A HISTORIC figure from Cornwall has been awarded her very own Welsh ‘Purple Plaque’ for her work campaigning for women’s rights.  

The Purple Plaques campaign has been created to improve the recognition of remarkable women in Wales and award them with a plaque to commemorate their achievements and cement their legacy in Welsh history. 

The most recent addition to this prestigious list – the 18th total plaque – is Minnie Pallister.  

Pallister, who was born in Kilkhampton,  was an outstanding feminist whose exceptional advocacy of women’s rights from the 1920s to the 1950s made her a forerunner of the Women’s Liberation Movement.  

While working as a school teacher in Brynmawr, Wales, she described the domestic drudgery undertaken by women in the South Wales valleys as a form of slavery and confronted their husbands about this in true fearless style.  

She was the first full time woman labour organiser in Wales, agent to Ramsay MacDonald, Wales President of the Independent Labour Party and Parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth when such positions were very rare for a woman - and all when she was still in her thirties.

In the 1950s she became a well-known Daily Mirror journalist and a household name as a regular on the (now Radio 4) programme Woman’s Hour where she challenged listeners to question prevailing stereotypes that women could only be housewives. 

Tackling issues of equality and gender relations with messages that still resonate today, she was one of the earliest advocates of family allowances and helped lay the foundations for women’s rights which are now taken as a given.  

Minnie’s role went largely unremembered until meticulous research was undertaken by Alun Burge for his biography Minnie Pallister: Voice of a Rebel published by Parthian Books to coincide with the plaque unveiling.

Sue Essex, chair of Purple Plaques Wales, said: “Thanks to Alun’s book we can at last rediscover and shine a light on this remarkable woman. A dedicated feminist, Minnie was always completely courageous and committed and in her day she clearly had enormous influence. Thanks to Blaenau Gwent CBC and Brynmawr Museum and Historical Society Minnie Pallister will be remembered with a Purple Plaque. 

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language, Mark Drakeford, who originally nominated Minnie and will be unveiling the plaque at the ceremony in Brynmawr, said:  “On every page of this fine new book I found myself asking, “Why didn’t I know that already?” A remarkable life, a formative influence on the labour movement, and the pivotal role of women within it-all just waiting to be discovered. Marking Millie Pallister’s life with a Purple Plaque is just the start of that journey.”