LONDON on the Ground

A career aeronaut, one half of the 19th century’s ballooning power couple and a high profile media-savvy celebrity, she died in obscurity and was buried in an unmarked grave. On 28 June 1826, Margaret Graham became the first British woman to fly solo in a balloon, or in any flying craft. Her short flight across Islington from White Conduit Gardens covered only around one and a half miles, but assured her an enduring place in UK aviation history. This weekend is the 200th ann

The influential artist, educationalist, philanthropist, feminist and suffragist was ahead of her time, but is little known today. Barbara Bodichon portrait by Samuel Laurence , 1880 (from a sketch in 1861). Source: Wikipedia, public domain Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon co-founded Britain’s first women’s suffrage group and Girton College Cambridge - Britain’s first residential college for the degree level education of women. She also successfully campaigned to allow married wom

The 17th century writer, poet, philosopher, scientist and playwright questioned the role of women and divided opinion. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), was a prolific writer of non-fiction and fiction, essays, poems and plays. Her aim was uniqueness in dress, thoughts and behaviour. Unusually for a woman at the time, her works were published, and under her own name. She designed her own clothes, was open about seeking fame and was quite a celebrity in Lon

Britain’s first woman jujitsu teacher trained the female bodyguards of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. Edith Garrud and her...