Edith Garrud: a public vote for the suffragette who taught martial arts

[Bill Mattocks]

I thought this was neat:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/25/edith-garrud-suffragette-martial-arts

Edith Garrud: a public vote for the suffragette who taught martial arts
The woman who introduced jujutsu to the suffragette cause is honoured with a plaque on her London house
The horrors of forcible feeding endured by imprisoned suffragettes on hunger strike are relatively well known; the image of rubber tubes being rammed down women's throats as they were held or tied down is a hard one to shake. Less widely documented have been the efforts made to protect the movement's leaders from arrest in the first place: of the 30-strong elite "bodyguard" trained to resist the police using the martial art jujutsu, and of the woman who taught them – Edith Garrud. But this Saturday, Islington council will unveil a People's Plaque, voted for by residents, at the house where this little-known suffragette lived in Thornhill Square, London.

One of the western world's first female martial arts instructors, Garrud, who died in 1971 aged 99, is thought to have learned jujutsu in the late 19th century. She began working with suffragettes between 1908 and 1911, eventually at her own women-only training hall, a room at the Palladium Academy dance school in Argyll Street.

 

[oftheherd1]

That is interesting and neat as well. Who knew?

 

[Tez3]

That is interesting and neat as well. Who knew?

Quite a few of us! http://www.budokwai.org/history_vol_i.htm
http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2009/08/edith-garrud-the-suffragette-who-knew-jujutsu/

 

[frank raud]

That is interesting and neat as well. Who knew?

Some of us have had her husband's book of jiu jitsu for years, as well as those of their instructors.

 

[frank raud]

Some of us have had her husband's book of jiu jitsu for years, as well as those of their instructors.

Pssst.....cartwheel pass in a 100 year old jiu jitsu book...don't tell the BJJ guys.

 

[chinto]

I wonder if she knew Mrs. Banks? :hmm:

 

[Black Belt Jedi]

I like the article. It shows the example of how important self-defense is to women.

 

[Devon]

Suffragette jujitsu pioneer Edith Garrud was also recently commemorated with a "portrait sculpture" near the Finsbury Park station in London: http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2013/04/a-new-honour-for-jujitsuffragette-edith-garrud/


... and the Jujitsuffragettes will "star" in an upcoming graphic novel series called "Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons": http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2...-thrilling-tale-of-suffragette-super-heroine/

 

[Mauthos]

Wow, that I did not know, awesome news about the sculpture and the graphic novel could be interesting.

 

[chinto]

well if she did not know Mrs. Banks, perhaps she knew Mary Poppins? :hmm: Either way its cool !

And Jujitsu and Bartjitsu were both very popular at that time

 

[arnisador]

Cool!