Douglas Council is to honour the work of women’s suffrage campaigner Sophia Goulden - with a blue plaque to be placed at her former home

Sophia Jane Goulden, *ée Craine, was born in Lonan in 1833. In 1853 she married Robert Goulden at Kirk Braddan and the couple moved to Manchester, where their 11 children were born, among them Emmeline Pankhurst, who went on to become leader of the British suffragette movement.

Emmeline was inspired when, at 14, her mother took her to her first public suffrage meeting to hear Lydia Becker, founder of the Women’s Suffrage Journal, who also joined a campaign for the right of women to vote in the House of Keys.

News of the plaque has been welcomed by Sophia’s great-great-granddaughter Helen Pankhurst, herself a women’s right campaigner. She said Sophia’s crucial role in history had often been overlooked.

In 1881 Tynwald became the first national parliament in the world to give some women the right to vote in a general election. In 1918 Westminster passed an Act of Parliament giving women similar rights.

Sophia Goulden retained close links with the Isle of Man, and had a home in Strathallan Crescent, Douglas, where she died in 1910.

The blue plaque will be unveiled in her memory in a public ceremony on Friday, September 14, at 1pm, by Douglas Mayor Jon Joughin.

The house is now the home of Jamie Sutton and Paula McClean, along with their one-year-old daughter - called Emmeline.

Mr Sutton said: ’When we bought the house in 2017 we had no idea of the history attached to it, until my dad told me he learned about it through the Manx Victorian Society.

’Paula and I decided to call our daughter Emmeline because it’s a lovely name and because we hope she will grow up to become a strong, independent woman like Emmeline Pankhurst.

’We think it’s great that the council has chosen to honour Sophia Goulden with a blue plaque which we’re proud to have at our home.’

Lynn Owens, chairman of the Friends of Sophia Goulden, said Douglas Council’s move would also help the campaign for a statute to be erected in Sophia’s honour.

’She was a remarkable woman who inspired many people to fight for their rights, not least of all her own children. She affected all our lives.’

Women’s rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, said: ’Sophia’s interest in women’s political rights was the spark that ignited an even greater passion in her daughter, Emmeline.

’Sophia’s role as a campaigner in the movement, and as mother guiding the interest of her more famous daughter, have so far received insufficient recognition. The plaque can start to change this.

’Moreover, it’s fitting that this plaque will be put up on the Isle of Man, where Sophia came from and returned to, but also the nation that led the way in giving women the right to vote.’

Council leader David Christian said the plaque was an ’indication of the importance the council places on Sophia Goulden’s contribution to advancing women’s rights’.

He added: ’It is all the more appropriate that Douglas should be honouring the legacy of Sophia Goulden in 2018, the year in which the adjacent isle is celebrating the centenary of the Representation of the People Act which gave some women the right to vote in parliamentary elections, albeit a reform measure implemented much earlier in the Isle of Man.’