Suffrage flags are reunited at city exhibition

TWO banners carried by suffrage campaigners during the fight for equal votes for women have been reunited for the first time in 100 years.

Both artifacts are part of an exhibition, launched yesterday at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay, ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow.

The banners were used by the Cardiff & District Women’s Suffrage Society during marches and protests in the early 1900s.

One of the banners was donated to the Special Collections and Archives by the relative of a woman’s suffrage campaigner.

The banner was used by the newly formed Cardiff and District Women’s Suffrage Society at a mass demonstration in London to demand equal voting rights.

On the journey back to Cardiff police stopped and searched their coach, taking all “propaganda material”, which was burned in a nearby field.

But the canvas banner, including a hand-stitched red dragon, was hidden by Irene Protheroe in her clothing, and she brought it back to Cardiff in one piece.

The other belongs to the National Museum Wales and dates from 1910.

Also unveiled at yesterday’s event was a portrait, on loan from Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, of the 2nd Viscountess Rhondda (1883-1958), also known as Margaret Haig Thomas and Margaret Mackworth.

The exhibition was launched on the same day as the first plaque dedicated to a remarkable Welsh woman was unveiled.

The family of Val Feld, a Swansea Assembly Member who died in 2001, removed the curtain to unveil the plaque on the side of the Senedd building.

Equality charity Chwarae Teg will take on the plaque scheme and expand it and is gathering both donations and nominations.

Chief executive Cerys Furlong said: “We have a saying that you can’t be what you can’t see.

“We know female role models are hugely important to the young women who are the future of Wales.

“We want to showcase what these remarkable women of Wales have done and the purple plaque scheme is an important part of that.”

Cardiff North AM Julie Morgan said she wants the scheme to grow to honour women from all walks of life, from politics to business and community leaders.

She said her personal hope was to recognise Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, two sisters who were the greatest benefactors of the National Museum Wales’ first 100 years.

In the first six years of collecting they amassed nearly 100 paintings and sculptures donated to the museum.

“They gave us a fantastic bequest and I would like to honour them,” she said.