The unveiling of the magnificent statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett, an important figure in the votes for women campaign, raises many questions (Report, 25 April.)
It was pointed out on Tuesday that the words on the banner that the statue holds – “Courage calls to courage everywhere” – were written by Fawcett about the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, who died on 8 June 1913, days after running on to the Derby racecourse. What was not said was that those words were not written at the turbulent time of Davison’s death, when Fawcett made no public comment, but in the relative safety of 1920. The NUWSS, which Fawcett headed up, did not even send a wreath to Davison’s funeral and refused to take part.
To include these words on the banner is a travesty of justice, especially since the picture of Davison is placed at the back of the statue’s plinth, hidden from view. And that is not the only point.
Fawcett does not represent the diversity of the women’s suffrage movement. The well-known suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst (whose name was not even mentioned in the speeches) should also be in Parliament Square. After all, Caroline Criado-Perez, in her original petition for female representation in the square, signed by nearly 85,000 people, campaigned for a statue of a “suffragette”, not a “suffragist”.
June Purvis
University of Portsmouth
• It is not before time that Millicent Fawcett has been honoured with Gillian Wearing’s magnificent sculpture in Parliament Square. Sadly this contrasts with the neglect of her portrait, painted by fellow suffragist and pioneering artist Annie Swynnerton. Bought for the nation by the Chantrey Bequest in 1930, and in the possession of Tate Britain, where it was on display in February this year for the first time in 30 years, but for only about a week, prior to its going to Manchester Art Gallery, where it is currently on show as part of a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Annie Swynnerton, the first woman to be elected an associate of the Royal Academy.
Our concern is that when this exhibition closes in January next year, the painting will not only return to the Tate, but to the obscurity of the stack. It may well be more appropriate that some agreement should be reached between the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery, which would ensure that Fawcett has a permanent place with the many other pioneers who have helped to shape our society. The portrait shows Fawcett in her academic robes from the University of St Andrews where she received an honorary doctorate in 1899, and was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1930, when the Manchester Guardian described it as showing “the great leader of the woman’s suffrage cause in her most vital personality”, and the Times correspondent wrote “Mrs Swynnerton presents you to a real human being”.
Both of these pioneering women deserve a place of lasting recognition.
Penny Morris
Winchester
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