Newport’s suffragette: Lady Rhondda

Local TV

We’re taking a look at one of the most influential women in Welsh history, and her new statue standing proudly overlooking Newport. Lady Rhondda was a key member of the suffragette movement and influential character in women’s voting rights, and women sitting in the House of Lords.

Transcript

00:00Until just a few years ago, there were a total of zero sculptures honouring women in Wales.

00:06But now, there are four, with the statue of Margaret Haig-Thomas here behind me, better

00:10known as Lady Rhondda, being the most recent in a series of five to be revealed.

00:15The statue in Newport sitting eight feet tall overlooks the River Rusk and the city centre,

00:19and honours Lady Rhondda, a suffragette who fought a four-decade-long campaign to see

00:23women sit in the House of Lords, something she never witnessed in her lifetime, as she

00:28died before the law was officially changed.

00:31She was born in London to a wealthy family, but spent her childhood and most of her life

00:34in Newport, where she eventually became the Secretary of the Newport Branch of the Women's

00:38Social and Political Union.

00:42She rubbed shoulders with some of the most influential suffragettes of the time, including

00:46Emmeline Pankhurst, who was arguably the most well-known woman of the entire movement.

00:51She fought for women's voting rights, and women's social rights in general, children's

00:55rights, founded and served as the editor of the women's social magazine Time and Tide,

01:00and on the death of their father, she fought for her right to take his peerage and sit

01:04in the House of Lords, something that was originally granted, but later voted against

01:08by a council within the House, which makes her one of the first women to ever sit in

01:12the House of Lords, albeit very briefly.

01:15The statue as part of the monumental Welsh Women's Campaign is aptly standing in Newport,

01:20with its rich history of fighting for voting rights, something that the Newport Rising

01:24organisation feel is part of the city's identity and history.

01:27Yeah, it's kind of what Newport stands for really, and you kind of see it with how you

01:34talk to people on the street, and they do have this village mindset, even though it's

01:39a city.

01:41The other statues in the series can be found all across Wales, from the first black head

01:45teacher in the country in the centre of Cardiff, to the first woman to win at the Eisteddfod

01:50in Llangrannog and Ceredigion.

01:51They celebrate the massive impact women had on Welsh history, with one final statue set

01:56to be unveiled in the coming months.

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