Celebrating Essex’s Remarkable Women:
New Report Launched
The Essex Women’s Commemoration Project (EWCP) is proud to announce the publication of a highly anticipated report of a five-year project, shining a spotlight on the extraordinary contributions of women throughout Essex’s history.
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Launched in 2020 by HM Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, following a suggestion by Essex theatre director Graham Watts, the EWCP was born from a startling realisation: the historic achievements of women in Essex were vastly underrepresented in public commemorations.
Recognising their resilience and legacies, the project celebrates 40 inspirational women through the installation of 38 new blue plaques across the county.
Developed through extensive research and community engagement, the EWCP brings previously overlooked stories to the forefront, ensuring that the impact of women in Essex is acknowledged and remembered.
The report highlights key figures from diverse fields, including education, science, politics, the arts, and public service, whose work has shaped the county’s social and cultural landscape. From a 17th-century polymath to a WWII aviator, the EWCP has worked with local communities to ensure these “unseen women” are finally brought to light.
Project Highlights:
• Research: EWCP began by recognising Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), a Colchester-born philosopher and science fiction pioneer, and then proceeded to inspire local communities to reveal the histories of many other women.
• Diverse Legacies: Commemorations include Agnes Dawson, who broke the bar on married women teachers; Marion Wilberforce, a pioneering WWII pilot; Dr Alice Lee, the statistician who debunked myths of female intellectual inferiority; and Princess Dinubolu an Edwardian trailblazer who became the first woman of colour to enter a British beauty queen competition.
• Community-Led: EWCP volunteers provided the inspiration, but the plaques were funded and erected through the proactive enthusiasm of parish councils and local history groups across the county, with support from The Essex Heritage Trust.
Dr Sarah Perry, Chancellor of the University of Essex and author of Essex Girls, has generously contributed the Foreword to the project’s final report. She notes that the project provides a necessary challenge to outdated perceptions: “The reader will find in these pages not so much a rebuke to the absurd characterisation of the Essex woman as a vulgar and foolish girl, as a hand grenade tossed cheerfully into that stereotype, and blasting it apart.”
Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, who instigated the Project and has supported its work adds: “This stimulating project has been an exploration into the lives of women who pushed the boundaries of what was possible. The report could now inspire others, across Britain, to follow Essex’s lead in rebalancing memorial history.”
Included within the Report are enthusiastically supportive endorsements of the EWCP by distinguished authors Kaye Jones, Holly Kyte, Clare Mulley and Kate Pankhurst each of whom has already claimed their respective places in our nation’s literary life.
The Report features:
• An A-Z guide to the plaques and their locations in Essex.
• Related feature articles published previously in Essex Life magazine.
• A “how-to” for those inspired to undertake their own commemorations.
About the Project:
The EWCP (2020–2025) was a volunteer-led initiative supported by the Essex Lieutenancy and the Essex Heritage Trust to inspire the commemoration of distinguished Essex women through the installation of permanent blue plaques.
Further background can be found on our dedicated EWCP project page here >
