Securing her place in history

One of Devon’s most famous political names has finally been honoured with a statue in the city she represented with distinction. MARTIN HESP was there to witness the celebrations

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Sooner or later every county has a big day out - a moment when the great and the good gather, when television crews and their satellite trucks congregate, when journalists mingle to file thousands of words to newspapers and magazines, and when great numbers of citizens assemble to mark the occasion and celebrate just being there in those few hours when history is being made.

Devon had such a day recently and it was all about marking a worthy and honourable progression in not only the county’s story, but also in making a major contribution to Britain’s much bigger and more far-reaching history.

On 28 November 1919, Nancy Astor was elected to represent Plymouth Sutton in Parliament, which meant she became the first female MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. Devon’s latest big day was staged to mark the occasion exactly 100 years after her election, and to unveil a new Lady Astor statue outside her old house on Plymouth Hoe - and also to name a new GWR express train in her honour.

Most Devon Life readers will have seen TV reports at the end of November featuring the former Prime Minister Theresa May unveiling the statue. Mrs May said: “Plymouth and the whole country should be proud of the great strides Nancy Astor made for equality and representation.”

This feature is not designed to give a blow by blow report of the occasion, but rather to paint a word portrait of a remarkable day in which Devon and her ground-breaking voters were being celebrated far and wide.