Mary Richardson was born in Canada and moved to Britain as a teenager. She was known for being an arsonist, frequently destroying property, and participating in hunger strikes in support of the suffragette movement. She was arrested nine times over the course of her life and was once force-fed. Richardson is remembered for her attack on the Rokeby Venus, a painting at a gallery in London. She ripped the painting with a knife to show the hypocrisy of women’s rights and justice being taken away by the government, expressing that she found the subject of the painting, Mrs. Pankhurst, to embody this justice.