Funding found for suffragette statue

A long-running campaign for a new statue to commemorate the life of suffragette Mary Clarke will now go ahead, after Brighton and Hove City Council announced funding support for the project.

The leader of the council Bella Sankey said: “Brighton and Hove is one of the birthplaces of women’s liberation.

“Women like suffragette Mary Clarke, who gave her life for women’s emancipation here in the city, are the reason why women now have an equal say in our democracy and why I am able to lead a council where over half our councillors are women.

“So I’m excited to announce that we have unlocked funding to build a permanent monument to Mary and her sacrifice for us.

“It is crucial that our children – especially our girls – learn about the giants that have come before us and lit our path.

“And there is no better way to achieve this than through public monuments – collective expressions of who we are as a city, what we celebrate and who we want to take up our public space.

“Like many cities, most of our statues and monuments recognise men – and we have virtually nothing that commemorates our feminist, democratic and radical history as a city. We’re about to fix that.

“We have come so far I am inspired every day by the women of Brighton and Hove – the young women, the older women, the straight women, the lesbian women, the working class women, the disabled women, the immigrant women, the neurodiverse women, the Black women, the Jewish women, the Muslim women and all other women who contribute to the identity and culture of our place. This statue will be for all of them.”

The council said that the remaining funds required for the statue – £35,000 – would come from “community infrastructure levy” (CIL) – developer payments made as part of the planning process.

The council was keen to stress that this funding was not from the council tax-funded general revenue budget but from ring-fenced funds that are available for things such as infrastructure and improved public realm.

The Mary Clarke Statue Appeal chair of trustees Jean Calder said: “This is wonderful news. We are so grateful to the city council, especially Councillors Bella Sankey and Jacob Taylor who have pushed so hard for this.

“Also, to ward councillors Ellen McLeay and Sue Shanks and many others who over the years have argued for this statue.

“This includes some who have left the council such as Tony Janio and Dan Yates and others, like Mary Mears, who have sadly died without seeing it come to fruition.”

“Added to the cash we have raised from many hundreds of individual donors, this CIL grant will allow us to finally get the statue made.

“Denise Dutton, our wonderful sculptor has completed the design and made a bronze maquette which is displayed in the foyer to the Jubilee Library.

“She can now schedule in work on the statue itself. The charity intends the statue to be in place in 2027, well before 2028, the hundredth anniversary of all women getting the right to vote.

“Fundraising will continue to meet the additional costs of erecting the statue and the unveiling which is likely to be huge event. We also hope to continue and develop our educational work associated with Mary’s legacy.”

For more information visit maryclarkestatue.com or contact the chair of trustees on jeancalder.mcsa@gmail.com.

Mary Clarke was the sister of Emmeline Pankhurst and became the first suffragette to die for the right of women to vote as a result of her injury at the notorious events of “Black Friday”.

On Friday 18 November 1910, some 300 suffragettes were beaten and sexually assaulted as they attempted to lobby Parliament.

Mary Clarke died of a brain haemorrhage on Christmas Day 1910, having been released two days earlier from Holloway Prison where she had been on hunger strike and was reportedly forcibly fed.

As a much-loved and admired paid organiser, Mary Clarke ran the Brighton office of the Women’s Social and Political Union from 1909 to 1910 and worked across the south east.

She lived in the Seaview guest house, at 13 Victoria Road, run by fellow suffragette, Minnie Turner.

The project to raise a statue in her memory has had the all-party support of the council for many years – and in 2024, the council posthumously awarded her the freedom of the city.

The project also has the support of national heritage body Historic England, the Theatre Royal, the North Laine Community Association and numerous New Road businesses as well as current and former Members of Parliament – as well as the Dome and Festival Trust and the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust.