Olive Wharry

Olive Wharry (1886–1947) was an English artist, arsonist and suffragist who in 1913 was imprisoned with Lilian Lenton for burning down the tea pavilion at Kew Gardens.

Olive Wharry was born in London, the daughter of a doctor into a middle-class family and the only child of her father's first marriage; she had three much younger half-brothers and a half-sister from his second marriage. She grew up in London, then the family moved to Devon when her father retired from medicine. On leaving school Wharry became an art student at the School of Art in Exeter, and in 1906 she travelled around the world with her father and mother. She became active in the Women's Social and Political Union in November 1910. She was also a member of the Church League for Women's Suffrage.

In November 1911 Wharry was arrested for taking part in a WSPU window-smashing campaign, and, after being released on bail guaranteed by Frederick Pethick-Lawrence and Mrs Saul Solomon, was sentenced to two months' imprisonment. During this sentence and the others that followed she kept a scrapbook which includes the autographs of fellow Suffragettes. This scrapbook was an exhibit in the British Library's Taking Liberties exhibition (2008–09).

In March 1912 Wharry was arrested again after more window-smashing and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in Winson Green Prison in Birmingham. She took part in a hunger strike and was released in July 1912, before completing her sentence. In November 1912 she was arrested as "Joyce Locke" with three other Suffragettes in Aberdeen after being involved in a scuffle during a meeting at which Lloyd George was speaking. Being sentenced to five days in prison, she managed to smash her cell windows.

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