Transcript of an article by Fanny Parker, alias Janet Arthur, published in ‘Votes for Women’ (1914) describing forced feeding (National Records of Scotland reference: HH16/43/6)

Transcript:

ANOTHER PRISON INFAMY

Inhuman Treatment of an Unconvicted Prisoner in Perth - Rectum Feeding Again Employed

We have received for publication the following terrible statement, signed by Miss Arthur, recently released from Perth prison:-

I was arrested on July 8 at Alloway, and appeared before the Sheriff in Ayr on the same day, and was committed to Ayr prison “pending enquiry.”

On Thursday, 9th, Dr Dunlop, medical adviser to the Prison Commissioners came from Edinburgh to see me. He asked me if I was going to take food, said it was a very serious charge, and that I should certainly be forcibly fed on conviction. Before his visit the wardresses and a warder had taken my fingerprints, but as Dr Dunlop was not satisfied with the result, another attempt was made. I was taken from my cell to another room, and when they found they could not make me sit on a chair, he ordered that I should be flung to the ground. He himself held the arm and hand, forcing the fingers open for the printing, and severely bruising my arms. My back and sides were so sore and bruised after this that I could not lie still in bed during the rest of my imprisonment. With this exception I was treated in Ayr prison according to the rules for unconvicted prisoners.

On Sunday, 12th, being weak and ill with the hunger and thirst strike, the doctor was about to release me when I discovered that I was to be taken to a nursing home chosen by the Police Commissioners instead of the one chosen by my friends, and I refused to go.

Taken to Glasgow in Blankets

On Monday they came again to remove me, but would not tell me where I was going. It was the sixth day of the hunger and thirst strike, and I was unable to stand, but, weak as I was, I would not allow them to prepare me for the journey. I was then wrapped in blankets and laid in a taxi and taken to Glasgow, where I was handed over to the Perth assistant doctor.

On arrival at Perth prison (100 miles from Ayr), I was carried to bed. Dr Watson (the prison doctor) and his assistant examined me, and remarked on the bruised state of my body, the result of Dr Dunlop’s medical treatment, and later Dr Watson told me one of my ribs was not exactly broken, but was bent. After this examination I was forcibly fed. Six wardresses held me down, and one of them reached forward and slapped my face with, I suppose, the approval of the doctor, as he said nothing. The assistant doctor held my head in a most painful grip.

Steel Gag Used

Dr Watson then tried to force my teeth open with the steel gag, and said that if he broke a tooth it would be my own fault. As he was unable to open my mouth he called for the nasal tube. He tried to force it up one side which is defective, but with all his strength could not force a passage. He succeeded in forcing it down the other nostril, and left it hanging there while he went out of the room. As it was extremely painful, I asked the assistant to remove it, but he only laughed.

Dr Watson returned and fed me. The wardresses continued holding me down so that I couldn't move, and the assistant doctor continued to hold his hands over my mouth, and whenever the food came up tightened his grip to prevent me letting it out.

I was held down like this for an hour. At the end of that time I was allowed to have a pillow at my head, and a wardress took the place of the doctor and held my head. I was kept on my back, and prevented from moving for another hour. One or two wardresses were always in my cell, and watched me day and night.

On Tuesday morning I asked to see the Governor, and asked him for my privileges. He said I must tell him what it was I wanted. I asked him if he didn’t know the rules for unconvicted prisoners: that I wanted newspapers, letters, visits. I said I wanted to see a lawyer and my own doctor. He said he would let me know in two or three days; but next day he came and told me I could not have anything I wanted. The doctor also spoke on these points, and gave me to understand the power to grant these privileges lay with him. I then asked him if, when I was at the point of death, he would allow me to see a minister or a friend, and he said “No!”

That morning I heard an imploring voice followed by screams, which seemed to proceed from the cell above me.

I was forcibly fed three times that day. I think it was on that day the doctor told me I was seriously injuring my health, but he was not responsible, and that he had orders to let me die. The food was doing me no good; I was getting weaker and weaker. Once when I got out of bed I fainted on the floor. On Wednesday morning I was so weak that when my head was lifted for the mackintosh sheet to be put under it for the feeding, I had difficulty getting my breath and when the feeding was over I lost consciousness. When I came to I found I was alone with a wardress and the assistant doctor, who was watching me. I was not being held down as usual. After a little time I was sick twice.

Attempt at Rectum Feeding

I was not fed at midday, but three wardresses came in and made what I suppose was an attempt to feed me by the rectum. I objected and protested against this indignity and struggled as best I could. The manner in which it was done was so unnecessarily painful that I screamed with agony. Later three women tried to give me an enema. Because I would not submit passively to these indignities, after everything was over, one of the women lifted me by the hair and flung me into the far corner of the bed. Another knelt on my chest to prevent me from getting up. She got off again when the first sat down heavily on my knees and said she would not get up until I promised to behave!

Thursday morning, 16th, I was fed again and held down afterwards. I was not fed at midday, but the three wardresses appeared again. One of them said that if I did not resist, she would send the others away and do what she had come to do as gently and decently as possible. I consented. This was another attempt to feed me by the rectum, and was done in a cruel way, causing me great pain.

She returned some time later and said she had “something else” to do. I took it to be another attempt to feed me in the same way, but it proved to be a grosser and more indecent outrage, which could have been done for no other purpose than to torture. It was followed by soreness, which lasted for several days.

I was released on that afternoon – my licence has no date – as I pointed out to the Governor when he read it over to me.

While lying in my cell I could not help wondering how the doctors and wardresses could have become so cruel. It suggests a long course of deliberate cruelty practised in convict prison life.

It proves the danger of giving a medical man, who is part of the prison system, full control over the bodies of prisoners. These or their friends should have power of appeal to a doctor who is really a doctor and not a prison official.

Refusal to take food, which is a protest against injustice, is made an excuse for forcible feeding, an operation without consent, and that this is punishment not medical treatment is shown by the fact that it is [ ] with brutality and every indignity and continued when the stomach rejects everything. It has lately been followed by rectal feeding continued when the rectum rejects everything and even loses normal control and the patient is becoming weaker every day. The next step is deliberate injury to other parts of the body – as in the case of Miss Moorhead’s ear, which [ ] every succeeding feeding agonising [ ] caused pain for months, leaving her [ ] than before – and in my own case [ ] to above where medical treatment [ ] out of the question.

JANET ARTHUR