Dorothy Evans in 1936

Portrait of the Suffragette Dorothy Evans. Dated 1936 it depicts Dorothy wearing a sandwich board announcing a protest meeting to be held on equal pay in Hyde Park. It is likely the photograph relates to Dorothy's membership of the Standing Joint Committee on Industrial Women's Organisations and the Six Point Group in the 1920s and 1930s..
Dorothy first became interested in the militant Suffragette movement whilst studying at the Chelsea Physical Training College.
She was first arrested in 1909 for throwing a stone with a Votes for Women message through the window of a hall during a speech by Walter Runciman, a member of the Cabinet. This was in frustration at not being barred from entering the 'barricaded hall'. On this occasion Dorothy did not go to prison as her fine was paid 'against her will'. At the time Dorothy was working as a teacher in Batley, Yorkshire.
Leaving her teaching post after this arrest she came down to WSPU headquarters in London and was appointed salaried WSPU organiser initially in Birmingham and from 1913 Bristol & Northern Ireland. In 1910 she served 10 days in Winson Green Prison for refusing to pay a dog tax as a gesture of Tax Resistance. In 1913 an arrest warrant was issued for the arrest of Dorothy for her role in the distribution in the Raided edition of The Suffragette newspaper. After an attempt was made to burn Lisburne Castle in Northern Ireland in April 1913 Dorothy was arrested on a charge of conspiracy, and whilst on remand went on hunger and thirst strike. She was repeatedly released and re-arrested under the terms of the Cat & Mouse Act until 1914.