Exhibition at Royal Courts of Justice highlights statues honouring pioneering Welsh Women and public figures
The Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, The Right Honourable the Baroness Carr of Walton on-the-Hill, has opened a new exhibition celebrating influential Welsh women at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
On Wednesday 13 May, a short reception was held in the building’s Great Hall to mark the opening of the Monumental Welsh Women exhibition. The event brought together members of the Welsh judiciary and volunteers from the charity behind the project, which focuses on improving the representation of women in public monuments across Wales and is part of an ongoing initiative to use the Great Hall as a law-related exhibition space.
The exhibition is organised by Monumental Welsh Women, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2016 with the aim of recognising the contribution of women to the history and life of Wales. The group’s mission has been to erect the first five public statues of notable Welsh women in different locations across Wales.
The display highlights a series of statues commissioned to honour women who have made significant contributions to public life and forms part of a wider campaign to address the historical underrepresentation of women in public art while recognising their impact on Welsh social and cultural history.
It celebrates the unveiling of the first four statues: Betty Campbell MBE, Wales’ first black headteacher, in Cardiff; Elaine Morgan, one of the first women television screenwriters, in Mountain Ash; Cranogwen, a writer and poet, in Llangrannog; and Lady Rhondda, who was imprisoned for her suffragette activities, in Newport. The final statue, commemorating activist Elizabeth Andrews, will be erected in the Rhondda in June 2026.
The banner exhibition, located in the Great Hall, is dedicated to the unveiling of each statue and details the lives and accomplishments of each woman.
Speaking at the reception, the Lady Chief Justice said: “I hope that this exhibition serves to bring your brilliant work to an even wider audience, and it gives us all food for thought on the many ways in which Welsh women have pioneered real change across history.”
The exhibition is open to all those working in the Royal Courts of Justice, as well as visiting judges, court users and members of the public, and will remain on display in the Great Hall until 31 July.