Hugh became an active member of both the WSPU and MPUWE after hearing speeches by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel.

Hugh was first arrested on 18th November 1910 during the protest in Parliament Square which became known as Black Friday due to the brutality of the police towards the protesters.

Winston Churchill, the Home Secretary at the time, was seen as to blame for the treatment of the suffragettes, and Hugh, angered by what he had seen, attempted to dog whip Churchill on a train from Bradford to London.

On 8th March 1911 he was arrested again for trying to smash Churchill's windows in Eccleston Square, and was sentenced to a month in prison, where he went on hunger strike. On the 1911 census, Hugh is listed at Pentonville prison.

He was arrested 5 times in all, resulting in 3 prison sentences and being force-fed 114 times. He was the first to be released under the 'Cat and Mouse Act' of 1913, and fled to the continent under the alias Henry Forster until the outbreak of war in summer 1914.

During his time in prison, Hugh received letters and cards from many leading suffragists, including Christabel Pankhurst, who wrote in 1911: "I hope you have now quite recovered from your recent experience in prison."

Christabel was at Hugh's wedding to fellow-suffragist Elsie Duval in September 1915.