Wheeldon, Alice (fl. 1917)

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Wheeldon, Alice (fl. 1917)

British pacifist and socialist tried for a plot to assassinate David Lloyd George.

Alice Wheeldon, a socialist and pacifist who joined the No-Conscription Fellowship during World War I, was tried in 1917 (February 3–March 10) for having joined with Alfred andWinnie Mason in a plot to assassinate British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, whom they held responsible for the carnage of war. The plan was said to have called for Wheeldon to stab the prime minister at a public rally with poisondipped needles, but after Winnie Mason revealed their intentions to a friend prior to the event all three were arrested. At their trial, they were found guilty and sentenced to prison. Wheeldon was later found to be innocent; some maintain that the story of the assassination plot had been fabricated by the British government because Wheeldon was hiding Conscientious Objectors during World War I. She was released from prison to live out her days as a recluse in Derby where she died and was buried.

suggested reading:

Rowbotham, Sheila. Friends of Alice Wheeldon. NY: Monthly Review Press, 1986.

Malinda Mayer , writer and editor, Falmouth, Massachusetts

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