Suffragette and WWI Xray tech G Lowy

Undoubtedly his most important scientific work was on the genetics of the potato, on which he became the leading authority. He began his researches on this line in 1906 and continued them to the end of his life; his last paper on it appeared in the present year. It is characteristic of the man that he treated the subject on the very broadest lines, at once theoretical and practical, economic and physiological, literary and historical. His largest single contribution was the fascinating volume of 1949, The History and Social Influenice of the Potato.
Recognized as a classic from the day of publication, it is a most attractive storehouse of original research and observation, fresh in outlook and presentation. It is no small achievement to have made a moving romance of this dull-looking vegetable.
From the middle nineteen-twenties Salaman took an interest in the rising study of viruses. In 1926 he became director of the Cambridge Potato Research Station, a position that he occupied until 1939. The scientific work done in this and kindred capacities led to his well-deserved election as Fellow of the Royal Society in 1935, and to his chairmanship of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in 1928 and later years. His greatest positive agricultural achievement was the introduction of potato strains with relative immunity to certain viruses and a high yield. Altogether he was the author of over fifty scientific papers on various aspects of the biology of the potato.
This by no means exhausted his contributions to agricultural science. Thus he wrote on the inheritance of fur-types in rabbits (1922), and contributed to a Royal Society discussion on ultramicroscopic viruses in animals and plants (1929) and on the state of the "Theory of Natural Selection" (1936). Elsewhere he developed the themes of virus diseases in plants ih general (1936) and on economic application of Mendelian methods (1936). He had also an intense interest in anthropological problems, and was the author of a whole series of works dealing largely with the physical anthropology of the Jewish people.
Of special medical bearing were his views on the relation of the virus diseases of man and animals to those affecting plants in a communication to the Lancet (1937), and on deformities and mutilations of the face in ancient Peruvian pottery in the Jouirnal of the Anthropological Institute (1939).
Salaman always devoted a large portion of his activity to public service. He became a J.P. for Hertfordshire in 1907 and was on the bench for 43 years, during 23 of which he was chairman of one of the divisions, member of the quarter sessions appeal court, and member of the county agricultural committee. He was also a Commissioner of Taxes. He combined all this with innumerable other public enterprises. He was almost from the beginning in 1933 a very efficient and attentive member and for long the treasurer of the council of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning. This body seeks to maintain in active work scholars and scientists who are refugees from oppression of any sort, regardless of their race, religion, colour, or politics.
Salaman's widely generous sympathies here found a very natural and useful outlet.
Something must be said on Salaman's special activities on behalf of the Jewish people, since his interest there, too, was specially in the encouragement of science and learning, and, not least, of higher health standards. He was president of the Jewish Historical Society (1920), and for the last forty years of his life was on the council of the Jews' College, a theological foundation. He was a founder of the Jewish Health Organization (1923), was largely responsible for the founding of a chair of Rabbinic studies at Cambridge (1925), and was a member of the board of governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which he visited many times and served in many capacities.
Salaman had a singularly happy domestic life. His first wife, Nina Davies, the daughter of a distinguished scholar, was a scholar and poetess in her own right. She was particularly successful in her translations of mediaeval Hebrew poetry and devotional literature, and many of her efforts have become standard. She was a lady of quite exceptional beauty, charm, and wisdom.
She bore her husband five children, two of whom are medical men, and died in 1925. He was no less fortunate in his second union with Gertrude Lowy, who survives him.

From http://www.bmj.com/content/1/4928/1479.full.pdf

We record with regret the death on June 12 at his home at Barley, Hertfordshire, of Dr. Redcliffe Salaman at the age of 80. A scholar and research worker of great distinction, Redciffe Nathan Salaman was for a short time director of the pathological institute-at the London Hospital, but he soon turned towards genetic and agricultural research, and for the whole of his life had a host of other interests which brought him renown in many countries of the world.

We are indebted to Professor CHARLES SINGER for the following tribute:

As I have known Redcliffe Salaman since childhood I venture to send you some account of this most remarkable man. His accomplishments are too varied for detailing here, but his distinguished [Walter Stoneman career has points of medical interest, not least of which was his extraordinary success in combating his early disability. He was an unusually handsome man who, till a very few weeks ago, gave the impression of an alert, genial country gentleman, a lover of the open air, but also one with a wide knowledge and kindly estimate of men and of affairs. All these things he was, but'he was much more. I wish that I could convey in words the impression of cheerful, breezy, combative, intelligent optimism that-his presence exhaled.
He was a, member of a Jewish family, the progenitors of which came to England from Holland in the mideighteenth century. Born in London in 1874, he was educated at St. Paul's School and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, of which he was a scholar and later an Honorary Fellow. He took a first in the tripos and was much influenced by the physiologists Michael Foster and Gaskell, the anatomist Macalister, and the anthropologist Haddon, all of whom remained his friends throughout their lives. He entered the London Hospital as a student and found time for research even before becoming qualified in 1900. As house-physician to Henry Head, F.R.S., he was naturally drawn to experimental pathology, and spent the years 1901-2 in research on those lines at Wurzburg and Berlin.
On his return he became director of the pathological institute of the London Hospital and a little later pathologist to the Zoological Gardens. In these capacities he did much important work which he was actively publishing when, in 1904, he developed pulmonary tuberculosis. He immediately entered a sanatorium in Switzerland, where he remained for eighteen months. On his return to England he decided to live in the rural surroundings of Barley, in Hertfordshire. He took there a house which remained his dwelling for the rest of his life. With due care his health steadily improved and he began the series of activities which, by their variety and the vigour with which they were prosecuted, made him a wellknown and much-liked, if sometimes controversial, figure in widely different circles.

Medal - Suffragette Medal (Hunger Strike)
Suffragette Medal awarded to Gertrude Lowy, following her going on hunger strike in Holloway Prison in March 1912. The colours of the ribbon from which the bar and medal hang represent dignity (purple), purity (white) and hope (green). These were adopted as the official WSPU colours in May 1908.

She was active in the women's suffrage movement in London and became a member of the militant Women's Social and Political Union, being imprisoned and arrested in 1912.
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From.. http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/1208261/medal-suffragette-medal-hunger-strike-awarded-to-myra-eleanor-sadd-brown-great-britain-1909

The Suffragette Medal was commissioned in 1909 by the Women's Social and Political Union, and fewer than 100 are thought to have been awarded.
Description:
A small round silver medal (22 mm. diameter) suspended by a ring from a green, white and purple silk ribbon which is supported by a lower bar enamelled in horizontal stripes of purple, white and green, and an upper silver bar which is inscribed FOR VALOUR. The obverse of the medal is inscribed HUNGER STRIKE.
The reverse is inscribed wuth the recipient's name within a laurel wreath.... the back of the upper bar is impressed TOYE. 57 THEOBALDS RD. LONDON

Dimensions: 75 mm (Height), 38 mm (Width), 22 mm (Diameter)

The Women’s Social & Political Union (WSPU) was an early 20th century organisation campaigning for equal voting rights with men. This campaigning for women’s voting rights was known as suffrage. There were other suffrage groups but the WSPU are probably the best known, mainly for the publicity and notoriety gained through their militant and confrontational actions used to draw attention to their cause. The WSPU motto ‘Deeds not Words’ and radical actions set them apart from the longer established and larger suffrage organisation, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

The WSPU was founded in 1903 by a group of six women that included Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. The militant tactics of the WSPU proved too reactionary and controversial for many members which caused splits within the organisation, especially when such activities were stepped up around 1910. The outbreak of WW1 in 1914 saw the WSPU redirect their activities from militant and suffrage campaigning to a patriotic war effort that mainly encouraged men to take up arms in defence of King and Country. In October 1915 the WSPU renamed their newspaper from the The Suffragette to Britannia that reflected a change of policy.

The Representation of the People Act 1918 give voting rights to a limited number of women subject to martial and property qualifications. However, much of the credit for this achievement is attributed to the NUWSS rather than the WSPU. It would be 1928 before universal voting rights were extended to all women in Britain without qualification as a result of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928.

From

Emmeline Pankhurst Country: Great Britain. Cause: Equal voting rights for women.

Background: The Reform Acts of 1832, 1867 and 1884 extend the right to vote to all British men. But women are excluded. Women and their supporters unite to fight for full and equal voting rights.

Mini biography: Born Emmeline Goulden on 14 July 1858 in Manchester, England

1903 - She founds the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester.

1905 - The suffrage movement attracts wide attention in October when two of its members, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney, are jailed. After being thrown out of a Liberal Party election rally for demanding a statement about votes for women, the two were arrested in the street for a technical assault on the police but refused to pay their fines.

1906 - Pankhurst directs WSPU activities from London. She organises marches and rallies and campaigns against the Liberal government's candidates at elections. Her followers interrupt meetings of Cabinet ministers. The women are disparaged as "suffragettes" by the 'Daily Mail' newspaper but the movement proudly adopts the description.

1908-09 - She is jailed three times.

1910 - On 18 November a deputation from the WSPU including Pankhurst attempts to gain admission to the House of Commons to see Prime Minister Asquith and protest against the dropping of the Conciliation Bill, which would have given women the vote. Pankhurst is refused entry by the police. The protest develops into a riot when the women try to break through the police lines. Over 100 women are arrested on charges varying from disturbing the peace to assaulting police officers, although most charges are subsequently dropped. Many of the women accuse the police of brutality. The day comes to be known to the suffragettes as 'Black Friday'.

1912 - The WSPU becomes militant, with Christabel Pankhurst directing arson attacks, window smashing, picture slashing and hunger strikes from Paris, where she has fled to avoid arrest for conspiracy. Emmeline is arrested, released and rearrested 12 times within a year, serving a total of about 30 days jail. Under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act of 1913 (the 'Cat and Mouse Act') hunger-striking prisoners could be freed for a time and then reimprisoned when strong enough to serve the rest of their sentences.

1914 - When the First World War breaks out Pankhurst and Christabel call off the suffrage campaign to support the war effort. The government releases all suffragist prisoners. During the war Pankhurst visits the United States, Canada, and Russia to encourage the mobilisation of women. After the war she lives in the US, Canada, and Bermuda for several years.

1917 - The WSPU changes its name to the Women's Party.

1918 - The Representation of People Act is passed in February. The act gives the vote to women over 30.

1926 - Pankhurst returns to England and is chosen as the Conservative candidate for an east London seat, but her health fails before she can be elected.

1928 - She dies on 14 June in London, a few weeks after the Representation of the People Act establishing voting equality for men and women is passed.

Comment: It seems incredible these days that women in the West were ever denied equal voting rights. It seems even more incredible that women in Britain had to fight for about 80 years and finally resort to violent protest to win this right. This wasn't the case elsewhere. Women in New Zealand obtained the vote peaceably in 1893. Australian women were given the franchise on 12 June 1902, 18 months after the country federated. Australian women were also the first in the world to be given the right to stand for parliament. Women in the US got the vote in 1920. There are heroes in all of these stories but the drama and significance of the struggle in Britain throws Emmeline Pankhurst's story into prominence.

From

Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU) (1903-c.1919) was the prime mover of suffrage militancy. In Oct 1903 the WSPU was founded in Manchester at Emmeline Pankhurst's home in Nelson Street. Members included: Emmeline, Adela and Christabel Pankhurst, Teresa Billington-Greig, Annie Kenney and Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy. Several had been members of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and had links with the Independent Labour Party, but were frustrated with progress, reflected in the WSPU motto 'Deeds, not Words'. An initial aim of WSPU was to recruit more working class women into the struggle for the vote. In late 1905 the WSPU began militant action with the consequent imprisonment of their members. The first incident was on 13 Oct 1905, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney attended a meeting in London where they heckled the speaker Sir Edward Grey, a minister in the British government. Pankhurst and Kenney were arrested, charged with assault upon a police officer and fined five shillings each. They refused to pay the fine and were sent to prison. In 1906 the WSPU moved to London and continued militant action - with the 'Daily Mail' calling the activists 'suffragettes' an unfavourable term adopted by the group. Between 1906-1908 there were several constitutional disagreements with the Women's Freedom League being founded in Nov 1907 by the 'Charlotte Despard faction'. From 1908 the WSPU tactics of disturbing meetings developed to breaking the windows of government buildings. This increased the number of women imprisoned. In Jul 1909 Marion Dunlop was the first imprisoned suffragette to go on hunger strike, many suffragettes followed her example and force-feeding was introduced. Between 1910-1911 the Conciliation Bills were presented to Parliament and militant activity ceased, but when Parliament sidelined these Bills the WSPU re-introduced their active protests.

Between 1912-1914 there was an escalation of WSPU violence - damage to property and arson and bombing attacks became common tactics. Targets included government and public buildings, politicians' homes, cricket pavilions, racecourse stands and golf clubhouses. Some members of the WSPU such as the Pethick-Lawrences, disagreed with this arson campaign and were expelled. Other members showed their disapproval by leaving the WSPU. The Pethick-Lawrences took with them the journal 'Votes for Women', hence the new journal of the WSPU the 'Suffragette' launched in Oct 1912. In 1913 in response to the escalation of violence, imprisonment and hunger strikes the government introduced the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act (popularly known as the 'Cat and Mouse Act'). Suffragettes who went on hunger strike were released from prison as soon as they became ill and when recovered they were re-imprisoned.

Discord within the WSPU continued - In Jan 1914 Sylvia Pankhurst's 'East London Federation of the WSPU' was expelled from the WSPU and became an independent suffrage organisation. On 4 Aug 1914, England declared war on Germany. Two days later the NUWSS announced that it was suspending all political activity until the war was over. In return for the release of all suffragettes from prison the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities. The WSPU organised a major rally attended by 30,000 people in London to emphasise the change of direction. In Oct 1915, The WSPU changed its newspaper's name from 'The Suffragette' to 'Britannia'. Emmeline's patriotic view of the war was reflected in the paper's new slogan: 'For King, For Country, for Freedom'. the paper was 'conservative' in tone and attacked campaigners, politicians, military leaders and pacifists for not furthering the war effort. Not all members supported the WSPU war policy and several independent groups were set up as members left the WSPU. In 1917 the WSPU became known as the 'Women's Party and in Dec 1918 fielded candidates at the general election (including Christabel Pankhurst). However they were not successful and the organisation does not appear to have survived beyond 1919.

Great War British War Medal and Victory Medal Pair .
British War Medal, 1914-1920. Circular silver medal with claw and ribbon bar suspension; the face with the head of King George V facing left, circumscribed ‘GEORGIVS V BRITT: OMN: REX ET IND : IMP:’ (George V King of Great Britain and Emperor of India), signed ‘BM’ (for Sir Bertram Mackennal, 1863-1931) on the base of the neck; the reverse with St. George on horseback, reins in his left hand, a sword in his right, trampling a shield bearing an eagle with wings outstretched and a skull and crossbones, wavy lines denoting the sea beyond, a radiant rising sun upper right, dated ‘1914’ and ‘1918’ upper left and right respectively, signed ‘W McM’ (for William McMillan, 1887-1977 who also designed the British Inter-Allied Victory Medal); impressed on the edge to ‘G. LOWY V.A.D.’. The medal was instituted in 1919 and awarded to members of the British and Imperial forces who had served between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. Officers and men of the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, and Dominion and Colonial naval forces were required to have completed 28 days mobilised service, though this was waived if active service had been terminated by death. The award criteria were subsequently extended to include post-war mine-clearing at sea and service in operations in Russia in 1919-20.
Inter-Allied Victory Medal, Great Britain and British Empire issue, 1914-1919. Circular bronze medal on laterally pierced cylinder suspension; the face with a winged figure of Victory, signed ‘W McM’ (for William McMillan, 1887-1977, who also designed the British War Medal, 1914-1920); the reverse inscribed ‘THE GREAT WAR FOR CIVILISATION 1914-1919’ within a circular laurel wreath; impressed on the edge to ‘G. LOWY. V.A.D.’. The idea of an inter-allied medal to commemorate victory in what was termed ‘The Great War for Civilisation’ is credited to the French Field-Marshal Foch. It was agreed that each of the Allies should issue a medal to their nationals featuring a figure representing ‘Victory’ on the front and have a symmetric double rainbow ribbon with red, the colour of courage and sacrifice at the centre, representing the colours of the allies flags and presenting an allegory of calm after storm. The British medal was instituted on 1 September 1919 to be awarded to all those who served in a theatre of operations between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. It was awarded also to all British Empire military, except those of South Africa, whose government issued their own variant. Additionally, it was awarded to those British servicemen active in the Hejaz and Aden after the end of the European war, for post-war mine clearance operations and for the Royal Navy mission to Russia, hence the latter date of 1919.

The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary organisation providing field nursing services, mainly in hospitals, in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The organisation's most important periods of operation were during World War I and World War II.

The organisation was founded in 1909 with the help of the Red Cross and Order of St. John. By the summer of 1914 there were over 2,500 Voluntary Aid Detachments in Britain. Each individual volunteer was called a detachment, or simply a VAD. Of the 74,000 VADs in 1914, two-thirds were women and girls.

At the outbreak of the First World War VADs eagerly offered their service to the war effort. The British Red Cross was reluctant allowing civilian women a role in overseas hospitals: most VADs were of the middle and upper classes and unaccustomed to hardship and traditional hospital discipline. Military authorities would not accept VADs at the front line.

Katharine Furse took two VADs to France in October 1914, restricting them to serve as canteen workers and cooks. Caught under fire in a sudden battle the VADs were pressed into emergency hospital service and acquitted themselves well. The growing shortage of trained nurses opened the door for VADs in overseas military hospitals. Furse was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the VAD and restrictions were removed. Female volunteers over the age of twenty-three and with more than three months' hospital experience were accepted for overseas service.

VADs were an uneasy addition to military hospitals' rank and order. They lacked the advanced skill and discipline of professional trained nurses and were often critical of the nursing profession. Relations improved as the war stretched on: VADs increased their skill and efficiency and trained nurses were more accepting of the VADs' contributions. During four years of war 38,000 VADs worked in hospitals and served as ambulance drivers and cooks. VADs served near the Western Front and in Mesopotamia and Gallipoli. VAD hospitals were also opened in most large towns in Britain. Later, VADs were also sent to the Eastern Front. They provided an invaluable source of bedside aid in the war effort. Many were decorated for distinguished service.

(Gertrude's sister): Lady Ruth Gollancz nee Lowy (1892-1973) was a British artist and wife of Sir Victor Gollancz.
Ruth Lowy was the daughter of Ernest Daniel Löwy, a stockbroker. Ruth Gollancz studied art at the Slade school of art from 1909-12 under the direction of Henry Tonks. Her contemporaries at the Slade included C.R.W. Nevinson, Paul Nash, John Nash, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler and Gwen Raverat amongst others. At this time she was also an active suffragette.

She left the Slade school to undertake war work before going on to become the first female member of the Architectural Association in 1917 and a fully qualified architect.

Ruth married Victor Gollancz in 1919. They had five daughters, including the artist Vita Gollancz and the musician Livia Ruth Gollancz.

Exhibitions
1933 - Cooling & Sons Gallery
1964 - Upper Grosvenor Galleries From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Gollancz

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Gollancz

Victor Gollancz (1893-1967) formed his own publishing company in 1927, publishing works by writers such as Ford Madox Ford and George Orwell (though Orwell went to Secker and Warburg from Homage to Catalonia on). While Gollancz published The Red Army Moves by Geoffrey Cox on the Winter War in 1941, he omitted some criticisms of the USSR.

Gollancz was one of the founders of the Left Book Club. He had a knack for marketing, sometimes taking out full-page newspaper advertisements for the books he published, a novelty at the time. He also used eye-catching typography and book designs, and used yellow dust-covers on books.

In addition to his highly successful publishing business, Gollancz was a prolific writer on a variety of subjects, and put his ideas into action by establishing campaigning groups. His 1943 pamphlet 'Let My People Go', which called for an attempt by the Allied powers to rescue Jews under threat of extermination in occupied Europe, reached a mass audience in 1943, following widespread coverage in the British media in December 1942 of the Nazi's extermination policy. A subsequent pamphlet, published by Gollancz later on in the war, failed to reach a mass audience. By then the British media had almost entirely ceased coverage of the story of the Nazi attempt to exterminate European Jewry, after it had become clear that the western powers were unwilling to respond to popular British sentiment at the end of 1942 and early 1943 in favour of an attempt to rescue Jews in occupied Europe, which would have meant siphoning resources from the war effort. Along with Eleanor Rathbone, Gollancz was the foremost British campaigner during the Second World War on the issue of the Nazi extermination of European Jewry.

After the war, he set up a campaign to send food and clothing from a Britain still subject to rationing to occupied Germany and Italy in 1945, and recruited Peggy Duff to organise it; she also worked with him on the National Campaign to Abolish Capital Punishment in the 1950s.

In 1960, he received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, being the first and, so far, only British person to receive this award. He was knighted in 1965.