Remembering Chichester suffragist

Kate will also delve into the lives of women from across the globe who have championed the rights of women. Kate is the author of Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Made the World.

To book tickets to the talk, visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/putting-women-back-into-history-one-statue-at-a-time-tickets-1245770716749

The event will raise money for the Chichester Suffragist Statue Appeal and links to the Madge Turner and The Women’s Freedom League exhibition being held at the University Library, sponsored by the Chichester Women’s History Group.

The talk, Putting Women Back into History One Statue at a Time, takes place at the University’s Bishop Otter campus on Tuesday, April 29 from 7pm, and is free to attend.

Born in Chichester on July 24 1884, Madge was the oldest surviving child of Edwin and Minnie Turner. Her parents ran the long-established grocery business, Turner & Son, at 27 South Street, alongside Madge’s paternal grandmother, Jane; her mother’s family – the Lights – ran a successful stationery and hardware shop in Eastgate Square. Little is known of Madge’s childhood but newspaper reports show that she enrolled in Chichester’s School of Art in around 1898, which moved from ‘wretched’ conditions on Crane Street to bespoke premises on the new first floor of Chichester’s Market House on North Street (popularly known as the Butter Market) in 1900.

Madge appears to have been born into a politically active family and both the Turners and the Lights were involved with local Liberal politics. In June 1905, a Liberal meeting in Chichester resulted in the organisation of a women’s group, with Madge elected to the position of assistant honorary treasurer, with another Miss Turner being elected Honorary Treasurer, a Miss Light elected president and a second Miss Light elected to the committee.