A Battersea suffragist has inspired the name for one of the machines which will dig London’s new ‘super sewer’.

Dame Millicent Fawcett, an English political and union leader during the 19th and 20th Centuries, was known for her campaign for women to have the right to vote.

She was president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) for 22 years and published several books between 1870 and 1927.

Ms Fawcett is believed to have been significantly influential in gaining the vote for British women in 1918.

The machine which is building the central section of the tunnel from Battersea, where she lived for a time, will be named after her.

Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “We’re delighted that Millicent Fawcett is being celebrated by one of London’s biggest and most important infrastructure projects.

“The Fawcett Society continues to build on Millicent’s work to improve women’s rights and, with Tideway’s goal to reach gender parity in its workforce by the end of construction and to encourage a future generation of female engineers, we think this is a wonderful way to celebrate her legacy.”

Work for the Thames Tideway Tunnel is due to start next year and will involve six machines to create the 25km main tunnel and two smaller connection tunnels throughout south and east of the capital.

The tunnel boring machines (TBMs), which range from 2.6m to 7.2m in diameter, are named after six women who are believed to have had a connection with the area where each machine will start its journey.

The smaller Frogmore Connection Tunnel, which will go from Wandsworth to Fulham, will be tunnelled by a machine named after Charlotte Despard.

She was an Anglo-Irish suffragist and political activist during the 19th and 20th Centuries who lived in Wandsworth borough.

Other locations include Bermondsey, Fulham and Greenwich.

Jackie Roe, head of programme integration at Tideway, said: “Our goal is to achieve gender parity at Tideway by the end of construction and to help inspire a future generation of female engineers and women working in construction.

“It’s apt that the six winning names for our TBMs represent women who were pioneering engineers and scientists, who fought for gender equality and left a momentous legacy in London and beyond.”

The winning names of the several machines were voted for by the public earlier in the year from a 17-name shortlist.

The first machine will arrive sometime later in London this year before work begins in 2018.