Blue plaque for first female councillor in city and suffragette
Ceremony honours ‘brave woman’ who ‘paved the way’ for others to follow
A DEDICATION ceremony was held to mark the installation of a new blue plaque honouring Portsmouth’s first female councillor.
Kate Edmonds was elected in 1918 to represent the St Simon’s ward just months after women were given the right to vote for the first time.
City council deputy leader Suzy Horton, who first suggested the plaque in 2018, to mark the centenary, said her efforts had ‘paved the way’ for others to follow.
‘Kate Edmonds’ success was likely to have been linked to the fact that she had been involved in the suffrage movement,’ she said.
‘We can only imagine what it was like to have been a suffragette; after 50 years of peaceful, patient lobbying to finally decide that words were not enough and that non-violent but illegal deeds were needed to push the people with power to truly respect what was being asked for.
‘With hindsight, those brave and courageous women have provided the shoulders for many women to stand on.’
Little is known of her work following her 600-vote majority success on November 17, 1918 but Cllr Horton said her contribution was ‘lasting’.
She is listed on the honour boards at Portsmouth High School – just round the corner from the plaque – and the school’s website reports that ‘a later headmistress wrote of her “Her keen mind was to the end eager for fresh knowledge and ideas and she had a rooted distaste for slipshod thinking and half-hearted action”.’
The plaque, created by ceramicist Annie Flitcroft who is based in The Hotwalls Studios, has been installed at the former women’s suffrage headquarters at 2 Kent Road in Southsea.
Councillor Chris Attwell, cabinet member for communities, said the work of Kate Edmonds and her fellow suffragettes had ‘helped to inspire future generations of women’.
Those brave women have provided the shoulders for many women to stand on. Councillor Suzy Horton