Elizabeth Ellen (Beth) Hesmondhalgh, active 1907 –1914, began working around 1885 as a cotton spinner in Preston, and became a British suffragette, imprisoned twice for militant protesting on behalf of women's franchise, and awarded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) Hunger Strike Medal for valour.

The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving their sentences in the prisons of the United Kingdom for acts of militancy in their campaign for women's suffrage. Many women were force-fed and their individual medals were created to reflect this.