Lady Rhondda Statue Unveiled in Newport, Gwent

 

At the Hay festival in 2011, I attended the Roy Hattersley session introducing his biography of David Lloyd George, whom he described as a politician who ‘changed the weather’, which he explained was his definition of a great political leader.

In the same place two years later, I first heard the name ‘Margaret Haig Thomas, Lady Rhondda’, mentioned by Elizabeth Chapman, Director of Library Services at the London School of Economics, in her talk about the transfer of the Women’s Library collection to the LSE. Lady Rhondda was of course connected to Lloyd George through their shared Liberal Party politics, although she very rapidly distanced herself from the Liberal Party due to the failure of its leadership to endorse legislation on women’s suffrage.

This story of a local suffragette, sparked in me a drive to find out more about Lady Rhondda, especially following the reference to setting fire to the post-box close to my home, as part of her WSPU activism in Newport.

As a result of this new interest, I met a growing number of local Lady Rhondda fans, and a blue plaque was unveiled in 2016, crowdfunded by our group, that also led to introductions to amazing women across Wales, including Lady Rhondda’s biographer Professor Angela V. John. In 2018 as an affiliation of the ‘Monumental Welsh Women’ campaign, we set up the ‘Statue for Lady Rhondda’ group in Newport, and began our next stage of fundraising in earnest.

 

Six years later, in September 2024, I attended the unveiling of the statue, in a packed-out location on the east side of the Newport footbridge in the city centre. Many of us dressed up as suffragettes to celebrate. Local children from St Woolos and Maindee Primary schools sang songs with the Suffragette choir; a specially reconvened chorus from the Welsh National Opera’s production of ‘Rhondda Rips It Up!’ an opera that held its world premier at Newport’s Riverfront theatre in 2018. (The new statue now directly faces this arts centre across the river Usk.) Poet Gillian Clarke read her new work ‘Sonnet to a Suffragette’, Angela V. John and artist Jane Robbins took to the stage, and local politicians spoke in honour of the event, with members of Lady Rhondda’s family unveiling the statue at midday.

Lady Rhondda is the 4th Monumental Welsh Woman, and the first statue of a named woman of Gwent, to be unveiled in Wales. This statue in Newport joins monuments to Betty Campbell in Cardiff, Elaine Morgan in Mountain Ash and Cranogwen (Sarah Jane Rees) in Llangrannog. They are the first four of what will be five statues in total, to be unveiled in five years, by the Monumental Welsh Women campaign led by the formidable Helen Molyneux. Trade Unionist Elizabeth Andrews will be the 5th and final statue in 2026.

The statues are monuments to both the stories of the women and the places they belong, figurative depictions of these heroines, with layers of meaning and references to their lives, homes and achievements, designed to take up cultural space, to be seen and to inspire.

 

To commemorate Lady Rhondda’s new monument, and to honour her legacy as the founder of the Six Point Group, that she launched in Time and Tide in 1921, here are ‘six points’ to note about the statue, by our brilliant sculptor Jane Robbins. They capture the history and achievements of this remarkable Newport feminist:

1. The Figurehead: Lady Rhondda leans forward representing the ‘figurehead’ of a ship. As a female pioneer of politics, business and publishing she led the way for future generations of women and girls. She is depicted as a middle-aged woman, as Jane Robbins describes ‘in her prime’, with an expression of confidence, determination and dignity.
2. The Hands: Lady Rhondda holds the first of a sphere of hands, cast from 40 real women and girls of today. The hand she holds is of ten-year-old schoolgirl Zara, the smallest hand. The other hands include Baronesses, community champions, Professors, Local Councillors, a Bishop, international sportswomen, a Dame, a Member of Parliament, a High School prefect, a Member of the Senedd, and many local women from Newport.
3. The Sash: Wearing her Women’s Social and Political Union tricolour sash, the Lady Rhondda statue is situated in-between the Suffragette shop that was on Clarence Place and the office on Stow Hill. These were key locations of the WSPU’s Newport branch, that Lady Rhondda set up in 1908, as a militant suffragette and where she began her radical politics for women’s rights.
4. The Newspaper: Lady Rhondda holds the newspaper that she founded, Tide and Tide, close to her heart. As visitors to this website know, this significant interwar periodical had an all-woman board and was an important British publication for decades. Lady Rhondda edited it for more than 30 years, and was the first president of the Women’s Press Club.
5. The Brooch: Lady Rhondda wears the brooch that features in Alice Burton’s portrait of her that hangs in the House of Lords today, the place where she was the first woman to try to claim a seat in the second chamber in 1922. She fought this campaign until she died in 1958, just weeks before the historic moment when the first few women sat on those famous red seats in Parliament.
6. The Ship: The bottom section of the monument is ship-shape and made of weathered steel, in contrast to the bronze body and hands. This references the steel and shipping industry of Newport. This formed part of the Welsh, national and international business empire that she had inherited from her father. Her stature as a businesswoman was confirmed in 1926 when she was elected the first female president of the Institute of Directors. The ship section of the statue also represents her remarkable survival of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, when she was pulled out of the water, presumed dead.

Glorious sunshine had been present for the unveiling of the first three statues, a day for the families and community to gather outdoors, and celebrate each of these remarkable women. However, the weather forecast for Lady Rhondda’s unveiling looked bleak, with gale force winds predicted just the week before, and the ever-present dark rain cloud, illustrating the forecast, right up to the evening before the event.

Lady Rhondda was a politician who changed the weather for all women in the UK.

A little miracle then on the morning of the 26th, as the sun suddenly shone and the rainclouds stayed at a reasonable distance from the statue which sheltered under the Monumental Welsh women’s signature purple veil; we had six glorious hours of sun, from our early morning set-up right up to the unveiling.

Just 30 minutes after the unveiling of this wonderful monument, the first few drops of rain returned to Newport, and stayed for the rest of the week. We quickly made our way over the bridge to the University of South Wales boardroom, for the celebratory reception, and a view of the statue from the top-floor balcony. A glorious rainbow appeared right over Lady Rhondda as we gathered on the terrace; for half a day in central Newport on 26th September 2024, Lady Rhondda had changed the weather again.

 

By Julie Nicholas

Julie Nicholas is Chair of the Statue for Lady Rhondda Group, which is affiliated to the Monumental Welsh Women campaign: 5 Statues, 5 Women, 5 Years. The Lady Rhondda statue can be found at Millennium Walk, Newport, NP19 0AQ.