A FUNDRAISING campaign has been kickstarted commemorate a Llandeilo suffragette.

Rachel Barrett was a suffragette and newspaper editor raised in Llandeilo.

After attending the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth she became a science teacher.

In 1906 she quit her job after hearing Nellie Martel speak on women’s suffrage; she then became a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union(WSPU) and moved to London.

In 1907 she became an organiser for the WSPU and after Christabel Pankhurst fled to Paris, Barrett was asked to be the joint organiser of the national WSPU campaign.

In 1912, despite having no journalistic background, she was put in charge of the newly formed newspaper The Suffragette.

Barrett was arrested on more than one occasion for activities linked to the suffrage movement and between 1913 and 1914 she spent time incognito avoiding re-arrest.

Now a fundraising page has been established to erect a plaque in her honour.

A statement on the page, set up by Gaynor Jones, says: “I am in the process of raising money to erect a plaque to commemorate the Llandeilo suffragette, Rachael Barrett.

“I have been promised financial support by a variety of local organisations.

“But I thought I would kick off the fundraising as it’s my birthday next week to get the fund up and running.

“Rachel’s story is an incredible one and should be commemorated in the town where she grew up.

“If you feel that recognising women and men from humble origins who made a mark in Wales and beyond is important please feel free to donate. The total cost will be approximately £450.”

Barrett was born in Carmarthen in 1874 to Rees Barrett, a land and road surveyor, and his second wife Anne Jones, both Welsh-speakers.

She grew up in Llandeilo with her elder brother Rees and a younger sister, Janette. By the 1881 Census, her mother Anne was the lone adult living at their address on Alan Road, her father having died in 1878.

Visit gofundme.com/f/rachel-barrett-memorial-plaque.