbands".[3]
In 1905, Williams moved to the village of Corbets Ley, Upminster. She purchased 'The Cottage' (now a grade II listed building),[4] which until four years earlier had been a pub named 'The George'. It was a substantial home with three public rooms, four bedrooms, an attic, cellar, and outlying structures including a glasshouse, a stable, and a new two-bed cottage for her coachman, David Scott. The Cottage drawing room was described as having a notable "carved wood mantel & overmantel".
Williams strongly supported the cause of votes for women, and was known to have worn the suffragette colours of violet, white, and green. She was seen locally as a "rather eccentric lady": when in conversation "she poured forth a torrent of eloquence with great vivacity", and when listening to others in a meeting "she could not conceal her enthusiasm". She was a distinctive presence at meetings as "her naturally excitable temperament found extensive scope in frantic enthusiasm, for which she was remarkable". She also displayed large posters outside her house showing the torturous force-feeding of imprisoned suffragettes.
Williams convened a local meeting on 28 November 1905, to hear from the leaders of the Women's Freedom League with Violet or Irene Tillard, and Alice Schofield speaking. Williams was inspired to join larger events in the protest movement in London, taking part in canvassing and other demonstrations.
On 29 June 1909, Williams was among over 100 women arrested with the Women's Social and Political Union leader Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Wilding Davison for attempting to enter the House of Commons. At their hearing at Bow Street Police Court on 9 July, the cases against Williams and others charged with obstruction were adjourned indefinitely, but 14 of the protesters were imprisoned for smashing windows of government buildings.
Williams also took part in the suffrage demonstration on 18 November 1910, when several hundred women marched to the Houses of Parliament. This demonstration came to be known as Black Friday due to the violent response, including sexual violence, from police and a mob of bystanders. In her own words:[5] [6]
Her rescuer, Frank Whitty, later wrote a letter on his shame at the violent treatment of women instead of arrests by policy, in the WSPU newsletter Votes for Women, as follows:
Undaunted, the following Tuesday, 22 November 1910, Williams joined a delegation to protest to Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, outside 10 Downing Street. When they met him en route, it is claimed in some reports that Williams hit Asquith's face saying "You tax women as heavily as men, yet women are not represented in Parliament". Other reports simply refer to a fleeting conversation which was halted before she could say much when a policeman whistled for a cab to escort Asquith, "much to the chagrin of the discontented suffragette". Williams allegedly managed to smash a window in the cab before it moved away and was dragged off shouting "Traitor!" and "Coward".
By Christmas 1910, Williams was alone at home in The Cottage. Her maid had resigned and had not been replaced as Williams was arranging to join a tax-resistance campaign and give up tenancy of the property. Her coachman, however, continued to live on the grounds. On New Year's Day 1911, a Sunday, Williams went to church and spoke with friends cheerfully relating that a relative was also joining the women's movement. At 3:00 a.m. the following day, a passing policeman "heard groans and a cry for assistance" and entered the house with the coachman through a window, finding Williams "in extremis".[7] Williams died on 2 January 1911, and a coroner's inquest took place at her home the next day. Reverend Hyla Henry Holden was the jury foreman and the verdict was 'death by angina pectoris'. The press concluded that Williams taking part in suffragette militancy could be seen as "conduct not at all congenial to one who suffered from a weak heart".
As Williams's death was only two months after 'Black Friday', it was attributed by the suffragette movement as due to the brutal treatment she endured then.[8] She had written to a brother only days before stating that she was still feeling the effects of that day. Henry Brailsford, a Yorkshire-born journalist, and Dr Jessie Murray, who in 1918 was among the founders of the first psychotherapy clinic in Britain, included a letter from Henria Williams to Dr. Murray dated 27 December 1910, five days before her death. Brailsford and Murray concluded in their February 1911 pamphlet "Treatment of the Women's Deputations by the Police". Excerpts were also published in Votes for Women.
Williams's obituary notes:
Her brother Llewellyn – who supported her campaigning – wrote:[9]
Williams had the suffragette colours draping her coffin, and a wreath saying
Williams was buried in the family lair in Cathcart Cemetery in Glasgow, with the inscription "Henria Helen Leech. Born 6th January, 1867, died 2nd January, 1911."
Williams' legacy and tomb had fallen out of common knowledge, until members of the artist-led project Protests and Suffragettes were advised of the Scottish connection.[13]
It was noted that Williams' funeral had been attended by key leaders from the British suffrage movement, and there was a first-hand description of Williams' funeral by fellow suffragette Ruth Underwood in Votes for Women:[14]
After a short church service, the funeral party drove to Cathcart Cemetery, where a second service was held by the open grave. Underwood wrote: