On 10 March, 1913, the building and platform of Croxley Green station were destroyed by fire. A similar event took place later the same year, in which the main building at Saunderton railway station was burnt down.

16 phone lines were also cut on the road between Watford and St Albans, meaning that no one in the locality could telephone to London.

The culprits? Militant Suffragettes.

Following the failure of Millicent Fawcett’s National Union of Women’s Suffrage to get women the vote, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst. Fawcett had advocated using peaceful protest, but progress was too slow. The founding of the WSPU marked the start of a new stage in the fight to win the vote for British women.

As the years went by, tactics employed by members of the WSPU became more violent. They chained themselves to railings to provoke an arrest, poured harsh chemicals into mailboxes, broke windows and attempted arson at unoccupied buildings.

Some even hired boats and sailed up the Thames, and proceeded to shout abuse through loud hailers at Parliament.

The reason for this change in tactics was because Prime Minister Asquith had nearly signed a document giving women over the age of 30 the right to vote, but he pulled out at the last minute. He thought that women may vote against him in the next General Election.

One influential British Suffragette was Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton. Her great great grandfather was Thomas Villiers, first Earl of Clarendon, who lived at the Grove, and her great great great grandfather was William Capell, third Earl of Essex, whose family seat was Cassiobury House.

She was one of approximately 1000 Suffragettes who were imprisoned in Britain in the early twentieth century. She was imprisoned four times. The first time, when the authorities discovered her identity, the daughter of Lord Lytton, they ordered her release. Infuriated by such inequality of justice she wrote to the Liverpool Daily Post to complain about the favourable treatment she had received.

The next time she went to prison, she was determined to receive no special treatment because of her family connections. When she was sent to Walton gaol in Liverpool, she used the alias Jane Warton.

She got what she desired, and received no privileges in prison. Like many Suffragettes, she went on hunger strike, and was subsequently force-fed. Prisoners were strapped down and force fed via a tube in the nostril. After the practice was studied by physicians, it was found to cause short-term damage to the circulatory, digestive and nervous systems, as well as causing long-term damage to the physical and mental health of suffragettes.

While imprisoned in Holloway during 1909, Lytton used a piece of broken enamel from a hair pin to carve the letter V into the flesh of her breast, exactly over her heart. Her plan was to carve ‘Votes for Women’ from her breast to her cheek so that it would always be visible. But after completing the V she requested sterile dressings to avoid blood poisoning, and her plan was aborted by the authorities.

When she was not imprisoned, she made speeches throughout the country and used her family connections to campaign in Parliament.

It is thought that Constance’s speeches and letters helped to end the practice of force-feeding.

Following her time in prison, her health continued to deteriorate. She suffered a series of strokes which paralysed the right side of her body. Undaunted, she used her left hand to write a book, Prisons and Prisoners, about her time behind bars.

The WSPU ended its militant campaign at the outbreak of war in 1914. The efforts of Suffragettes were focused instead on helping the war effort.

In 1918, parliament passed a bill giving women over 30 the vote. Most historians agree that women were finally granted suffrage because they had proved their worth by aiding Britain’s struggle on the home front.

Constance died in 1923, aged 54. She was buried with the Suffragette colours of purple, white and green laid on her coffin.

Five years after her death, the Representation of the People Act gave the vote to women on the same grounds as men.