“In 2021 a new statue was erected in Cardiff of a person called Betty Campbell, sculpted by Eve Shepherd and chosen via public vote. Betty Campbell was the first black headteacher in Wales. I think it is only after walking past it, and stopping in my tracks, that it made me realise how rare it was to see any tribute such as this.”
— Hollie McNish
“Emily Williamson was born in Didsbury, Greater Manchester, on 17 April 1855. Appalled by the senseless slaughter of exotic birds for their plumage to decorate ladies’ hats, fans and coats, Emily Williamson asked her friends to sign a pledge to not wear feathers. In 1889 she founded the all-female Plumage League, partly because the all-male British Ornithologists’ Union refused to do anything to stop this awful trade. Two years later, her group merged with Fur, Fin and Feather Folk, founded by Belfast-born humanitarian Eliza Phillips, evangelical Christian Etta Lemon and others to form the Society for the Protection of Birds. This later would become the organization we know as the RSPB.
After years of campaigning, in 1921 the Plumage Act was passed and the names of the three women disappeared from history.
More than 100 years later, after a local campaign, a statue of Williamson (by artist Eve Shepherd) was commissioned to stand in Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden in Didsbury. She is holding a copy of the Act in her hand and her skirt is inspired by the different species of birds she and her friends helped to save.”
