The 174th birthday of a founding member of the Women’s Freedom League who lived in Lavender Hill, Battersea has been celebrated in a bid to get her a commemorative statue.

Charlotte Despard, a suffragette born in 1884, was honoured at the event at 6pm on Friday, June 15 at the US Embassy, Nine Elms.

She is the only one of the three widowed suffrage group leaders not to be commemorated with a statue, as Emmeline Pankhurst and Dame Millicent Fawcett both have memorials.

Despard House, which used to be on US Embassy site, provided welfare services for the local community of Nine Elms and was bequeathed to Battersea council by her in 1922.

Jeanne Rathbone, organiser of the event said: “As an Irish immigrant I have been so inspired by Anglo-Irish Charlotte whom I first heard about many decades ago.

“I researched her for an exhibition at Battersea Arts Centre in the eighties and feel so strongly that she should be commemorated in Battersea/Nine Elms in this centenary year as she was a major figure in the suffrage movement as well as an inspirational socialist and Irish Nationalist.”

During the birthday event, the suffragette was celebrated in various ways including a cake of her head created by local artist Phillippa Egerton, a talk given by Jeanne Rathbone of the Battersea Society Heritage Committee and poem 'What has Mrs Despard ever done for us' read by local poet Hilaire, which is included in a suffragette anthology.

Speaking of the evening, Sarah Rackham from Katherine Low Settlement said: “It was lovely taking part in a fun event celebrating the achievements of the suffragette's and highlighting the significance of this site in the social history that has been obliterated in Nine Elms.”

Jeanne Rathbone has approached the US Embassy and developers Ballymore to commission a statue of her in her iconic raised-fist pose. Her campaign is being supported by local groups such as the Battersea Society, Battersea Arts Centre and Battersea WI in this centenary year of Votes for Women.