First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled Millicent Fawcett joins lineup of male figures to mark centenary of women’s suffrage in Britain.
This year marks the centenary since some women were granted the right to vote in 1918. Fawcett, a campaigner since her 20s, was 81 when from the public gallery of the House of Commons she finally saw women given the right to vote on the same terms as men in 1928. She died one year later.
The Fawcett statue, created by Turner prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing, depicts the suffragist leader as a 50-year-old, the age at which she became president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. She holds a banner that reads: “Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere”, an extract from a speech Fawcett made after the death of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, who was killed after she fell under King George V’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby.
Regional President Linda Johnson visiting the wonderful statue of MIllicent Fawcett.
The Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial is a memorial in London to Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel, two of the foremost British suffragettes. It stands at the entrance to Victoria Tower Gardens, at the southwest corner of the Palace of Westminster. Its main feature is a bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst by Arthur George Walker, unveiled in 1930. In 1958 the statue was relocated to its current site and the bronze reliefs commemorating Christabel Pankhurst were added.What an impressive statue – well worth a visit next time you’re in London.The Pankhursts; one of many pictures surrounding the statue of Millicent Fawcett.
