Papers of Katie Gliddon

The archive consists of Gliddon's original prison diary written during her imprisonment in Holloway for the suffrage cause, autobiographical accounts of her arrest and imprisonment, correspondence (including letters from prison), drawings, press cuttings and Women's Social & Politicial Union (WSPU) ephemera.

Katie Edith Gliddon (1883-c.1960) was born in 1883 in Twickenham. Her father, Aurelius Gliddon was a minister for the United Reform Church (1882-1884) and homeopathist. Katie Gliddon studied at the Slade School of Art under Brown and Tonks, 1900-1904. She probably became a member of the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU) in Croydon around 1910 at the same time as her brother Paul Gliddon was acting as an organiser of the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement. Paul took the name of Charles Gray to protect his family, and Katie used the pseudonym 'Katherine Susan Gray' for similar reasons. By 1911 she had already written several articles on the subject of women's suffrage for various newspapers. In 1912 she was arrested for breaking the window of a Post Office in Wimpole Street, subsequently serving a period from Mar-Apr 1912 in Holloway Prison. After the First World War she became a watercolour artist of some repute, specialising in painting flowers. She exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, the New English Art Club, the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Society of Painters in Water-colours. She retired to Worthing and lived into her eighties, before dying in the 1960s.

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Deposited by Gerald Gliddon, Katie Gliddon's nephew, in April 1986. Drawings donated by Gerald Gliddon in 2008. Original prison diary donated by Michael Gliddon, Katie Gliddon's nephew, in May 2008.

The Women's Library Catalogue

The Women's Library also holds other prison diaries and letters within Strand 7 (Personal Papers). The Rona Cole Gallery in Guernsey holds some of Katie Gliddon's watercolour paintings in their permanent collections.