The queer suffragette known for scandalous affairs, bold protests & writing famous operas - LGBTQ Nation

"In March 1912, Ethel Smyth stood side by side with activist Emmeline Pankhurst outside the office of MP Lewis Harcourt, a well-known anti-suffragist. Calmly and with accuracy, the two women threw a series of bricks through his office windows, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. This calculated action was part of a coordinated campaign whereby over 100 suffragettes smashed windows across London."

"When her friend Thomas Beecham visited her there, he recalled that the women exercising in the courtyard were marching and singing with Smyth, who conducted them from her cell window using her toothbrush."

"Tall and often donning tweed suits and men's hats while riding her bicycle, she was an eye-catching figure on the streets of London. In the words of fellow suffragist and writer Sylvia Pankhurst, there was 'little about her that was [traditionally] feminine.' Nevertheless, she attracted admirers of both sexes wherever she went."

"Smyth was also an unapologetically queer woman who had passionate affairs with numerous women, including the Irish novelist Edith Somerville and the royal courtier and women's rights advocate Lady Mary Ponsonby. She also developed an intimate friendship with Virginia Woolf, though it is unclear if the relationship ever became more than that."

Ethel Smyth was a distinguished musician and suffragette who played a significant role in the British women's voting rights movement during the 1910s. In March 1912, she participated in a coordinated window-smashing campaign across London alongside Emmeline Pankhurst, targeting anti-suffragist MP Lewis Harcourt's office. Arrested and imprisoned for two months in Holloway, she continued her activism by conducting fellow prisoners in song from her cell window using a toothbrush. Smyth defied social conventions through her appearance, wearing tweed suits and men's hats while cycling through London. An unapologetically queer woman, she maintained passionate relationships with several women, including novelist Edith Somerville and courtier Lady Mary Ponsonby, while developing an intimate friendship with Virginia Woolf. Despite her musical talents, her work was often dismissed as frivolous due to her gender.

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