New statue will honour bird protection pioneer
EMILY Williamson, who in 1889 founded the all-female Society for the Protection of Birds (later the RSPB), is to be honoured with a statue at her former home in Fletcher Moss Park in Didsbury, Manchester.
Four short-listed maquettes (preliminary model) will be unveiled in July 2021, marking the centenary of the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act – the triumph of Emily Williamson’s long campaign.
The Act was critical in saving thousands of bird species around the world from being hunted to extinction for the millinery trade, including the Great and Little Egret and our own Great Crested Grebe.
Between 1870 and 1920, bird skins were imported to Britain by the ton for the plumage trade.
At its Edwardian peak, the trade was worth some £20 million a year (around £200 million in today’s money).
Emily Williamson bravely called out the insatiable slaughter of birds for hats and this in the time before female emancipation.
She pushed back against the relentless tide of fashion.
Together with Eliza Phillips and Etta Lemon, she grew her fledgling Society for the Protection of Birds to become, eventually, the UK’s biggest conservation charity: the RSPB.
Campaigning remains central to what the RSPB does today.
But its female founder has not been celebrated by history.
Emily Williamson’s significant contribution to nature has all but been left out of the conservation narrative.
Now, in partnership with the Emily Williamson Statue Campaign, the RSPB is inviting sculptors to submit designs to commemorate its inspirational founder.
The bronze statue should bear a close likeness to the only known image of Emily, and will stand in Fletcher Moss Park, Didsbury, where the society was born in 1889 at her home.
The short-listed maquettes will be unveiled in July 2021, marking the centenary of the Plumage Act.
The public will then have the opportunity to vote for their favourite design and sculptor, as the maquettes tour the country.
The winning design will be unveiled in April 2023 – Emily’s 168th birthday – by the bird scientist Dr Melissa Bateson, Emily’s great, great niece.
A statue will provide a focal point for celebrating women in conservation.
It will also embody the truth that, when ordinary people band together, they can create something extraordinary.
No one person is too small, or too disenfranchised, to make a difference.
Dr Bateson, said: “It was an extraordinary coincidence for me to discover that I am the great, great niece of the woman that founded the RSPB, as I have loved birds since I was a small child.
“As a woman involved in the scientific study of birds, I feel a very strong connection with Emily and am hugely proud of what she managed to achieve and the legacy she has left.”
Tessa Boase, co-founder of the Emily Williamson Statue Campaign and author of Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather: Fashion, Fury and Feminism – Women’s Fight for Change, said: “When I started researching the RSPB’s surprising eco-feminist roots it was very difficult to discover anything about Emily Williamson.
“Finding her photograph, via her great nephew Sir Patrick Bateson, was a revelation.
“When you have a face, you have a personality - and then you have a story.
“Without this image, there would be no statue campaign.”
To find out more and to submit your design, visit: www. emilywilliamsonstatue. com