Why So Few Blue Plaques for Women in SW15?

Putney Society asks for suggestions to redress the balance

Millicent Bagot was a pupil at Putney High School
Millicent Bagot was a pupil at Putney High School

Participate

Putney Society Calls for More Protection for Putney Common

Sign up for our weekly Putney newsletter

Comment on this story on the

The Putney Society is asking its members to consider women who might be deserving of having a blue plaque installed in their honour.

The call comes following the commemoration of Millicent Bagot last October making her the first female to be honoured in this way. The previous nine recipients were all men and include Edward Gibbon, Norman Parkinson and Thomas Cromwell.

Millicent Bagot was a British intelligence officer with MI5 who became one of the security service’s principal experts on Soviet Communism.

The ratio is set to become even more distorted when the society commemorates Sir Sydney Nolan in the spring of this year.

As a consequence it is appealing to all its members to put their thinking caps on and suggest some memorable women who have lived or worked in SW15.

The policy for selecting and mounting blue plaques is:

● Buildings marked with plaques must be visible from the public highway
● Although most plaques will be erected on the former residences of famous people, the erection of plaques on subsequent buildings on the site, such as blocks of flats are not excluded
● The person must have been dead for 5 years.

Nominated figures must also meet one or more of the following criteria:

● Be considered eminent by a majority of members of their own profession or calling or the population in general
● Have made an important positive contribution to human welfare or happiness
● Have lived or worked in Putney for a significant period. Unless a case is deemed exceptional (i.e., the nominee contributed something exceptional during their stay in Putney, compared with the rest of their life) each figure may only be commemorated with one plaque in London (i.e., not duplicating names already commemorated by Wandsworth Council or English Heritage).

Any qualifying nominations that you make will be considered and selected by the Putney Society Executive. Write to or email your suggestions at 28 Howards Lane, SW15 6NQ or judith.chegwidden@gmail.com.

Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More

This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism.

Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets.

We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more.

However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do.

We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area.

A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site.

One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.


January 7, 2022

Bookmark and Share