[Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson] to [Mrs Wilkes]

This material is held atWomen's Library Archives

  • Reference
    • GB 106 9/26/006
  • Former Reference
    • GB 106 ALC/4O19
  • Dates of Creation
    • Mar 1912
  • Physical Description
    • 1 item

Scope and Content

Card. No heading, no date, no signature .

The letter is unsigned, but the writer can be identified as LGA from the content of Mrs Taylor's letters [see letter from Holloway from Mrs Taylor to her sister Mrs Wilks in which she says she has made a muddle over DGA's books], and from the handwriting.

Elizabeth Wilks, a doctor, and a fellow member of the Women's Tax Resistance League, had succeeded in getting some medical textbooks through to LGA in Holloway.

Written from Holloway Prison. Letter from Holloway to Mrs Elizabeth Wilks MD

[undated]

Dear Mrs Wilks,

Mrs T [Mary Taylor, sister of Elizabeth Wilks, sent to prison on remand on 4 March 1912. She spent some time in the hospital wing, to the great concern of her husband and sister.] is distressed because you are so unhappy abt her. Inside Holloway we realise very clearly that it is infinitely easier to be here than for you outside. Mrs T is giving courage to all of us. She is looking very much better that she was and she tells me that she is sleeping better. I think she must be because she looks so much better.

At first prison is a great shock. Some people seem to recover more quickly than others. I think she took longer, perhaps because she was so extraordinarily brave at first, whereas some broke down completely. If she gets her sentence next week as I trust, it will be a great comfort. The uncertainty has been horrible for her but really we who see here every day are feeling very much happier about her than we did. It makes a great difference to us all having Mrs Pankhurst in this block. She raises everything to such a high level and she is so fearless and selfless and magnificent.

Thank you for all yr kindness and help. It has made such a difference to me.I shall never forget it. It is a great experience to be here - we all realise it. After all the other kind of suffrage work that has been going on for years it is very satisfactory to do this too. The hardships are negligible - but the separations and the idlings …(illegible)… go to one's heart. If you were able to be here you would understand the strange satisfaction of it.

Really Mrs T is enormously better.

Very best thanks for yr trouble over my books - safely arrived at last.

(no signature)

Related Material

See also 7LGA/1/2 for additional letters by Louisa Garrett Anderson written whilst in Holloway Prison.