2-378-385 - Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images

Sylvia Pankhurst, British suffragette, in a bath chair, London, June 1914. Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) is shown here in her severely weakened state caused by numerous hunger, thirst and sleep strikes. She had a team of bodyguards composed of suffragettes and male supporters who tried to prevent police from re-arresting her while she was released from Holloway Gaol under the terms of the Prisoners' Temporary Discharge for III-Health Act, usually called the 'Cat and Mouse' Act. Suffragettes were allowed to go on hunger strike but once they became ill they were released. When they had recovered, the police re-arrested them and returned them to prison in order that they completed their sentences..