A RARE suffragette medal, awarded to a women's movement heroine, could fetch more than £6,000 when it is auctioned in Leyburn.

The silver medal, presented in 1909, is one of fewer than 100 believed to have been struck to mark the courage of women who campaigned and risked their lives for the right to vote.

It goes under the hammer at a militaria sale at Tennants' auction centre on June 26.

The medal was awarded to Catherine Tolson, from Ilkley, (pictured right) who was imprisoned for being a member of the suffrage movement. Her sister was also jailed for her beliefs.

The Women's Social and Political Union commissioned the medals and presented them to those who suffered for the cause.

Many were imprisoned for acts of protest, including arson, and one, Emily Davison, died after throwing herself in front of the king's horse at Tattenham.

Some jailed suffragettes went on hunger strike, prompting the government to release them just before they would have died, and re-arresting and imprisoning them again once they had recovered.

The medal was instituted in 1909 and has a striped ribbon of purple, silver and green. Its bar reads 'For Valour' and engraved on the medal is 'Hunger Strike' and the date, September 4, 1909. It is in its original inscribed case.

Jeff Gardiner, a militaria expert at Tennants', said: "The medal is rare. We don't know exactly how many were made but it is likely to be less than 100.

"The catalogue estimates this one will make between £5,000 and £6,000 but I think it will go for more than that."

The vendor, who lives in Richmond, is the niece of Catherine Tolson, known as Kitty, who was born in 1892, never married and died of tuberculosis while nursing in Russia during the great famine of 1924.