WHARRY, Miss Olive. Whitstone House, Holsworthy
(Also known as Joyce Locke, Phyllis North)
Olive Wharry (1886-1947) was the daughter of Clara Vickers (1854-1910) and Dr Oliver Robert Wharry M.D. (1853-1935)[1] Olive grew up in London where Dr and Mrs Wharry were well known for giving annual picnics for local children.[2] Clara died in 1910 and around this time the family purchased a property in Holsworthy which remained Olive’s home until the late 1930s.
Olive became an active member of the Women’s Political and Social Union and took part in a protest in 1909.[3] On November 22nd 1911, Olive joined the W.S.P.U. demonstration in Parliament Square when windows were smashed throughout Whitehall. Olive was one of 22 women who were sentenced to two months imprisonment in Holloway.[4] Following her release Olive was arrested again for further window smashing and, due to overcrowding in Holloway, was sentenced to serve six months in Winson Green prison in Birmingham. During this term of imprisonment Olive began a scrapbook, recording the names of fellow inmates as well as copies of poems and limericks written by the women to occupy themselves. She also made drawings of her cell and other aspects of prison life; the scrapbook can be seen in the British Library.[5] Also imprisoned here at this time was Olive’s lifelong friend, Constance Bryer. The scrapbook was compiled in 1928 to include notes from her imprisonment in Holloway.
In February 1913, Olive Wharry (using the name Joyce Locke) and Lilian Lenton were arrested in the vicinity of a fire at the tea rooms at Kew Gardens. Two suitcases were seized by the police; one was empty, the other contained a large hand saw, a small hammer and a bundle of tow – strongly smelling of paraffin. On 7th March 1913 Olive was sentenced to 18 months in Holloway Prison for her part in the destruction by fire of the pavilion café at Kew Gardens.[6]
Whilst in Holloway she went on a secret hunger strike, hiding food and using a filled hot water bottle concealed under her clothing to increase her weight when seen by the medical officer. A medical report dated 28th March did not regard her as a ‘good subject’ for forcible feeding in spite of ‘seriously reduced bodily health’.[7] She was released on 8th April and returned home to Holsworthy. In May 1913, her father, Dr Richard Wharry, was prosecuted for assaulting the process server who came to Holsworthy serving a writ for Olive to pay compensation for the fire damage.[8]
Olive was arrested again in June 1914, in Caernarvon, at a demonstration against Lloyd George. Now using the name Phyllis North, she was sentenced to three months in Holloway Prison where she was kept in solitary confinement until 10th August 1914, when all suffrage prisoners were released and their sentences remitted. Resuming an art career, she exhibited some ‘pleasing etchings’ in an exhibition of work by Devon artists at Exeter Museum in 1917.[9] The Royal Albert Memorial Museum has several of her works, including etchings and watercolours in the collection. She took an active life in the parish and is reported as taking part in Amateur Dramatics and giving lectures. She became secretary of the Launceston and District Women’s Unionist Association.[10]
Olive was living at Dart Bank, Quarry Road in Torquay when she died in 1947. Leaving an estate to the value of £41,635, she bequeathed her Suffrage Medal and some of her etching prints to her friend Constance Bryer together with an annuity. Other friends received prints and the etching plates were to be destroyed. Olive asked to be cremated and the ashes scattered on the high open spaces of the moor between Exeter and Whitstone.[11]
Entry created by Viv Styles, September 2018
[1] Information from the 1901 Census Return.
[2] Southern Reporter 11 Sep 1902.
[3] Northampton Mercury 30 Jul 1909.
[4] Sheffield Daily Telegraph 23 Nov 1911.
[5] www.bl.uk/learning/citizenship/campaign.
[6] Dundee Evening Telegraph 27 Feb 1913.
[7] www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources.
[8] Portsmouth Evening News 8 May 1913.
[9] DEG, 18 May 1917.
[10] DEG, 20 Mar 1936.
[11] WT, 6 Feb 1948.