A statue to suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst will be built in Manchester after winning a public vote.
The women’s rights activist came on top of the scheme – dubbed WoManchester – with over 50% of the 5,600 votes cast.
Councillor Andrew Simcock, who represents Didsbury, raised over £2,000 for the work by cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End.
The likeness of Queen Victoria in Albert Square is currently the only woman portrayed in 17 statues across Manchester city centre.
Mrs Pankhurst, who was born in 1858, grew up in the Seedley area of Salford.
Along with her politically radical family she lived at Seedley Cottages, near the junction of Western Street and Farringdon Street.
Along with women’s rights supporter Richard Marsden Pankhurst she went on to form the Women’s Franchise League in 1889.
In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) – an organisation that gained much notoriety for its activities and whose members were the first to be christened ‘suffragettes’.
Emmeline died on 14 June 1928 in Salford, shortly after women were granted equal voting rights with men – at the age of 21.
Also shortlisted for the statue were novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, businesswoman and entrepreneur Elizabeth Raffald, anti-racism campaigner Louise da-Cocodia, Manchester councillor Margaret Ashton and Ellen Wilkinson, activist nd Labour cabinet minister.
The statue is expected to be unveiled in Manchester by summer 2019.
