kidney-punching the patriarchy

My martial artist flatmate sent me these pictures of Mrs Edith Garrud - a suffragette and jujitsu practitioner. Here's Mrs Garrud demonstrating her moves with a volunteer dressed as a policeman:







The caption for the set reads: Mrs Garrud, a well-known Suffragette, demonstrates the methods of jujitsu she has taught the W.S.P.U. "bodyguard."

The WSPU was the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Sylvia. I think that these pictures must be those that appeared in a magazine called the London Sketch in 1910 as described here:

When Uyenishi left Britain in 1908, his student William Garrud took over teaching the men while Garrud's wife Edith took over teaching the women and children. Photographs of "Mrs. Garrud, a well-known Suffragette," throwing a uniformed British policeman appeared in the London Sketch on July 6, 1910. Soon after, Punch printed a cartoon showing uniformed policemen cowering before a solitary "Ju-Jutsu Suffragette."

I've uploaded the original complete page here.

While tracking down who Mrs. Garrud was, I found this over at the Journal of Non-lethal Combat - "Ju-Jutsu as a Husband-Tamer: A Suffragette Play with a Moral":

From Health and Fitness (1911), reproduced in the journal:

I saw a rehearsal of the new suffragette sketch, by Mr. Armstrong, in which Ju-jutsu (the real thing) plays a dominant part. The moral of the sketch is great. Liz, the coster's wife [a costermonger, or seller of fruits and vegetables] (personated by Miss Quinn), having been taught Ju-jutsu by Mrs. Garrud, tames her drunken husband into subjection. "I'll learn this 'ere jucy jujubes, Liz, for I could do for you if I was sober," he says.

"No," answers Liz; "you're a good husband to me then, and wouldn't want to, but when you're drunk I'll always be a match for you." "Then I'll never get drunk again," says Bill, and husband and wife embrace. Mrs. Garrud has specially instructed Mr. Roland and Miss Quinn for this sketch, some scenes of which are reproduced above[below]. Follow the numbers and then you will follow the story. Mr. Roland plays the part of Bill:

1. A real good counter and lock for right body-blow (swing or kidney punch)..

Click through for the whole thing.

Isn't it amazing what I can find out when I'm supposed to be finishing my thesis?