Person    | Male  Born 5/7/1849  Died 15/4/1912

William Thomas Stead

Campaigning journalist and spiritualist. Born Northumberland. Committed to the peace movement, women's rights, civil liberties. As part of his campaign against juvenile prostitution he 'bought' 12 year-old Eliza Armstrong of Lisson Grove from her mother for £5. He wanted to expose the transport of 'virgins' to the Continent to work in brothels and Eliza was said to be one.

Eliza was then looked after by the Salvation Army but, due to a technical violation of the law, Stead was imprisoned for 3 months. The slum from where Eliza came, Charles Street, was rebuilt by Octavia Hill and renamed Ranston Street. G.B. Shaw's Eliza Doolittle also came from Lisson Grove. Stead had often predicted that he would die either by lynching or by drowning - he went down in the Titanic - spooky.

Other memorials to him include: one in Darlington (where his journalist career began), a statue in Chicago (where, in 1893 he agitated for civic reform), and in New York, a copy of the Embankment plaque, apparently erected by "American friends and admirers", on the edge of Central Park, one block north of Engineers’ Gate. We would like to know how that inscription reads - the Embankment one refers to the location so the New York one can't be an exact copy.

W. T. Stead Resource Site is a good source of information. On the Titanic centenary a wreath was laid on the memorial in WC2.

2020: We had originally described Eliza as a prostitute when actually she was an abused child. We are grateful to Laura Agustín for writing to correct this.

2023: Historian Ruth Richardson added "'child prostitution'... that's what we would now call child trafficking for abuse on a commercial scale - prostitution suggests that the child colluded & got some profit, but they were actually being trafficked by others." 

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
William Thomas Stead

Commemorated ati

W. T. Stead - SW1

Plaque unveiled by the then Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Catherine Longwo...

Read More

W. T. Stead - WC2

The inscription refers to Stead having worked near this site for 30 years. Th...

Read More

Other Subjects

Matchgirls' strike

Matchgirls' strike

A strike of the women and teenage girls working at the Bryant and May Factory. Annie Besant had published an article about the poor working conditions at the factory, 'White Slavery in London'. Thi...

Event, Gender Issues, Industry, Social Welfare

5 memorials
Annie Besant

Annie Besant

Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. Born Annie Wood at 2 Fish Street Hill. Married, aged 19, Frank Besant (brother to Sir Walter) bu...

Person, Gender Issues, Nationalism, Paranormal, Politics & Administration, India, Ireland

4 memorials
Esther Roper

Esther Roper

Esther Roper was an English suffragist and social justice campaigner who fought for equal employment and voting rights for working-class women. Lifelong partner of Eva Gore-Booth. The photo shows ...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial
Minnie Lansbury

Minnie Lansbury

Suffragette and Poplar alderman. Daughter-in-law to George Lansbury. Her early death was brought about by being imprisoned, with other councillors, for refusing to levy a full rate, and catching pn...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

5 memorials
Ada Nield Chew

Ada Nield Chew

Working-class, factory worker, promoter of women’s trade unions. Born on a farm in North Staffordshire as Ada Nield. 1897 married George Chew ​(d.1940) who was also an organiser​ with the Independe...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial