The inscription reads: “Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett 1847-1929. Decades later, in 1932, a much simpler and less imposing inscription and insignia to Millicent Fawcett were placed in roundels at each side of the central display. Sculpted by Sir Albert Gilbert (1854-1934) in 1887, the Abbey monument was originally dedicated to Fawcett’s husband, Henry Fawcett (1833-1884), philanthropist, academic, and politician. The memorial to Fawcett in Westminster Abbey’s St George’s Chapel surpasses all others for its evocation of a sense of stateliness and propriety. Another plaque remembers her childhood home in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. A blue plaque marks her former city home in London, making her one of a relatively small number of women to have been so honoured. These memorials work to emphasise the constitutional movement’s reputation for dignity and decorum in the face of its militant counterpart’s lack of respectability.Ī number of plaques mark the former residences of Millicent Fawcett, leader of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Public memorials to the non-militant branch of the British suffrage movement tend to evoke a sober sense of respectability that belies just how radical that campaign was seen to be in its own time. If you are interested in this book, it can currently be purchased directly from Routledge here with a 20 percent discount if you use the code FLR40. Preserving Their Own Memory: Constitutional Suffragism and the Fawcett Society
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