Fanny Fullagar

Since we were in tourist mode on Wednesday,  I snapped a couple of Leicester's blue plaques and decided to find a out a bit about the people honoured in this way.

This plaque is on the wall of the former Registry Office in Pocklingtons Walk. It celebrates Fanny Fullagar.

For my information I am indebted to this article in the Western Park Gazette online and to a short article in The Who's Who of Radical Leicester compiled by Ned Newitt.

There is a photograph of her in the Western Park Gazette article.

Fanny Fullagar was a doctor's daughter, born in 1847 in Leicester, and she made a huge contribution to  society, in a very Victorian way.  

She campaigned for better training for midwives, and helped create the Bond Street Maternity Hospital.

She stood for election for Poor Law Guardian in the All Saints/Newton Ward in 1889 and was elected every year until 1904, when she lost by one vote. 

She was a member of the local Women's Suffrage Society, a founder member of Leicester NSPCC, and also worked for St John Ambulance and the RSPCA.
She never married though she was reputed to be engaged for seven years.

She died in 1918 - the year when women over 30 got the right to vote in the UK.