Denise Dutton, our wonderful sculptor, has offered to make a very limited edition of duplicate bronze maquettes available to major donors who give £6,000 or more to the
Denise Dutton presents the maquette to the Appeal and the City
Appeal. She has generously offered to do this at cost, so apart from foundry and delivery charges, all profits will go to the Appeal. This is an amazing offer from Denise who is internationally known and in great demand. She is currently working on the statue of Mary Anning which will be unveiled in Lyme Regis.
The design shows Mary on the last two days of her life, after she has been released from prison. She holds a last few copies of Votes for Women the suffragette newspaper she sold regularly in Brighton and elsewhere. The edition she holds depicts the events of Black Friday, the violence of which (followed by her subsequent imprisonment and forcible feeding) almost certainly led to her death by brain haemorrhage. She wears her
Head and shoulders of the maquette showing fine detail of Mary’s clothing, banner and hunger strike medal.
suffragette banner and her hunger striker’s medal. Her dress depicts the flowers she loved and also the prison arrows worn in Holloway prison. Stepping across the tubing, funnels and other paraphernalia of forcible feeding, which are embedded in the plinth, she gestures towards the lamp she has laid down at her feet for others to take up. Her words “I am glad to pay the price for freedom” are etched on the plinth as are the words of her sister Emmeline Pankhurst “she is the first to die. How many must follow…”. So too is Emmeline Pethick Lawrence’s statement that Mary was “the first martyr to go to death for this Cause” and Isabella McKeown’s instruction to those at Mary’s memorial service in the Royal Pavilion to “Take the torch from her and light the darkness..”.
Anyone who wishes to take up Denise’s marvellous offer should contact jeancalder.mcsa@gmail.com.
Jenny Engledow with the banner of Mary Clarke
March is Women’s History Month and the 8th March is International Women’s Day. Jenny Engledow, well known local peace campaigner and an extremely accomplished embroiderer has just completed a banner depicting Mary Clarke.
The suffragettes’ processions were central to their campaigning. They used fantastic costumes, flowers, horses, choirs and bands, and above all, beautifully coloured banners, to wonderful effect. Many banners were designed to be carried by a single person and depicted heroic individual women, such as Joan of Arc, or suffrage guilds and trades, professions or activities carried out by women.
Mary’s banner has been made to a design for a single-person banner of the time and depicts her face, head and shoulders along with the words:
Suffragette Mary Clarke
1861 – 1910
First Suffragette to Die for Women’s Right to Vote
Jenny designed the banner after consultation with the Appeal and has hand-stitched every part of it, a process that took many months.
In the short term, it is hoped it can be displayed in public places such as libraries,
Jenny Engledow in the North Road Timber Company store
possibly alongside the bronze maquette. We are currently in discussion with the Council about the possibility of displaying it near the maquette in the Jubilee Library, once it has opened agin.
Longer term, it is intended that the banner will be carried through the city in procession on key dates such as International Women’s Day and 25th November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
We look forward to the day when once again we can march and sing together on the city’s streets. In the meanwhile, our heartfelt thanks to Jenny for her beautiful banner and the hours of work that went into making it.
During the years Mary worked in Brighton and the South East she was often subject to threats and blows from hostile crowds. She was committed to non-violence and had a reputation for responding with charm and good humour to insults and threats and with calm courage to actual violence. It is fitting that such a committed peace campaigner as Jenny Engledow should make her banner.
Jenny is local Branch Secretary and a National Executive member for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Finally, our thanks to North Road Timber Company in Brighton, which supports the campaign and is making the wooden carrying frame.
Katy Bourne OBE Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner
We are delighted to have received a statement of support for our campaign for a statue for Mary Clarke from Katy Bourne OBE, the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner.
On 19th February she wrote:
“Despite being the first suffragette to die for her cause, Mary Clarke has been largely forgotten by history. She was a determined woman who was not afraid to fight for women’s rights at a time when they were not only overlooked but also violently suppressed.
“I hope she would be delighted to see that, not only does modern day policing employ female officers and staff across all sectors but, increasingly, we are seeing a welcome growth in the number of women in senior roles, as we now have in Sussex. I’m pleased to support the campaign to install a statue in her honour in celebration of her message and memory.”
Katy Bourne, Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner, 19th February 2021.
This is a remarkable statement, both because Mary was three times imprisoned for her beliefs and because her death by brain haemorrhage was attributed to police excesses on ‘Black Friday’, 18th November 1910, when London police violently and sexually attacked 300 women outside Parliament, over a period of six hours, almost certainly on the orders, or with the agreement, of the Liberal Government of the time. Sussex police officers were not involved.
Mary was bed-ridden for three days following Black Friday then returned to London to protest about police conduct. She was advised by a friend not to go, because she was ill and for fear of further violence towards her. She wrote in explanation:“I had to protest somehow: You would not have me a shirker”.
Mary was arrested after breaking a window in Cannon Row Police Station, where her sister Emmeline Pankhurst was being held. It was her first illegal act, apparently undertaken as an act of loyalty to other women already under arrest. She told the Constable who arrested her: “I voted that the deputation (to Parliament) should go, and am morally as responsible as they are. If they are guilty of wrongdoing so am I, and I mean to share their punishment.”
She was imprisoned for a month and died two days after her release on Christmas Day 1910.
Mary was loved and respected for her gentleness and calm commitment to non-violence, as well as her good-humour and personal courage in the face of attack. Even her opponents admired her courtesy, quick wit and bravery. She was a survivor of an abusive marriage, which she was forced to flee more than once before finally freeing herself. Thereafter she devoted herself to the suffrage movement, her self-confidence slowly growing.
In the last eighteen months of her life, she led the movement in the south east, working as the paid Organiser for the Women’s Social and Political Union, based and living in Brighton, but campaigning across Sussex and Hampshire.
Mary would have been amazed and proud to have seen a woman elected as Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner (with another appointed as Chief Constable). No doubt this modest and self-effacing woman would have been stunned to learn that the Commissionerand at least three of Sussex’s female MPs – Maria Caulfield, Caroline Lucas and Sally-Ann Hart – support the campaign for her statue, in common with Brighton & Hove’s male MPs, the entire City Council and countless local people.
Sally-Ann Hart M.P. For Hastings and Rye
It seems that Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary and Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary plans to back a proposal from the Common Sense Group of Conservative M.P.s that local authorities erect (and fund) civic statues to all holders of the Victoria Cross and George Cross (Daily Telegraph 24th January 2021). Admirable and worthy as these individuals are, they are almost exclusively male and in the main already well commemorated.
Jean Calder, Chair of Trustees for the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, wrote on 6th February 2021 to Sally-Ann Hart M.P. for Hastings and Rye, expressing concern at the exclusion of worthy women from public memorials. As well as being one of our Sussex M.P.s, Sally-Ann is also a member of the Common Sense Group.
Jean Calder wrote, in almost identical terms, on 9th February 2021 to Oliver Dowden M.P., copying that letter to Robert Jenrick M.P..
Jean has not yet had a response from Oliver Dowden or Robert Jenrick, but heard very promptly from Sally-Ann Hart, who wrote on 9th February 2021: “I am grateful that you contacted me about the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal and I wholly sympathise with your
Jean Calder Chair of Trustees, Mary Clarke Statue Appeal
endeavours.“. She added “I will raise the issue with the Common Sense group. I am aware of the need to commemorate women who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much for our country.” She later copied Jean’s letter to Sir John Hayes M.P., who chairs the Common Sense Group.
Jean Calder’s Letter on behalf of the Appeal to Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE, MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, dated 10th February 2021 (copied to Robert Jenrick M.P. the Communities Secretary)
Dear Mr Dowden,
I write in my capacity as Chair of Trustees of the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, to make
you aware of this Brighton-based charity which campaigns for a statue in Brighton of Mary Clarke, the first suffragette to die for women’s right to vote.
Mary, who was Emmeline Pankhurst’s younger sister, died of a brain haemorrhage on Christmas Day 1910, following the notorious police excesses of ‘Black Friday’ on 18th November 1910 and subsequent imprisonment and forcible feeding.
Based in Brighton from 1909 – 1910 as a paid Organiser for the Women’s Social and Political Union, she was the leader of the suffrage movement in the South East area. She had escaped an abusive marriage and thereafter dedicated herself to the struggle for female suffrage.
Mary was a remarkable woman, calm, gentle and good humoured in the face of aggression, committed to non-violence, an inspirational leader and formidably brave. She was greatly loved and admired in her lifetime and, following her death, acknowledged nationally as the “first woman martyr to have gone to death for this cause”, but there is no public memorial to her anywhere in the country.
We think it important to alert you to this campaign, in the light of current controversy about the removal, retention or erection of public statues. We are aware that you have been approached by the Common Sense Group of parliamentarians, who have proposed that local authorities be required to fund memorials such as statues for those who have received Victoria Crosses and George medals.
We fully support memorials to these brave individuals, but respectfully submit that most were men, usually under arms, and therefore tend to already be well memorialised. We wish you, and indeed the Common Sense group, to consider our view that, by and large, it is women whose lives and sacrifices have been forgotten, despite many acts of extraordinary self-sacrifice and heroism, almost all performed as voluntary public service, generally in civilian life and sometimes in domestic settings.
We think particularly of Sandra Seagrave in Crawley Down, an elderly, frail woman less than five feet tall who bravely intervened to protect a neighbour she saw subjected to brutal domestic violence and threats to kill. The 17 stone attacker (now convicted of murder) turned Sandra Seagrave’s own walking stick against her, using it to beat her and his wife Amy Appleton, to death. Surely Sandra’s intervention was an act of bravery equal to any on a bloody battlefield.
The Mary Clarke Statue Appeal asserts that frail Mary Clarke, who gave her life for equal suffrage, facing harassment, beatings, imprisonment and death with calm determination, courage and good humour, is the equal of any brave soldier under arms. She was the first to die so that the women of this country could vote and we believe deserves a statue.
We intend this statue to be a symbol of courage in the face of injustice, demonstrating to children and adults alike the importance of equality and women’s rights – and the right of all people to exercise democratic choice without fear of violence.
Our Appeal enjoys all-party local support and has the backing of Brighton & Hove City Council. Your Conservative colleague Maria Caulfield M.P. is one of our Patrons, as are Labour’s Peter Kyle M.P. and the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas M.P..
It is our sincere hope that when these matters are discussed at government and parliamentary level, politicians will recognise the lack of memorials, plaques, statues and street names honouring women and act to redress this balance. Certainly, if there is public funding available we would hope that projects such as ours, and other similar schemes elsewhere in the country, might be able to benefit from it.
I do hope you will feel able to support our Appeal and to make your colleagues aware of the need to commemorate women who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much to make this country a better place to live.
I have attached an article and photograph which provide more information about Mary and the proposed statue, including its design. You may also wish to visit our website maryclarkestatue.com.
Should you need further information please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Jean Calder
Chair of Trustees Mary Clarke Statue Appeal.
Terri Bell Halliwell
The Daily Telegraph reported (24th January 2021) that Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary and Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary plan to back a proposal from the Common Sense Group of Conservative M.P.s that local authorities erect (and fund) statues to all holders of the Victoria Cross and George Cross. It didn’t take long for women’s organisations to point out that such a scheme would exclude women.
Jean Calder’s letters of 6th February 2021 on behalf of the Appeal to Sally-Ann Hart M.P. for Hastings and Rye and member of the Common Sense Group and also Oliver Dowden M.P., the Culture Secretary, are reported in a separate item on this website.
Several groups campaigning for statues of women have pointed out that soldiers are already well commemorated and that it is the contribution of women which has largely gone unrecorded. Terri Bell Halliwell of inVISIBLEwomen, who is a valued supporter of this Appeal, wrote to Sir John Hayes M.P, the Chair of the Common Sense Group, on the 15th February 20121, copying her letter to the Culture Secretary and national media, saying this scheme will the increase the “imbalance” in civic statues. Her letter, which is reproduced in full below, was reported on 17th February 2021 in the Guardian online in an article by Helen Pidd https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/feb/17/more-war-hero-statues-is-wholly-retrograde-move-conservative-mps-say-womens-groups?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Letter to Sir John Hayes MP, Chair of the Common Sense Group of Conservative M.P.s from Terri Bell Halliwell of inVISIBLEwomen dated 15th February 2021
Dear Sir
I write as the founder of inVISIBLEwomen, a virtual museum and national campaign for gender equality in UK civic statues. The best estimate of the number of UK statues of named non-royal men was 500 at last count in 2016, whilst named non-royal women numbered just 25. Given this astonishing existing imbalance I was shocked by the proposal of the Common Sense Group concerning the erection of statues to all holders of both the Victoria and George Cross.
You are reported as saying that the group
“has launched a campaign to honour every recipient of the VC and GC through the erection of a statue, immortalising them in their place of birth”,
Coming from a government that has so often stated its backing for gender equality this idea seems wholly retrograde. These are, without doubt all heroic people, but the vast majority of them are men and civic statues are already overwhelmingly male.
There are laws about discriminating against women, but it seems that women can, in fact, be hugely discriminated against in terms of who we as a nation have to ‘look up to’ both literally and figuratively, in our civic statues. Nationally there are a number of active campaigns for statues of women and a long waiting list of nearly one hundred other worthy candidates on the inVISIBLEwomen website. If the public purse is really to be used for new statues surely it is these women who should have first call on such funding? Even if every one of them had a statue, we would still not have come close to gender equality in who we look up to on civic plinths, but at least it would be a step in the right direction.
The Fawcett Society reports that of the 1761 holders of the Victoria and George Cross all are male except for 11 women. If the suggestion to erect statues of all of these were implemented, even including the few recent additions to statues of women, men would still outnumber women by the staggering amount of 2250 to 50. Surely members of a government that makes claims to embrace gender equality should not now be promoting a move which would set back equality of representation in UK statues by decades.
Current campaigns for statues of women include the suffragettes Mary Clarke, Amy Walmsley, Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, and Sylvia Pankhurst, the palaeontologist Mary Anning, MP Barbara Castle, author Virginia Woolf, wartime nurse Elsie Inglis and the striking Matchgirls as well as one statue, ready to erect of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher which has been delayed for some time. It is debatable whether the installation of a statue of any other former male Prime Minister would have had to endure such controversy.
Mary Clarke died so women could vote. Elsie Inglis and her team saved the lives of thousands of soldiers.The Matchgirls changed the course of industrial relations in this country. These women are in no way negligible. Given that we are already so extremely well supplied with monuments to men and the military, now has to be the time to honour these overlooked women and so begin to achieve a more balanced view of what and who is worthy of being ‘looked up to”.
Yours sincerely
Terri Bell-Halliwell
cc Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP
BBC South East Today broadcast a special report today (10th February 2021) about Mary, the “forgotten suffragette”. BBC’s Chrissie Ready interviewed Jean Calder and Briony Goulden from the Appeal and and Terri Bell-Halliwell from inVISIBLEwomen.
Terri’s organisation campaigns for more statues and memorials for women. She has been a huge support to the Appeal.
Lucy Bannerman of The Times wrote an article entitled “Calls for statue to celebrate forgotten suffragette” published 23rd January 2021. We are so grateful for Lucy’s interest and for Andrew Hasson’s wonderful photographs.
An invitation from Woman’s Hour followed (broadcast 29th January 2021) and several other media opportunities. We have had donations from as far afield as Wales and Scotland, with many donors commenting that they have found Mary’s story truly inspirational.
Over a ten day period we received £2,400 in donations.
Sculptor Denise Dutton has completed and delivered the much anticipated bronze maquette of Mary Clarke, the first suffragette to die for women’s right to vote – and did so in time for Mary’s birthday on 12th December.
Denise Dutton presents the maquette to the Appeal and the City
Cllr Alan Robins, the Mayor of Brighton & Hove received it on behalf of the Appeal and the people of Brighton & Hove in a brief socially-distanced ceremony on the evening of Friday 11 December 2020 at Brighton Town Hall. A more elaborate event to welcome the figure had had to be cancelled.
The Mayor thanked Denise Dutton saying he was “honoured” to receive the maquette. Chair of Trustees Jean Calder also thanked Denise for the maquette and expressed gratitude to the Council for its support and generosity in helping to fund the maquette and the planned statue. Jean also conveyed the Appeal’s thanks to the Mayor for his “unstinting support”.
The Mayor Cllr Alan Robins thanks Denise Dutton and welcomes the maquette to the city.
The next day, on the 12 December 2020, the charity’s trustees met the sculptor once again to launch its Christmas Appeal, aimed at funding the next phase of the campaign. The time-limited appeal will last from 12th December to the 31st January and will aim to raise £5,000 in the first instance as“A Gift for Mary”.
December was a very significant month for Mary. Born in December, she spent her last birthday in Holloway Prison. Released on 23rd December 1910, she died of a brain haemorrhage on Christmas Day.
The maquette represents Mary released from prison, in Brighton, a day or two before her death.
She wears a suffragette sash and on her left arm carries a last few copies of Votes for Women, the suffragette newspaper she regularly sold in Brighton. The front page of the November 1910 issue depicts the events of ‘Black Friday’, when, a few days before she was arrested and imprisoned,she and hundreds of other women were assaulted by police.
Mary wears the Hunger Strikers’ medal and walks with gentle dignity over the implements used in forcible feeding, which are imbedded in the surface of the plinth. Her clothing, accurate for the period, subtly references her background as an artist, her love of flowers and her time in prison. She gestures towards a lamp at her feet which she has placed there for others to pick up. This refers to the words of Isabella McKeown spoken after Mary’s death “Her they must not mourn in silence. They must take the torch from her and light the darkness…”.Mary’s hand is positioned low, so that children can hold it.
A low plinth carries the above quotation from Isabella McKeown and others fromEmmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary’s sister Emmeline Pankhurst – as well as Mary’s own courageous words: “I am glad to pay the price for freedom..”
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence’s statement about Mary as the “..first woman martyr who has gone to death for this cause..”, provides another iconic quotation on the sides of the low plinth, while Emmeline Pankhurst’s moving words: “She is the first to die. How many must follow…” are etched into its surface, curving around the line of the feeding tube embedded in the bronze.
Denise Dutton is in the final stages of completing the bronze maquette or model of the proposed statue of Mary Clarke. The finished wax is at the foundry and, COVID-permitting, the completed bronze should be ready by early December, in time for the anniversary of Mary’s birth on 12th December and of her death on Christmas Day.
Finished Wax ready for the Foundry
Our plan is to display the maquette in public places – such as libraries, if that is permitted – so that as many people as possible can see it. Given the value of the bronze, it can only be displayed in secure locations. We want people who have already generously donated to see the design. We are so grateful to them. It is also important for others who may not yet know about the campaign to learn about it and have the opportunity to donate. We also want children to see it and begin to learn about Mary’s life and sacrifice and why she was prepared to give up so much for the struggle for equal rights and democracy.
The sculptor is also completing a resin maquette, which will look like a bronze, but have far less value. This can also be used for fundraising and educational purposes, but can be moved around much more freely.
The challenge now is to secure the £60,000 we need for the final statue. We have raised £13,000 of this sum, but in common with other charities have been hampered by the pandemic.We hope that 2021/2022 will be the year that we raise the funds we need.
Denise has sent us photos of the technically complex final processes of making the maquette which we will publish soon.
Our patron Elizabeth Crawford, one of the foremost historians of the suffrage movement, recently sent us a photograph of Mary we hadn’t seen before. Elizabeth had found it in the newly digitised records of the Daily Mirror of 29th December 1910, published just days after Mary’s death. We were very excited. We only had 5 decent images of this very retiring woman to show to the sculptor and so to us a new photograph is like gold dust.
Mary is pictured, possibly after release from prison, talking to a friend
Unlike her charismatic sister Emmeline Pankhurst (whom Mary supported in a myriad different ways, from undertaking her paid duties as a Registrar to caring for her children) Mary preferred to tirelessly organise in the background rather than take centre stage. She also seems to have avoided posing for photographs. This unposed shot of Mary reveals her talking to another woman, apparently relaxed and completely unaware of the camera. We don’t yet have a good copy of the photograph, but please see the attached image.
The photograph in the Daily Mirror accompanied a fascinating article about Mary’s death. The copy is very hard to read, so the text is reproduced here. It highlights both her leading role in Brighton and her importance in raising morale amongst prisoners. What emerges from many testimonies given after her death is that Mary was deeply loved by other suffragettes. She looked after them and they admired her calm good humour and bravery.
A WSPU official who is quoted speculates that her death may have been precipitated by a “weak heart”. In fact, it later emerged, she had died of a brain haemorrhage.The article reads as follows:
DEATH AFTER RELEASE – Mrs Pankhurst’s Sister, Freed from Prison, Dies Suddenly
Mrs Marie Clarke, a younger sister of Mrs Pankhurst, died, it was yesterday reported, on Christmas Day.
Mrs Clarke was, together with sixteen others, on November 21 sentenced to a month’s imprisonment for breaking a window at Cannon Row police station on the occasion of the last suffragette raid (this word is illegible so may be incorrect) on the House of Commons.
She was released from Holloway gaol on Christmas Eve, and, after being entertained ata luncheon at the Criterion Restaurant, left for Brighton. She returned from there on Christmas day, and died suddenly in London.
“Mrs Clarke‘s loss is a great one to the cause especially where Brighton is concerned.“ said an official of the Women’s Social and Political Union to The Daily Mirror yesterday.
“Without approaching her older sister’s power as an orator, she did an immense amount of splendid service, and she was the leader of the women’s franchise movement in Brighton.
“Altogether she went to prison three times, and on each occasion she was a great favourite with her fellow prisoners. Always when she got the chance during exercise hours she would whisper words of cheery encouragement and hope to them. Her great work was done away from the platform.
“I saw her on the night of her last arrest, and, although she did not then complain of any unduly rough treatment, I thought she looked very worn out. She had, I believe, a weak heart.”
Mrs Clarke is to be buried today.(Taken from the Daily Mirror of 29 December 1910).
BBC South East Today broadcast a special report today (10th February 2021) about Mary, the “forgotten suffragette”. BBC’s Chrissie Ready interviewed Jean Calder and Briony Goulden from the Appeal and and Terri Bell-Halliwell from inVISIBLEwomen.
implements used in forcible feeding, which are imbedded in the surface of the plinth. Her clothing, accurate for the period, subtly references her background as an artist, her love of flowers and her time in prison. She gestures towards a lamp at her feet which she has placed there for others to pick up. This refers to the words of Isabella McKeown spoken after Mary’s death “Her they must not mourn in silence. They must take the torch from her and light the darkness…”.
