The Release of the Suffragette Prisoner Jennie Baines, 12th December 1908

The release of the Suffragette Prisoner Jennie Baines, 12th December 1908. Jennie had been convicted of a charge of 'unlawful assembly' in Leeds. Defended by the Suffragette leader Fred Pethick-Lawrence she was the first Suffragette to be tried by a jury and being found guilty was sentenced to 6 weeks imprisonment in Armley jail. On her release she was greeted by a Suffragette delegation wearing clogs and shawls. This photograph depicts Jennie's triumphant return to London from Leeds where she was transported through the streets in an open horse drawn carriage accompanied by a brass band and a procession of Suffragettes to a meeting in Trafalgar Square.

Jennie Baines was born in Birmingham in 1866 and began working in a small arms factory from the age of 11 years. Following involvement with the Salvation Army, the Temperance movement and the Independent Labour Party, Jennie joined the Women's Social and Political Union around 1905. From 1908 she was employed by the WSPU as a salaried Organiser in the Midlands and North of England. Married to a boot maker, by this time her eldest daughter was 20 years old and she also had two younger sons. Leaving her daughter to manage the family home Jennie travelled from her base at Stockport by train and bicycle, planning WSPU demonstrations, setting up new branches and addressing meetings often staying overnight at Salvation Army & Temperance hostels.
One of the first to advocate militant methods, Jennie was imprisoned a further 8 times for militancy including a term of 9 months in Mountjoy prison for being implicated in the burning of the Theatre Royal in Dublin. During her periods of imprisonment Jennie joined the hunger-strikes but was never force-fed due to her suffering from the condition chorea that caused muscular spasms. In July 1913 Jennie, her husband and 17 year old son were arrested on suspicion of bombing a railway carriage in a siding at Newton Heath. Still weakened by her previous imprisonment the entire family fled to Wales disguised as the 'Evans' family from where they travelled to Melbourne, Australia.
During World War I Jennie worked campaigned alongside Adela Pankhurst as a member of the Women's Peace Party and remained a political activist until her death in Australia in 1951.