This is the latest article in a series written by Nicole Jenkins, on behalf of the Deniliquin Historical Society. Each will cover stories from our region’s history, and those born in our town who have interesting stories of their own. This article is on Eileen Mary Casey.
Eileen Mary Casey was born on April 4, 1881 in Deniliquin. She was the first child of Dr Phillip Forth Casey, surgeon, and Isabella Julia Agnes Reay.
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Phillip Casey was a talented cricketer for Ireland prior to immigrating to Australia.
He was registered as a doctor in Ireland in 1869 and by October 1877 he was registered as a legally qualified medical practitioner in Victoria when living in Brighton.
Dr Casey was appointed as a medical practitioner in Hay and Deniliquin in 1877, and then chief vaccinator for the District of Deniliquin in October 1878. In February 1879, he was appointed chief medical officer to Deniliquin Hospital.
He married Isabella Julia Agnes Reay, known as Julia, on August 15, 1879 at the Trinity Church in Melbourne.
Isabella was the daughter of Major General Charles Reay, who served as part of the Bengal Army in India. Isabella was born in India in 1858.
In April 1882, Dr Casey relocated his family to Hay where he was employed at the Hay District Hospital as a medical officer and was the visiting surgeon to Hay Gaol.
In March 1890, he sold his medical practice and returned to Europe with his wife and three children on board the ‘Nurnberg’. Eileen was then nine years old.
The family settled for a time in Gottingen, Germany, where Eileen became fluent in German.
By about 1901, the family moved to London.
After hearing Emmeline Pankhurst, a political activist and leader of the suffrage movement in Great Britain, speak in 1910, Eileen and her mother joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
Its newspaper reported: "Miss Eileen Casey, an Australian, has much time to the service of the Union, especially in selling the paper as Captain of the Victoria Pitch. In her native land, women have the vote“.
Eileen Casey as a child.
On November 18, 1910, Eileen Casey took part in a demonstration at 10 Downing St against the failure of Herbert Asquith and his government to pass legislation to give women the vote. Eileen Casey was among those arrested.
Eileen also participated in a window smashing raid in London, organised by the WSPU.
Although she escaped arrest, at least 213 other suffragettes were arrested on that day.
At this raid, WSPU organisers reminded the window smashers that women had the vote in Australia, and instructed the women not to smash the windows of nearby offices of Queensland and Victoria-based businesses.
On March 4, 1912, Eileen, her mother and fellow suffragette, Olive Walton, smashed the windows of Marshall and Snelgrove's shop in Oxford St.
They served two weeks on remand before being sentenced to four months.
The Daily Mirror detailed the aftermath of a protest at 10 Downing St, London in 1910.
While in Holloway prison, they joined in the hunger-strike and were forcibly fed.
Along with Mary Ann Hilliard and others, they secretly embroidered her name on the suffragette handkerchief right under the wardress's noses.
Eileen was awarded a WSPU hunger strike medal for her imprisonment
The citation engraved on the bar is 'For Valour' and the inscription says “Presented by the Women's Social and Political Union in recognition of a gallant action, whereby through endurance to the last extremity of hunger and hardship a great principle of political justice was vindicated". The medal ribbons were in the WSPU colours of green, white and purple.
Eileen’s mother was also sent to prison for a month for breaking the window of a barber's shop.
When a neighbour commiserated with Dr Casey he said: "Well, if they want the vote, they are right to fight for it".
The whole Casey family supported the women’s suffragette movement, with sister Kathleen arrested for offences connected with the suffragette movement.
Their home welcomed any suffragette, known to Dr and Mrs Casey or not.
On March 17, 1913, Eileen was arrested under the name Eleanor Cleary for “placing noxious substances in a pillar box”. She was released after she paid a fine.
On October 3, 1913, she was arrested under the name Irene Casey in Bradford.
Her sister Helena Kathleen Holtom was acquitted – no reason was given, but she was heavily pregnant at the time with her daughter Eileen Olive Reay Holtom.
They were involved in setting fire to letters in a letter box, and Eileen was sentenced to three months imprisonment. She went on a hunger strike, which resulted in ill health and led to forced feeding.
However, her fragile state – reported on October 7, 1913, only four days after her arrest – meant that the forced feeding soon came to an end.
On October 9, 1913, the Chief Constable of the prison received a letter ordering the release of Eileen under the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’. The 1913 Cat and Mouse Act was a government response sought to deal with the problem of hunger striking suffragettes.
It was formally known as the Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act. This act allowed for the early release of prisoners who were so weakened by hunger striking, that they were at risk of death.
They were to be recalled to prison once their health was recovered, where the process would begin again.
It stated that if she failed to return to prison on October 18, 1913, she could be arrested without a warrant. Eileen didn’t return to prison then and avoided going back until 1914.
Eileen also aided others involved in arson attacks. The police were aware of this and kept her house under surveillance.
On June 24, 1914, Eileen left her lodgings with a green dressing box and paper-wrapped parcel and walked to Nottingham Market place. There, a royal visit by King George V was taking place, visiting a factory in Nottingham’s Lace Market.
Police officers in the area noticed Eileen’s suspicious behaviour around the royal stand and questioned her at the scene.
Eileen admitted to being Irene Casey, the militant suffragette of the same name who was wanted for not returning to Leeds Prison in October 1913.
Detectives arrested her and took her to Guildhall for further questioning. On a search, she was found with 20 feet of fuse wire, a detonator and five quarter-pounds of cheddite, along with maps and notes on the layout of several churches.
In Nottingham Police Court, Eileen was charged with "loitering with intent to commit a felony".
In the trial which took place on June 26, 1914, she is quoted as saying “This will go on until women get the vote!” and “I hope I will be more dangerous before I finish!”.
The article goes on to describe her ‘terrific struggle’, and explained that there were no fewer than five officers in the dock upon announcement that she was to be remanded.
Members of the Nottingham WSPU cheered and yelled, and were carried out of court kicking and screaming.
The police suspected Eileen was guilty of destroying All Saints' Church, and the planned attempt to burn down Southwell Cathedral. She was held on remand until July 8 at Holloway Prison.
After going on a hunger strike, she was forcibly fed by nasal tube at least 46 times, both at Holloway and subsequently at Nottingham and Winson Green Prisons.
She was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment on July 28, 1914 and while incarcerated she attempted to smuggle out messages embroidered onto a handkerchief.
In 1914, the WSPU carried out secret negotiations with the government, and on August 10 the government announced it was releasing all suffragettes from prison.
In return, the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities and help the war effort.
As a result of the deal, that all members of the WSPU were released from prison and pardoned for committing acts of arson.
Eileen became a landgirl and gardener at Kew Gardens.
Eileen Casey lived in Japan from 1923 to 1940.
After the death of her mother, Eileen moved to Japan in 1923 and remained there until 1940, teaching English at a girl’s school.
Eileen did return from Japan to England briefly in 1928 to visit family and friends and to attend commemoration ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the granting of full franchise rights to women.
In 1938 Eileen returned to Australia and was a translator for the Board of Censors during World War II.
She was known to have a working knowledge of most European languages, including Russia, Japanese and Esperanto.
She was also an active member of the Australian Suffragette Fellowship and was Worshipful Master of Emulation Lodge Richmond (a Masonic lodge which had both men and women).
Eileen Casey as an older woman.
Eileen moved back to England in 1951 and worked as a cleaning lady.
For the rest of her life, she was a committee member of ‘Calling all Women‘ and was actively involved with the Theosophist movement and Liberal Catholic Church in England.
Eileen spent the end of her life in a nursing home near her niece, Eileen, in Hampshire. She died on October 12, 1972, aged 91.
• More details of Eileen Casey’s life are explored in Nicole’s podcast series, ‘Family History Mysteries’. The Suffragette is episode 24.
