Averil's Blog

Research, musings and finding inspiration.

A Tree Dedication to Elizabeth Fry at the National Memorial Arboretum

About the Event

Join us at the National Memorial Arboretum on Thursday 25 May to dedicate a tree in celebration of the life of pioneering social reformer Elizabeth Fry. To mark the end of her tenure on the £5 note this month, we will be dedicating a tree to ensure she will be remembered and recognised by generations to come for her brave and determined contribution towards social reform.

 

The dedication ceremony will take place at 2pm near the Quaker Memorial.

 

Find out more about the National Memorial Arboretum at http://www.thenma.org.uk

 

National Memorial Arboretum, Croxall Road, Alrewas, Staffordshire  DE13 7AR

 

Please RSVP to emma@orphans.co.uk

 

About Elizabeth Fry

Elizabeth Fry was one of the nineteenth century’s most extraordinary women. Born the daughter of a Quaker banker, she was eighteen when she commandeered a laundry room to begin her own school.  At twenty, she wed Joseph Fry and, over their marriage, bore him eleven children.

But a charitable visit to Newgate Prison would change the course of her life, and of history, forever. Unable to ignore the plight of the female convicts before her, she determined to do everything in her power to right the injustices of the age…

By her death, Elizabeth was famous amongst royalty, parliament and women on the street alike; respected by Queen Victoria; supporter to William Wilberforce; and influence on Florence Nightingale.

Image copyright National Memorial Arboretum.