Suffragette Selina Martin (1882-1972) was imprisoned and forcibly fed for her beliefs and actions.
Now, more than a century later, Lancaster Civic Vision have erected a plaque where she lived in Sun Street.
An active and influential member of the Women’s Social and Political Union from 1908, Selina was imprisoned several times and was the first woman to be forcibly fed while on hunger strike in prison.
In Liverpool in December 1909, with fellow suffragette Leslie Hall, she approached Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and threw an empty ginger beer bottle into his car.
They were both arrested.
Selina, whose father was a bookseller in Lancaster, documented a harrowing account of her experience in Walton Jail and the extent of the force used against her.
She was awarded the hunger strike medal for valour by the WSPU, was admired in Lancaster and was hailed a hero in the Lancaster Guardian.
Women eventually achieved equal voting rights with men in 1928.
Selina married Edward Burley and had two children, Evelyn and Edward. She died at The Hermitage home for the elderly at Crook o’ Lune and was buried at Lancaster Cemetery.
The plaque in Sun Street was unveiled on Friday January 16 by a great great grandson, Jackson Sycamore.
