On a recent visit to London Glasgow City Soroptimist members took advantage of the opportunity to photograph the newly unveiled statue of Millicent Garrett Fawcett in Parliament Square, as well as the much older statue of Edith Cavell, opposite the National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square.
Two incredible women, both courageous, but in different ways. Edith Cavell saved the lives of many wounded soldiers of both sides in WWI and was executed by the Germans in 1915 for assisting allied soldiers to escape from occupied Belgium. Millicent Garrett Fawcett was a prominent Suffragist for women’s right to vote in the early years of the 20th century and was leader of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.
It was a time for courageous women: a third photograph was taken in Govan, Glasgow, of the recently unveiled statue commemorating the role played by Mary Barbour in the 1915 rent strike, as part of International Women’s Day 2018.
“Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere” is written on the banner held up by Millicent’s statue on Parliament Square. Looking back it can be seen as a rallying cry of the age. The first two decades of the 20th century was certainly a time when women’s courage flourished, and brave women called out to their sisters, exhorting them to stand up for their rights.
