File:Photograph of Maude Edwards, suffragette prisoner (HH001600047).jpg

Miss Maude Edwards was tried at Edinburgh sheriff court on 3 Jul 1914, charged with "Wilfully and maliciously destroying a portrait of King George V" in the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh on 23 May 1914. Having been found guilty, she received a 3 month prison sentence of which she served 11 days in HM Prison Perth. An article from the 'Edinburgh Evening Dispatch', 3 Jul 1914, details the 'Stormy Court Scenes' during the trial which was attended by a group of Suffragettes who had to be forcibly removed from the court. Medical reports written by H Ferguson Watson, Medical Officer at Perth prison, describe how Miss Edwards was forcibly fed during her incarceration. Miss Olive Walton, Organiser of the Dundee branch of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) forwarded a copy of a medical certificate from Maude Edwards' personal doctor, dated 14 Apr 1914, stating that Miss Edwards had suffered from "a dilated heart, weak action, irregular rhythm and mitral murmur." It was advised that continued force feeding could be potentially harmful to Miss Edward's health. This was considered by HM Prison Commissioners for Scotland and J Grant, Governor at Perth prison, but it was agreed that artificial feeding could be continued. Maude Edwards pursued a claim of poor health and was finally liberated on license on 14 Jul 1914 under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, more commonly known as the Cat & Mouse Act. She signed a statement agreeing to "abstain from any militancy in violation of the law and from the organisation of or incitement to illegal acts."