In Focus: Nurse Catherine Pine 

The fourth exhibition of our In Focus series will open on Friday 6th March – In Focus: Nurse Catherine Pine! This exhibition gives an in depth look at the life and work of the nurse to Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes. 

This exhibition looks and the life and work of Catherine Pine, nurse to Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes, and her involvement with the women’s suffrage movement in the early twentieth century.

Born in the 1860s in Kent to middle-class parents, Pine received a good education and across the early years of her adulthood, had no need to work. Following the death of parents, Pine moved to London, where she trained as a nurse at St Bartolomew’s Hospital. She went on to use these nursing skills to run a nursing home in London. During this time, Pine became interested in the work of the WSPU and the suffragettes and first encountered the Pankhurst family.

As the WSPU increased their action to obtain the right to vote, many suffragettes were arrested and imprisoned, where their protests continued in the form of hunger strikes. Pine’s nursing home soon became a refuge for suffragettes to recover, including Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Sylvia. Pine continued to care for and work with the Pankhurst’s long after the end of the WSPU’s militant action and was devoted to Emmeline Pankhurst.

We are also delighted to announce that we will be displaying Nurse Pine’s medal that was awarded to her for her work. Having gone missing in the 1950s, the medal was rediscovered in 2023 by Dr Hope Elizabeth May. Dr May subsequently acquired the medal and has kindly loaned it to the museum for the duration of this exhibition, where it will be going on display for the first known time in the UK. The medal is an adapted version the hunger strike medals that the WSPU awarded to those who went on hunger strike while in prison. While Pine did not take part in militant action or go on hunger strike, her devotion to the care of fellow suffragettes did not go unnoticed.