(1883-1958)
Margaret Haig Thomas, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda (aka Lady Rhondda) is the 4th out of 5 statues planned under the Monumental Welsh Women Campaign. Before 2021 there were no statues of real women in Wales. With just one more statue to go at the time of writing it has been a great success.
Margaret joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1908, becoming secretary of the Newport branch and taking the campaign for women’s suffrage across South Wales. Hers was an active role which saw her attend protest marches with the Pankhurst family, jumping on the Prime Minister Asquith’s car and attempting to set fire to a post box for which she was arrested and sentenced.
The onset of war in 1914 saw suffrage action stalled to support the war effort, but Margaret remained an advocate of women’s equality, work and service, herself becoming Commissioner for Wales in the Women’s National Service Department. She took up work with her father and on a business trip to the US, their boat was torpedoed on the return journey in 1915, claiming more than 1000 lives. Back home and recovered, her business work continued and she sat on the board of 33 companies, chairing seven of them, overseeing empires in mining, steel, shipping and newspapers, becoming the first female president of the Institute of Directors. In 1920 she created and edited the influential ‘Time and Tide’ paper, running it with an all-female board.
Despite her peerage, as a woman, Margaret was unable to take up a position in the House of Lords and she spent 40 years campaigning to overturn this, not just for herself, but for other women. Sadly, she died just before the Life Peerages Act of 1958 was enacted which finally allowed women in the House.
Unveiled in 2024 the statue includes 40 hands of present-day women, all monumental in some way.
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