Blue plaque unveiled in Preston dedicated to suffragette Beatrice Todd on International Women's Day

Beatrice Todd was the prime mover in establishing the Sailors and Soldiers Buffet on Preston Railway Station, which welcomed more than 3.5 million servicemen and women between 1915-1919 as they passed through the town. She was leader and chair of the executive committee that set up the free service, funded entirely by donations and staffed by more than 400 volunteers working 12-hour shifts in teams.

As well as having an impact on those who passed through Preston on their way to and from the battlefields of the Great War, she also played an important role in improving the lives of local people and concerned herself particularly with women and children’s social, educational and welfare issues. A suffragist, she established mother and baby care in Preston and Leyland.

Beatrice led the committee to establish the Preston Infant Welfare Voluntary Women’s Association, two years before corporations were required to set them up by the government. Her public work was wide-ranging. Between 1908 and the 1930s she was secretary of the Preston branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), honorary treasurer of The National Women’s Citizens Association and president of Preston Women Liberals Association, as well as being a Justice of the Peace. Beatrice, who was born in 1876 in Essex and died in 1958, was also very active in the Leyland area when living at Farington Lodge, helping establish the Leyland Day Nursery.

Her husband James Todd was a leading Liberal. He started his accountancy business in Preston from scratch and went on to chair international companies. Beatrice’s story was forgotten over time until it was rediscovered by researcher Steve Harrison, with the support of other members of the Friends of Winckley Square (FoWS) group. Now she is being honoured with the unveiling of a plaque on a property at her former address, no13 Starkie Street in the Winckley Square Quarter on Wednesday, March 8. The building is now the office of award-winning recruitment business Service Care Solutions who hosted the event and have worked with FoWS on the project.

Preston’s blue plaque scheme celebrates the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked. The plaque has been commissioned by FoWS and endorsed by Preston Historical Society and is the second to be unveiled in honour of the city’s women of note in recent months and was unveiled by the mayor of Preston Neil Darby in front of invited guests.

Mr Darby said: “It is very important that we have a blue plaque here. We have got so may reminders around the city including Beatrice Todd who we have got the plaque for today.”

Patricia Harrison, who chairs the Friends and is also a member of Preston Historical Society’s committee, added: “Beatrice was a truly remarkable woman and it is fitting that we are unveiling a plaque in her honour on International Women’s Day.”