Elsie Duval

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Elsie Diederichs Duval (1892–1919) was a British suffragette who fought for women’s voting rights. Her family were active supporters of the cause, and she joined the movement as a teenager. She became close to her future husband, Hugh Franklin, through the Men’s Political Union for Women’s Enfranchisement, founded by her brother Victor Duval.

Elsie was first arrested on 23 November 1911 for obstructing the police during a Women’s Parliament protest. In July 1912 she broke a window at Clapham Post Office and was sent to Holloway Prison, where she was force‑fed nine times. She earned a Hunger Strike Medal for her protests.

On 3 April 1913 she and Phyllis Brady were arrested for loitering with intent after their cases, containing inflammable material, were found. They were jailed for six weeks in Holloway and again subjected to force‑feeding. While in prison she kept a diary written on toilet paper.

When the Cat and Mouse Act was passed, Elsie became the first woman released under it, though she did not stay away for long and eventually fled abroad. She used the name Eveline Dukes while in Europe and worked in Germany as a governess, then in Brussels and Switzerland.

World War I began in 1914, and she returned to the UK after a general amnesty for suffragettes. She and Hugh married on 28 September 1915 at West London Synagogue. In 1917 she joined the new Women’s Party, led by the Pankhursts, and she continued campaigning for women’s rights. The Representation of the People Act of 1918 granted voting rights to some women, marking a major milestone.

Elsie died on 1 January 1919, aged 26 or 27, from heart problems linked to septic pneumonia during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Her health had been worsened by force‑feeding in prison. In a last letter to Hugh she wrote, “my heart is like a steam engine.”