A GUIDE in Oxford who has conducted tours on the suffrage movement in the city is backing campaigns for statues of leading activists to be built.

Former Green city councillor Nuala Young spent a night in jail in 1982 for taking part in a nuclear disarmament blockade at the Upper Heyford airbase.

In recent years she has taken an interest in the suffrage movement and, as well as running tours on Inspector Morse and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she has explained to tourists the suffrage movement's connections with Oxford.

Now she is supporting demands for statues to be built in London honouring Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett.

Mrs Young, who lives in Iffley, said: "Emmeline Pankhurst was a suffragette and favoured direct action but Millicent Fawcett was a suffragist and campaigned for women's rights through peaceful means.

"Millicent came to St Hilda's College in 1911 to give a talk as the national leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.

"I think both statues should be built in London because they represent both sides of the suffrage campaign.

"I also think there should be more recognition of the suffrage movement in Oxford, perhaps with a plaque outside St John's College in St Giles, where there was a major rally in 1912.

"In March next year International Women's Day will remember the suffragettes so I expect I will run my next tour on the subject then."

During a suffrage movement rally in St Giles in 1912, led by Sylvia Pankhurst, students pelted her with stones and she was forced to flee in a hackney cab.

The following year college boathouses were set on fire and Magdalen College students were accused of responding by trashing a women's club.

Actress Emma Watson, a former pupil at Headington School, is backing a campaign for a statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square in London.

She was a more peaceful campaigner than Emmeline Pankhurst, mother of Sylvia.

Baroness Boothroyd, the former Commons speaker, is campaigning for a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in Canning Green near Parliament Square.

A picture from the Oxford Journal Illustrated features non-militant suffragists marching from Carlisle to London.

They reached Oxford on Saturday, July 19, 1913, and their entry into the city, with a member of the party on horseback, and with banners flying, was witnessed by a large crowd of spectators.

The suffragists arrived in Summertown shortly after 4pm where they were welcomed by Oxford representatives of the organisation.

After a short break for tea the procession headed for St Giles' and the suffragists then headed to the Lamb and Flag before a meeting at the town hall.

Some of the foundations for the women's suffrage movement were built in Oxford.

A number of colleges provided leaders who would eventually help women to earn the right to vote in 1918 and 1928.

Women over 30 were granted the right to vote in 1918 while in 1928 the age was lowered to 21.

Campaigners in Oxford mainly belonged to the peaceful suffragist movement rather than their militant suffragette counterparts.