Helen MacRae Suffragette gallantry medal auctioned
A medal awarded to recognise the bravery of a suffragette who served a jail term and went on hunger strike has sold for £12,300.
Helen MacRae's Suffragette gallantry medal went under the hammer in Suffolk, with a £6,000 starting price.
Lockdales Auctioneers, of Martlesham, said the medal was "incredibly rare".
Ms MacRae, from Edenbridge, Kent, helped to organise the first Women's Social and Political Union meeting in East Grinstead, West Sussex, in 1911.
She smashed windows in Whitehall in 1910 and was imprisoned for four months.
During a second four-month jail term, she went on hunger strike and had to be force fed.
The front of her medal is inscribed "For Valour" and the reverse reads "Fed by Force 1/3/12".
Auction manager James Sadler said before the sale: "This is an incredibly rare medal. I've never seen one before."
Later, he said the medal went for £12,300 including buyer's premium to a phone bidder - described as a female professional who is a collector of Suffragette memorabilia.
A collection of postcards that belonged to Ms MacRae was also being auctioned on Sunday.
They include images of suffragettes in a horse-drawn carriage, a Women's Suffrage Mobile Caravan with suffragette Muriel Matters, and one of Emily Davison who was killed at Epsom Racecourse in Surrey in June 1913.