Sharing the Square with Mrs. Pankhurst ............

Now the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter’s Square remains a popular one.*

Mrs. Pankhurst, 2022

On any one day there will be someone having their picture taken beside her.

And that is as it should be given her contribution to the campaign for extending the franchise to women.

Equally significant is that she was the first woman in 117 years to be recognised with a statue in a public place in the city since that of Queen Victoria in 1901.

But of course, Mrs. Pankhurst was not alone in the campaign, and we rightly remember Annie Kenney whose statue stands in Oldham’s Parliament Square, and those who died during the struggle.

Annot Robinson, crca 1895

And then there are the less well-known ones like Ada Chew who was active in the Trade Union Movement and the Independent Labour Party and whose name is on the plinth of Millicent Fawcett's statue in Parliament Square, London.

Here in Manchester, there were a host of working class women including Annot Robinson who is less well known but deserves more recognition.**

So perhaps we shall have more statues to those who made that contribution to maintaining the campaign, and perhaps Mrs. Robinson would be a start.***

Location; St Peter’s Square

Picture;  Sharing the Square with Mrs, Pankhurst, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Annot Robinson, from ANNOT ROBINSON: A FORGOTTEN MANCHESTER SUFFRAGETTE***

*Emmeline Pankhurst, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=mrs.+pankhurst

**Annot Robinson, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Annot%20Robinson

***ANNOT ROBINSON: A FORGOTTEN MANCHESTER SUFFRAGETTE, Kate Rigby, Manchester Regional History Review, Vol 1 Nu 1 Spring 1987, http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/mcrh/files/2013/01/mrhr_01i_rigby.pdf