English activist Sylvia Pankhurst was BOTD in 1882. Born in Manchester, the second daughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, she and her sister Christabel joined the women’s suffrage movement in their teens. Arrested over 15 times, Sylvia received eight jail sentences, each time being force-fed in prison. Sylvia’s commitment to the Labour Party, communism and pacifism set her at odds with her family. She lived with Italian anarchist Silvio Corio for over 30 years and had a son together, but refused to marry him, leading to her permanent estrangement from Emmeline. In the 1930s, Sylvia protested the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, eventually becoming a friend and adviser to Emperor Haile Selassie. She and her son moved to Ethiopia at Selassie’s invitation. She died there in 1960, aged 78, and was given a state funeral, where Selassie declared her an honorary Ethiopian. Historians have debated whether her friendship with fellow suffragette Zelie Emerson was sexual.