Leonora Cohen

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Leonora Cohen OBE (Leeds, 15 June 1873 - 4 September 1978) was an English suffragette.

She was notable for smashing the case of the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. She survived a hunger strike in Armley Gaol in Leeds.

Mrs Leonora Cohen who was one of the first women in Leeds to start campaigning for votes for women.

Leonora was born in 1873. Women's Suffrage Societies had been in existence since 1867. The movement started peacefully but frustration led respectable women to protest more violently. Leonora broke the showcase of the crown jewels in the Tower of London in 1913. She spent time in Armley Gaol and Holloway for her protests, going on hunger and thirst strike. Her husband and son supported her throughout. In 1918, after the First World War, women over 30 got the vote in Britain and in 1928 the vote was granted to women over 21.

Leonora Cohen went on to be President of the Yorkshire Federation of Trades Council, later becoming a Justice of the Peace. She died at age 105.