Celebrations around the 100th anniversary of women having the vote will include two names close to the educational history of Bedford.

Margaret Stansfeld and Dora Carrington are being referenced in a special exhibition from March 10th at The Higgins Bedford museum as champions of women’s suffrage.

Stansfeld has been recently acknowledged by the naming of a new building on St Mary’s Street by Bedford College. The college’s history dates back 125 years to the origins of teacher and women’s PE training in the town. 

And Dora Carrington, a former student of the Girls’ High School, which now houses The Bedford Sixth Form on Bromham Road, became famed for her Bloomsbury connections in her art career, as well as her work for women’s rights. Dora is illustrated here by former Bedford College art lecturer turned children’s author, David Litchfield as part of an earlier Great Bedfordians display at The Higgins.  

In January Sky Arts TV visited The Bedford Sixth Form to film a programme featuring the life of Dora which will be screened in April. Her only work showing Bedford is one of the market: