Gertrude Harding
Canada's Militant Suffragette
"Sometimes in the wee small hours
when I can't sleep, little flashbacks
of the old Suffragette days
will come to me."
- Gert Harding (1889-1977)
The story of Gert Harding, Gretchen’s great-aunt, has been central to her writing career, inspiring a biography, a new musical (yet to be produced), an educational documentary called Menocracy and an award-winning screenplay (up for option).
Gert Harding's Militancy
Gert Harding as a youth
In 1912, at the age of 23, a spunky farm girl from New Brunswick, Canada moved to London, England with her sister's family. Soon she witnessed a poster parade of women protesting for the right to vote. "This struck a chord in me that I never knew I had."
Within days, she ignored her family and shunned convention to join this radical organization, the militant suffragettes of Great Britain; it sanctioned violence, but to property only, to push for its cause. Her first mission was to scout a tourist attraction to see if it could be bombed without hurting anyone. It couldn't, so the plan was dropped.
Next, she staged a midnight attack on rare orchids at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, which organizers knew would rile up the apathetic public and get attention for the cause. She then worked on the newspaper, driven underground by the government for a time, eventually becoming the editor of The Suffragette. Impressed by Harding’s daring and resourcefulness, those in charge asked her to form and head up a secret bodyguard assigned to protect their leader, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, from constant re-arrest by Scotland Yard and to help other Suffragettes on the run.
Wearing disguises that would impress Sherlock Holmes, Harding (who lived on Baker St, herself) lived the life of an outlaw. By times, she rubbed charcoal on her face and slipped through the back alleys of London, always one step ahead of her pursuers. While they were sometimes badly beaten, she and her bodyguard could outwit and embarrass Scotland Yard detectives, often thwarting their attempts to arrest Mrs Pankhurst.
It's time for Canadians to celebrate Gert Harding: rebel, outlaw, hero.
Gert Harding, appearing earnest, offers to sell The Suffragette newspaper to the head of Scotland Yard. Suffragettes must stand off the curb, by law.
To counter the bobbies’ batons, the bodyguard armed themselves with Indian rubber clubs and trained in jujitsu. While they were sometimes injured and arrested, they managed to employ clever techniques to outwit Scotland Yard, such as planting a decoy Mrs Pankhurst.
Gert's Storyteller: Gretchen Kelbaugh
In 1989 I finally took Mom's advice and read the memoirs of Auntie Gert, my great-aunt. In my 30s by then, I was a fledgling writer. Her story changed my life.
As I flipped through the yellow pages of her scrapbook, I sat mesmerized: simple but charming sketches from Gert’s childhood in Welsford, New Brunswick in the late 1800s; fascinating memories of her two years in Hawaii; and then the gripping stories of her Suffragette pals and her in London as they broke the law to change the law. I now had a focal point for my need to tell stories, which has stayed with me for 30 years.​
First I wrote her biography, With All Her Might, which sells in three countries.
As I wrote the biography, I pictured her story as a movie, the kind that women rarely see but long for: a female protagonist with a political goal, not just a personal one, and certainly not the usual woman’s tale about choosing love over career.
So the day I finished writing the biography, I began a screenplay (now called Hardie), which won an Atlantic Canadian initiative to be workshopped over a summer. Next, I produced an educational video about how to quickly get women elected to government office, where my spiritual guide is Auntie Gert. For years, Menocracy was distributed across Canada by Moving Images and is now available on Youtube.​
In 2013 I tried another medium: the stage. After some success with my one-act drama, Orchids Can Be Destroyed, I decided to expand the story into a feature play — a musical! Why not?​ So that's where we are now; my two fabulous music composers and I have developed a new musical about Gert Harding called Hardie.
- Gretchen Kelbaugh
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