Casgliadau Arlein

Letter written by Sarah Bennett to her maid Jane Baring, March/April 1912. Kate Williams Evans, if released from Holloway prison before Sarah, was to have given Jane the letter which contained instructions for looking after Kate as a guest in Sarah's home in Finchley. The letter stresses Kate's frail condition from having been on hunger strike. On the reverse of the letter, Kate herself later wrote a note explaining that she had the letter stitched into her skirt, ready to be smuggled out (there were very tight restrictions on prisoners sending and receiving letters). Kate also explains however, that the letter was never delivered because Sarah was actually released before her.

Kate Williams Evans, born in Montgomeryshire in 1866, was sentenced to 2 months hard labour for malicious damage, having smashed a window in a government building in London. She served 54 days in Holloway Prison in March-April 1912, during which she went on hunger strike.

Sarah Bennett was one of the fellow prisoners who signed Kate's pocket Robert Louis Stevenson book (F2018.25.5). Her activism in the suffrage movement included being Treasurer of the Women's Freedom League.