Local historian Marion Bance recently kindly offered to write an article about Mary Clarke for the Preston Pages and other associated free neighbourhood magazines. It was published last month. The link is below. http://www.prestonpages.com/brightonhistory/recognising-heroine We are so grateful to Marion and to the magazine editor who generously agreed to run the story, despite the fact she’d published something about Mary in September 2020. Please read…
We met River Isaac, our Child Ambassador, during the period of COVID lockdown when she asked us to help her teacher to organise an on-line sculpture class about Mary Clarke for Balfour School in Brighton. This we did and subsequently asked River to become our first Child Ambassador for the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal. Since then she has helped us with fundraising events and lobbied councillors…
On 7th April, we launched a post-pandemic appeal we are naming RaiseMary1000, which was inspired by writer Peter James, our newest Patron. We have received many hundreds of smaller donations, but only a few larger ones. Just recently we were grateful to receive two separate donations of £1,000, one of which was from Peter. It occurred to us that if we could identify just thirty five people to…
Thank you to ITV Meridian News and Charlotte Wilkins for their coverage this weekend of the wonderful fundraising efforts of Izzy and Sophia Kilburn, our most recently appointed Junior Ambassadors. If you haven’t already seen it, please take a moment to watch the film. You can find the link below. As we reported earlier, the twins have been fundraising to erect blue plaques in Brighton, to…
We are pleased to announce that 12 year old twin sisters Isabel (Izzy) and Sophia Kilburn have become our most recent Child Ambassadors. They live in Ovingdean and attend Brighton College Prep School. The girls love music and are accomplished young sportswomen. Izzy focusses on hockey, while Sophia prefers netball and, in particular, cricket. Sophia plays cricket for the Brighton College boys first team. The…
Our Appeal has attracted widespread community backing and has the cross party support of the City Council. It has a number of prominent Patrons, whose support we are immensely proud and honoured to call our own. However, we think our most recent Patron is probably the most famous. We are delighted that the best selling author Peter James has agreed to serve as a Patron…
We are proud to announce that the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal now has its first Child Ambassador. She is River Isaac who is 8 years old and in year four at Balfour Primary School in Brighton. We first came across River during lockdown at the height of the pandemic, when she and her mother Paula contacted our chosen sculptor Denise Dutton to ask if she…
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 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…
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…
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. Our plan is to display the maquette in…