Statue

Millicent Fawcett statue

Erection date: 24/4/2018

Inscription

{On the front of the marble plinth:}
Millicent Garrett Fawcett

{On the banner displayed by Fawcett:}
Courage calls to courage everywhere

{Laid into the top of the marble plinth, immediately under the hem of the skirt is a coin-sized brass plaque:}
G.W 2018

The 'courage' quote is from a speech Fawcett gave after the death of fellow suffrage campaigner Emily Davison.

Site: New Millicent Fawcett statue (1 memorial)

SW1, Parliament Square

This statue of Millicent Fawcett is the first (and, 2022, still the only) statue of a woman in Parliament Square where there are 12 statues of men. This is also the first statue in the Square created by a woman. Erected following a campaign, to celebrate 100 years of voting rights for (some) women. 

The plinth has a continuous frieze consisting of 52 images of people who actively supported women’s suffrage, so we have treated that as a memorial in its own right.

On one of our visits a gardener was planting out the flower beds either side of the statue. He kindly pointed out that the plants chosen provided the colours of the suffragists, to which Fawcett was affiliated: red, white and green. Not the colours of the suffragettes who had split off in order to continue their more militant campaign: purple white and green.

This seems a good place to provide a link to a ground-breaking 2016 New Statesman article by Caroline Criado-Perez: "I sorted the UK’s statues by gender – a mere 2.7 per cent are of historical, non-royal women. If you’re a woman, your best chance at becoming a statue is to be a mythical or allegorical figure, a famous virgin, royal or nude."

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Millicent Fawcett statue

Subjects commemorated i

Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett

Intellectual, political leader, activist and writer. Born Suffolk and brought...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Millicent Fawcett statue

Created by i

Gillian Wearing

Artist. Gillian C. Wearing, CBE, RA, was born on 6 December 1963 in  Birmingh...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Isabella

Isabella

W1, St George Street, 6-7, Sotheby's

This identification of the statues on front of this building is only tentative, suggested by Ornamental Passions.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Milton statue - Hammersmith

Milton statue - Hammersmith

W6, Shepherds Bush Road, Hammersmith Carnegie Library

Milton sitting on the left; Shakespeare on the right; Carnegie's cartouche is inside the porch, above the door. Erected in 1905, Carnegi...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Queen Anne at Guildhall

Queen Anne at Guildhall

EC2, Basinghall Street, 71

Ornamental Passions has some more photos and information on these sculptures, and there we learn that this building is the 1870 Guildhall...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
King Edgar

King Edgar

EC2, Devonshire Square

The plaque with this text utilizes an unusually interesting script, reminiscent of that on ancient manuscripts.

2 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
Terrence Cuneo statue

Terrence Cuneo statue

SE1, Waterloo Station

See that book on the floor behind Cuneo? It hides a wee mouse, like those often found in Cuneo's paintings.  July 2014 Kent Online info...

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators