__NOTOC__ The Suffragette Memorial is an outdoor sculpture commemorating those who fought for

women's suffrage in the United Kingdom A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Britai ...

, located in the north-west corner of Christchurch Gardens,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The sculptors were

Lorne McKean Lorne McKean (born 1939) is an English sculptor. She studied at the Guildford School of Art and the Royal Academy School, before being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British ...

and Edwin Russell and the project was devised and supervised by the architect Paul Paget. The memorial was unveiled in 1970. It takes the form of a scroll in the shape of the letter S, created in

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

and finished in cold-cast bronze, placed on a conical plinth. The text of the scroll reads: An additional inscription notes that Caxton Hall, a nearby building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, "was historically associated with women's suffrage meetings and deputations to Parliament". The badge of the

Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership an ...

and the

Women's Freedom League The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigned for women's suffrage and sexual equality. It was an offshoot of the militant suffragettes after the Pankhursts decide to rule without democratic support fro ...

, known as the Holloway brooch, appears on both sides of the scroll; at the back of the scroll this is accompanied by a representation of the entrance to

Holloway Prison HM Prison Holloway was a closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, until its closure in 2016. Histor ...

. The memorial was commissioned by the Suffragette Fellowship, an organisation dedicated to commemorating the fight for women's suffrage whose membership was confined to living suffragettes or the families of suffragettes. A number of surviving suffragettes attended the unveiling, including the Fellowship's president Grace Roe and Edith Clayton Pepper, Leonora Cohen and Lilian Lenton. At the unveiling the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician

Edith Summerskill Edith Clara Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill, (19 April 1901 – 4 February 1980) was a British physician, feminist, Labour politician and writer. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1949. Early life Summerskill was educated at King's ...

told the audience of the debt she felt towards the suffragettes, adding "I will not fail to try to make some contribution to the women's cause". Also in attendance, the Labour politician and

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

Horace King said that he believed that there would "sooner or later" be a woman

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

References

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Suffragette Memorial 1970 sculptures Bronze sculptures in the United Kingdom Monuments and memorials in London Outdoor sculptures in London Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom Monuments and memorials to women's suffrage Individual signs 1976 establishments in England Women in London

See also

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