Recreation of ‘lost’ suffrage banner unveiled
St Hugh’s is delighted to be displaying, in a prominent position at the entrance to Main Building, a recreation of a banner carried by the Oxford Women Students’ Society for Women’s Suffrage (OWSSWS).
The OWSSWS banner was designed by Edward New, and was carried for the first time in the 1911 Coronation Procession. St Hugh’s contributed to the cost of producing the banner, and individual members including Miss Ady, Miss Moberly, Annie Rogers and Helena Deneke made personal contributions to the fund.
The Society was the result of a merger in 1911 between different campaign groups, including a St Hugh’s suffrage society that was extant by 1908.
To mark the centenary of women’s suffrage, Women in the Humanities and St Hugh’s College commissioned Annabel O’Doherty to recreate the original banner.
It was revealed at an event on the evening of 7th March, by Gill Aitken CB (Philosophy and Theology, 1979), the Registrar of the University of Oxford; the Principal, the Rt Hon Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC; Professor Senia Paseta, Tutorial Fellow in History and co-director of Women in Humanities; and by the artist responsible for the recreation, Annabel O’Doherty.