Nancy Wake

Nancy Wake (1912-2011), resistance fighter and secret agent. Portrait bust  unveiled in 2008.

Location: Bar of Stafford Hotel, St James Place, London SW1.

Dora Walker

Dora Muriel Walker (1890-1980) was the first female skipper of a fishing boat in the North East and played a leading role in Whitby’s fishing heritage. Born in West Yorkshire, she was educated at Roedean and nursed at a Belgian hospital and then in Calais during WWI. Suffering from bronchial problems, she moved to Whitby on medical advice during WWII. She bought a fishing boat, the Good Faith, piloted boats through the minefields and was the only woman skipper who held a licence in the North Sea throughout the War. She was Honorary Keeper of the Whitby Museum and President of the Whitby Women’s Lifeboat Guild. She wrote several books, which include her memoirs and tales of fishing. The statue, consisting of a steel armature wrapped in hot-dipped galvanised steel wire, is part of a series of works completed by the sculptor on 26 March 2021 for Whitby’s Walking Heritage Trail.

Location: West Cliff, Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Mary Webb

Mary Webb (1881-1927), author, best known for her novel Precious Bane. Webb was born in Leighton a small village south of Shrewsbury. The bust was commissioned by the Mary Webb Society following a generous legacy from Muriel Furbank, a former member.

Location: Outside Shrewsbury Library, Shropshire.

Kitty Wilkinson

Kitty (Catherine) Wilkinson (1786–1860) was an Irish migrant, known as the ‘The Saint of the Slums’, because she helped save the lives of many during the cholera epidemic of 1832 by inviting them to wash infected clothing and bedding in her domestic boiler. Ten years later with public funds raised through her efforts, a combined washhouse and public baths was opened in Frederick Street, Liverpool. This was the first public washhouse in the United Kingdom and she was appointed the first warden. Her statue was unveiled 2012 in St George’s Hall, Liverpool.  It was the first sculpture of a woman to be installed there.

Location: St George's Hall, Liverpool.

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse (1983-2011), singer and songwriter, who won the award for best British Female Solo Artist at the BRIT Awards 2007 and two Ivor Novello Awards. She was the first British woman to win five Grammys. Her statue in bronze features her characteristic beehive hairdo.

Location: Stables Market, Camden Town, London NW1.

Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy (1839-1918)  a campaigner for social, political and legal equality, she championed women’s, children’s and human rights, and was  an influential figure in the women’s suffrage movement.  Her name and image represent one of 58 sufffragists on the plinth of Gillian Wearing’s statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London. A passionate  lobbyist she gave speeches, took part in marches and created 1600 petitions. Suffragette leader, Emmeline Pankhurst called her ‘the brains of the suffrage movement’, while reflecting Wolstenholme Elmy’s knowledge of the law, Lord Selbourne, the Lord Chancellor patronisingly dubbed her ‘Britain’s Little Lord Chancellor’. Apart from her important role in campaigning for  women’s suffrage, particular areas where her work helped bring change were girls’ and women’s education and the part she played in the  passing of the Married Women’s Property Act (1870),the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act (1886) and the Guardianship of Infants Act (1886). She wrote poetry, contributed articles to newspapers under the pseudonym Ignota and held progressive views on free love, atheism and republicanism.

Her statue, Our Elizabeth, by Hazel Reeves stands in the town centre of Congleton where Wolstenholme Elmy lived for many years. The statue was commissioned by Elizabeth’s Group, a local charity set up to to raise awareness of her national contribution to women’s rights.

Location: Centre of Bridge Street, Congleton, Cheshire

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), writer, founding feminine philosopher, advocate of women’s rights, education and social equality, wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, was her daughter. The memorial is the result of a 10 year project by the Mary on the Green Campaign. The statue is on a plinth bearing Wollstonecraft’s words ‘I do not want women to have power over men, but over themselves’. It was erected at Newington Green, where she lived, worked and opened a Girls’ Boarding School.

Location: On roundabout, Newington Green, London N16.

Victoria Wood CBE

Victoria Wood (1953-2016), BAFTA award winning comedian, actress, singer, pianist, writer, composer, producer and director. Wood was brought up in Bury and her statue has been erected opposite her local library. The statue, a joint project between Bury council and Victoria Wood’s Estate.

Location: Library Gardens off Silver Street, Bury, Greater Manchester

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), innovative and influential modern novelist, using internal monologue ‘Stream of consciousness’ genre (Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse) are among her best known works), literary critic, essayist, biographer and conservationist. Suffered mental health problems and committed suicide. She lived on the south side of Tavistock Square (1924-39). Tomlin first suggested sculpting her in 1924, finally she gave six sittings in 1931; this the only sculptural representation of her from life. The bronze portrait bust on Portland stone plinth was erected in 2004. There are replicas of the bust at Monk’s House (NT) Rodmell, Lewes; in lead (1958)  at the National Portrait Gallery, London and a third later cast at the British Library (1990).

Location: Tavistock Square, London WC1

Lady Wulfruna

Lady Wulfruna (d.after 994) was an Anglo-Saxon noble woman and landowner with several estates in Staffordshire. She was granted a charter for Hēatūn, Anglo-Saxon for ‘high or prinicpal farm of enclosure’ by Aethelred II (Aethelred the Unready) in 985. She endowed a collegiate church there in 994, which is the site of St Peter’s Church where this bronze statue stands. It was erected in 1974 to celebrate the centenary of the Express and Star newspaper. Lady Wulfruna is depicted holding the charter, a scroll with a large seal attached, which granted land to the monastery at Hēatūn. An extract from the charter is incised into the steps below. After this generous donation, the town took on the name of its benefactor and became known as ‘Wulfrun Heantun’. By 1070 it was known as Wolverenehamptonia, which is now the city of Wolverhampton. Lady Wulfruna is therefore regarded as the founder of Wolverhampton.

Lady Wulfruna was Wheeler’s last commission and was unveiled after his death.

Location: St Peter's Church, Wolverhampton, West Midlands.