Suffolk sculptor Sean Hedges-Quinn’s latest public statue is of one of Britain’s leading suffragettes that has been unveiled in her home city to mark the centenary of the some women being given the vote for the first time.

East Anglian Daily Times: The statue of Alice Hawkins taking shape in Sean Hedges-Quinn's Suffolk studio. Picture: SEAN HEDGES-QUINNThe statue of Alice Hawkins taking shape in Sean Hedges-Quinn's Suffolk studio. Picture: SEAN HEDGES-QUINN (Image: Archant)

Alice Hawkins was a political activist in Leicester at the turn of the 20th century who joined the suffragette movement in 1907. She was jailed on five separate occasions before the First World War.

Mr Hedges-Quinn created the statue at his studio near Ipswich and it was unveiled in Leicester’s Market Square last week to mark the centenary of the 1918 Act of Parliament that gave some women aged over 30 the vote.

The unveiling was covered by the BBC’s East Midlands “Inside Out” programme because Alice Hawkins is a well-known local figure.

She died, aged 83, in 1946 – 18 years after the vote was extended to all women aged over 21, giving them equal voting rights with men for the first time.