Edith Downing, Sculptor and Suffragette

Edith Downing, sculptor and Suffragette.
Edith Downing studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. She exhibited at the Royal Academy as well as elsewhere in London and Paris. In 1908 she became a member of the Chelsea branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). She gave the proceeds of the sale of her statue of ‘Peter Pan’ to the organisation and also created statues of Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney, models of which were sold through an advertisement placed in the Votes for Women newspaper. In November 1911 Edith was arrested for throwing a stone through the window of Somerset House and again in 1912 for smashing the window of a fine art dealer in Regent Street. Whilst serving her sentence in Holloway prison for this offence she took part in hunger strike and was forcibly fed.