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 do the same, we would meet our target of £35,000. So, with Peter James’ endorsement, we are appealing to our supporters and previous donors, to help us reach our goal by pledging:

• to donate £1,000, ideally no later than 12 December 2022 (Mary’s birthday) OR
• to work with others to do so.

However you do it we hope you will register at https://localgiving.org/raisemary1000

Some supporters may be in a position to ‘raise one thousand’ on their own. Others, like our young fundraisers Izzy and Sophia Kilburn (below left), and River Isaac (below) may choose to organise others – friends, family or work colleagues – to raise substantial amounts. Some may be able to identify  a business or firm to act as a corporate donor. We would be grateful for any help supporters can give.

Our sculptor Denise Dutton  is now at work on the statue for Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, which will be unveiled later this year. We hope that, not long after she completes that statue, she  will be able to programme work on the statue of Mary Clarke. Our very ambitious, tentative target for unveiling Mary’s statue is 2nd July 2023, marking the 95th anniversary of the passing of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928, which gave all women the Vote.

We hope you may be able to help us meet that target – and use the opportunity to raise awareness of Mary’s life and sacrifice, so we need no longer call her “A Woman Hidden from History”. Click ‘History’ on this website to see the report of that title.

How to Donate or Fundraise with Others

If you want to raise money for the RaiseMary1000 as a registered LocalGiving

Fundraiser (which we would recommend if you are raising money from others) please go to: https://localgiving.org/fundraisers. We have a RaiseMary1000 Appeal page https://localgiving.org/raisemary1000 which you can visit, with ideas for fundraising.

Alternatively, if you prefer to collect without registering with LocalGiving, you can do so, giving via the buttons on this website in the usual way, or by BACS or cheque if preferred. However you fundraise,  please keep us updated via the email address below so we can publicise your efforts and supply you with leaflets. If you are able to help – or have any queries – please let us know at jeancalder.mcsa@gmail.com.

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.

In the short term, it is hoped it can be displayed in public places such as libraries,

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.

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 Commissioner  and 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.

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 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 from  Emmeline 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. 

Those wishing to give a special ‘Gift for Mary’ can do so online via Local Giving or PayPal. Please invite your friends to visit our website or go directly to https://localgiving.org/charity/mary-clarke-statue-appeal/ or https://www.paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/charity/3881341. If they wish they can send cheques to The Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, c/o the Regency Town House, 13 Brunswick Square, Hove BN3 1EH. 

Following months of discussion, research and painstaking work in miniature, our wonderful sculptor Denise Dutton has completed the rough plaster line maquette of Mary. She is now in the process of preparing a resin copy and a mould for the final bronze. 

Denise has faced many challenges. She has had to work from only 5 photographs, some of which are of poor quality and none of which depict Mary’s whole body. In addition to that, we set her the difficult task of depicting someone who was both frail and self-effacing, but at the same time, strong and formidably brave, a shy leader, a ‘martyr’ with a wry sense of humour.

We asked Denise to tell the story of Mary’s life and death, expressing her gentle dignity and calm strength as well as her courage and determination. The agreed design depicts Mary after leaving prison, two days before her death. She gestures towards a lamp at her feet which she has left for others to pick up. Her hand is held low, so that children can hold it and pose for photographs (we suspect many will want to rub the lamp and make wishes). The lamp references the statement by Isabella McKeown, made at Mary’s memorial meeting in the Royal Pavilion. She said “Her they must not mourn in silence. They must take the torch from her and light the darkness…”

Mary 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’, 18th November 1910, when she, like so many other women was injured by police violence. Mary was deeply distressed at the suffering of women that day, many of whom were subjected to sexual abuse.

Mary wears the Hunger Strikers’ medal and walks across the implements used in forcible feeding, which she ignores and which are imbedded in the surface of the plinth. Her clothing, accurate for the period, subtly references Mary’s background as an artist, her love of flowers and her time in prison. The pattern on the skirt includes the ‘prison arrow’ which was used on convicts’ clothes and was carried with pride on suffragette banners.

The low plinth carries Mary’s words “I am glad to pay the price for freedom..”, with the above quotation from Isabella McKeown, as well as Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence’s statement that Mary was the “first woman martyr who has gone to death for this cause.”  Just days after Mary’s death, her grief-stricken sister Emmeline Pankhurst wrote: “She is the first to die. How many must follow…”. Those words will be on the surface of the plinth, curving around the line of the feeding tube embedded in the bronze, bringing the two sisters together.

Now work has begun on the ‘maquette’ , which, as she explains, is the name given to an artist’s study, sketch or model. A simple back bar supports the figure. She said “I’m using wax to form the study. It suits detailed smaller models but is more labour intensive than clay, requiring to be heated to make it malleable. Once a stick version of the body is formed and attached to the back bar the wax can be applied and filled out to form the figure.”  We are looking forward to bringing you further reports and photographs.