Edith New was a Suffragette, best known as one of the first to use vandalism of property as a militant tactic. She was born Edith Bessie New at 24 North Street Swindon. By age 14, she was working as a teacher, later moving to London.
Edith was a teacher in Greenwich before joining the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906. She was first imprisoned in March 1907: a two-week sentence following a raid on the House of Commons. In January 1908 she served three weeks for chaining herself to the railings of 10 Downing Street.
By this time she had also become a paid Organiser for the Women's Social and Political Union, responsible for the WSPU by-election campaign in Hastings. By mid-1908 Edith was again imprisoned for two months for throwing stones at the windows of 10 Downing Street. She and fellow Suffragette Mary Leigh acted without the sanction of the WSPU leadership, and became the first Suffragettes to use stone-throwing as a political tactic. They were surprised when Emmeline Pankhurst visited them in Holloway and told them she fully endorsed their actions. Destruction of property, particularly window-breaking, quickly became a key militant tactic.
On the release from Holloway Edith and Mary Leigh were greeted by a delegation of fellow Suffragettes that included Christabel Pankhurst. Presented with purple, white and green bouquets they were conducted to a waiting carriage, and were pulled by six Suffragettes to a celebratory breakfast in Holborn.
Edith moved to Newcastle in late 1908 and continued work as a full time WSPU organiser. In September 1909 she was imprisoned in Dundee, charged with breach of the peace at a meeting held by Liberal MP Herbert Samuel. While in prison, Edith went on hunger-strike, one of the first suffragettes to do so in Scotland. She was released after five days, on the order of the Secretary for Scotland, without having been forcibly fed.