TRIBUTE PAID TO DAME M. FAWCETT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 3 January 1930, Page 10

TRIBUTE PAID TO DAME M. FAWCETT.

MEMORIAL SERVICE in the abbey. (By a Feminist Correspondent.) LONDON, November 10. The service to-day in Westminster Abbey in memory of Dame Millicent Fawcett was unique Outside Royalty, no woman has ever been so honoured as to have a memorial service there. Personalities of every rank and grade assembled within those grand walls, which are so redolent of our history. In view of the mission to which the whole of her life had been devoted — the cause of women’s enfranchisement —there were present the women M.P.’s and representatives of all the societies which had fought for it. They included Miss Margaret Bondfield, M.P., Minister for Labour, whose accession to office had crowned the lifelong struggle in which Dame Millicent had played so great a part; her colleagues, Dr Marion Phillips, Dr Ethel Bentham, Miss Wilkinson and Miss Jenny Lee; of the other parties, Lady Astor, the Duchess of Atholl, Miss Megan Lloyd George, Miss Picton Turberville and Miss Rathbone. In the eyes of the world at large the greatest tribute paid to Dame Millicent’s memory was the presence of so many men in leading walks of life. The Prime Minister wished to be present, but was obliged to send a deputy. Both Mr Baldwin and Mr Lloyd George attended. One can but single out other personalities such as Lord Cecil, Lord Parmoor, Lord Astor, Sir Herbert and Lady Samuel, Sir John and Lady Simon. The Hon W. Pember Reeves attended as a member of the first government in any dominion to give women the vote. With him was Mrs Reeves, who did much work for the feminist cause as a leader among Fabian women. It was an indication that Dame Millicent was a member of a family whose avenue to a wider sphere for women was made through the breaking down of the barriers into the medical profession that there were present Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson, and a great number of leading medical women; Lady Barrett, Dean of the Royal Free Hospital for Women: Lady Plender, representing the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital: Lady Berry, Dr Jane Walker, and a large number of women doctors. Dame Millicent’s services to education were attested by the presence of Dr Scott Lidgett (University of London). Miss Haldane (University of St Andrew’s), Miss Louisa MacDonald, formerly principal of the Women’s College, Sydney (N.S.W.) University, and many leading educationists. The part she took in the entry of women into municipal politics was shown by the attendance of the Lord Mayor of London and of a number of mayors of metropolitan boroughs, by that of the Mayor of Aldeburgh, her native town. Of women’s societies there were the Open Door, represented by Mrs Elizabeth Abbott, the Open Door International (Dr Chrystal MacMillan), the Women’s Freedom League (Dr Knight) and a host of other leaders in the cause—Lady Frances Balfour, Mrs Corbett Ashby, president of the National Union of Equal Citizenship, the Edinburgh branch of which also sent a representative. Dame Millicent’s sympathies were catholic in their range. She Was one of the most regular attendants of the meetings of the Institute of International Affairs. From those far-off days when she was the wife of a minister, the blind Postmaster-General, dates her association with the Union of Postal Workers, and all sorts of societies of all political colours testified to their pride in a woman whose work they regarded with admiration. The congregation was a notable one, and it had much colour owing to the academic dress worn by all men and women who were there to show that the educational world wished to pay its tribute to the great feminist leader. The service, a stately one, to which the rich robes of the dean and clergy lent further colour, had an individual character given it by the hymns chosen. “ The King of Love my Shepherd Is ” was sung first, and it was followed by the passage from Ecclesiastics—“ Let us now praise famous men. . . Their glory shall not be blotted out. Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore. The people will tell of their wisdom.” Never before had this lesson been read in the historic Abbey in praise of a woman! The long struggle for women’s .freedom to which Dame Millicent Fawcett had devoted herself made the choice of the last hymn inevitable: Blake's “ Mine Eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord.” The final stanzas were sung by the congregation as well as the choir— Bring me my spear of burning gold, Bring me my arrows of desire; Bring me my shield, O clouds unfold, Bring me my chariot of fire. I will not cease from mental strife, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand. Till we have built Jerusalem On England’s green and pleasant land.