Emily Williamson, an activist, feminist and bird lover

I only recently learnt about a rather forgotten female campaigner Emily Williamson, an activist, feminist and bird lover, as there is a campaign to erect a statue of her in order to recognise her life time's achievements. When I lived in Manchester I very often enjoyed walking around the park and garden she created in Didsbury, Manchester but in fact not realising that Emily, the founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds created them and her house is still standing.

The year was 1889 Emily was 34 years old, she was so horrified by the fashion for feathered hats that she launched a campaign to stop the feather trade. Female friends were invited to tea at her house in Didsbury, she asked them to sign a petition pledging to wear no feathers. The Society for the Protection of Birds was born, all of its members were women. Emily had seen the Great Crested Grebe hunted to extinction for the plumage trade, she asked people to stand against this « murderous millinery ».

In 1891 the all-women society joined with another female group and by 1893 there were 10.000 members, by 1898, 20.000 members. In 1904 it gained the title of « Royal » Society for the Protection of Birds and by that time many men had joined but the main campaigners were women. Finally, in 1921 an Act, the Plumage Importation Prohibition Act, was passed banning the import of exotic bird feathers.

Emily not only worked to help birds but also to improve education for young women, many of her friends were suffragettes working and being imprisoned for their beliefs in the right for women to vote.

She died in 1936 still Vice President of the RSPB right to the end. It is therefore a little sad that Emily Williamson's story has almost disappeared from the history of conservation. This inspirational woman and founder of the UK's largest conservation charity definitely deserves to be remembered. So that is why a competition has been launched for a statue to honour her legacy. The competition has brought in entries from New York to Tuscany, from Manchester to Brighton, there is now a short list of 12 possibilities and the public are being asked to vote for their favourite. The statue will be unveiled in her garden which is now known as Fletcher Moss Park and is in fact one fo the UK's favourite parks, in July 2021 celebrating the centenary of the Plumage Act.

I have voted for my choice of statue and I look forward to seeing Emily Williamson cast in bronze emerging from her garden, surrounded by birds, when I can next visit her old home in Didsbury, Manchester.