#BehindEveryGreatCity

Below are a few more nominations from our feedback form:

Deborah Frances-White is a real inspiration to me. She created the Guilty Feminist podcast, which brings people together to discuss feminism in the 21st century in a really relatable and practical way. She also created the Global Pillage panel show, which is about diversity and discusses idiom, culture, customs and norm. She's run an amazing kickstarter campaign for a show called Suffrageddon - a hiphop musical about the life of Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragette movement. This first few minutes can be viewed here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1920327665/suffrageddon I was at the first ever mini-performance during the Guilty Feminist celebration for the centenary of women getting the vote, and it truly moved me to tears - the full show is going to be amazing! Deborah has also done some excellent awareness raising work around the refugee crisis and really practices what she preaches in terms of opening her mind and her life to this cause. I think the work she does is really important, and her achievements are very deserving of recognition.

Cressida D. Current Commissioner of the largest police force in the country.

Diane Abbott. First black woman to become an MP.

Emma Dabiri. For constantly highlighting discrimination in our society and issues relating to integration from a mixed ethnic background.

Kate Calvert is the driving force behind Better Archway Forum, who's been campaigning to resolve community and planning issues around Archway. Her determination is what helped removing the Archway Gyratory, improving the look and feel of the area

Stephanie Smith. She is the manager of the Archway market and she has been trying to put the market on the map for a while. She works relentlessly but also has an active role in loving the community and making things happen.

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And some more nominations we received via e-mail and our submission form:

I totally second Margaret thatcher and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. I have two more more recommendations. Firstly, Christine Granville - born Krystyna Skarbeck in Poland, she was the first female secret agent who worked for Britain in WW2. Her mother was Jewish and almost certainly died in a prison. She crossed the border between Hungary and Poland at least four times, including skiing over the border in a blizzard. She helped rescue thousands of Polish soldiers. The intelligence she brought out included photographic proof that Germany planned to invite Russia. She then joined SOE in France sabotaging German operations - when her commander was captured, she negotiated his release. She was fearless. She was murdered at a hotel in Kensington in 1952 by a stalker and is buried in Kensal Green.

Secondly, Florence Nightingale lived the last sixty years of her life a virtual recluse in her house in South Street,just by Hyde Park. She's most famous for nursing soldiers in the Crimea, but she was the first woman to be mentioned in the British Army's general orders, the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit and the first woman other than the Queen to be on a British banknote. She was a pioneering health reformer who campaigned for cleaner hospitals, better nursing training and better education for women. Her museum is in St Thomas's Hospital.

Fiona MM Nicolson. In 2019 Fiona Nicolson will become the first ever female European (or US) London based Global President of the Licensing Exectutive Society International, the world's leading legal and business Intellectual Property society since the organisation started in the US over 40 years ago.

Caroline Pigeon. She has many years of campaigning to improve our city and is still working on our behalf. She has several significant achievements in her field of transport.

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A few more suggestions from our feedback form, thanks everyone!

Rosalind Franklin. She made significant contributions to discovering the structure of DNA.

Ruth-Anna Macqueen. Runs the Hackney Family Cycling Library that enables children and families to cycle https://www.carryme.org.uk/projects/family-cycling-library as well as running rides and campaigning to make London a safer and more welcoming place for people to cycle.

Jaega Wise. The head brewer at Wild Card brewery. In a traditionally male dominated industry, and a fast growing industry for London, Jaega is doing a huge amount of work to bring diversity to brewing and is campaigning for equality. She's now on SIBA board.

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A few more nominations from our feedback form, thanks for sharing;

Susan Goeransson. Being director of Municipal and Environmental infrastructure at EBRD and leading projects to help refugees and those in less developed economically countries.

Charlie Howard. Charlie was able to redefine support for communities experiencing psychological distress and at risk of mental health difficulties. Through founding MAC-UK and OWLs, Charlie has enabled hundreds of vulnerable young people to access meaningful support and make changes to their life in a way that feels safe to do so. Charlie broke the mould of what we thought was possible within mental health, as a lone woman visiting gangs within deprived inner London areas and trying to understand what young people felt they needed, with respect, compassion and determination for things to be different.

Aimee Nsimire Bisimwa. You won't have heard of Aimee Nsimire. Yet she is everything London is about. Aimee Nsimire relocated to London almost 20 years ago, after needing to flee the DRC due to the proxy war and threats to her safety. In her time in London, Aimee Nsimire has put in great efforts to support the Congolese community within London. Aimee Nsimire has supported the community within school settings in Camden, as well as within formal mental health settings through her work at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. Aimee Nsimire describes her approach as 'working with her heart', and that is so apparent. Aimee Nsimire acts as a link person supporting individuals in distress or crisis to better understand their difficulties and to access meaningful support. Aimee Nsimire has enabled the congolese community, which is disproportionately affected by knife crime and violence in London, to begin to communicate with local law enforcement, even when trust can be difficult. An unsung hero of our time, Aimee Nsimire has bettered London at a grass-roots level. She's a one-woman superforce.

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We received some more suggestions via our feedback form, thank everyone for sharing!

Lucy Winkett, an ordained Anglican priest, writes, speaks and debates on a wide range of issues reflecting on culture, gender and religion. She was a contributor to the best-selling Why I Am Still an Anglican (Continuum 2006) and to Seven Words for Three Hours (DLT 2005). She is author of Our Sound Is Our Wound (Continuum 2010), which was the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book, and a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's "Thought for the Day". She is a founding advisor to Theos, a think tank launched in 2006. She serves as Chair of Governors of St Mary Magdalene Academy, Islington and of an NGO, the Amos Trust.

Alison Gelder is the CEO of a national Christian charity helping churches help homeless people and raising awareness about church action on homelessness and housing issues. Find out more about Housing Justice on www.housingjustice.org.uk.
She led the development and delivery of the Church Life Profile. A survey of 1,700 congregations and around 120,000 individual church attenders in England and Wales. Part of an international study (UK, US, Australia & New Zealand) timed to coincide with the 2001 Census. She developed market intelligence system for major account sales team; market research and analysis across the business in UK and Europe; launched first UK voice messaging service; strategic planning responsibility for information services.

Shami Chakrabarti was the director of Liberty when she campaigned against "excessive" anti-terror legislation. In this role she frequently contributed to BBC Radio 4 and various newspapers, and was described in The Times as "probably the most effective public affairs lobbyist of the past 20 years". Between 2014 and 2017 she served as Chancellor of the University of Essex[3]

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Thanks to everyone who shared their suggestions via our feedback form. Here are a few more:

Mary Ward. According to an article in the Guardian in 2013 "Ward's influence is felt even today. Inspired by the American example she set up the play centre for children movement, which enabled lower-class women in menial jobs to work full-time. She successfully pressed parliament for decent educational provision for invalid children. Other authors have left blue plaques round London. Ward left the Mary Ward Centre, which still does good works." Unfortunately she was the head of the anti-suffragette movement. (A position that on a personal note, I do not support.) However, this does not discount the work and efforts that she made for social campaigning.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/04/suffragettes-mary…

Eileen McDade. She was a co-founder of Silence in the City (with Jill Benet and Howard Nelson), www.silenceinthecity.org. This is an organisation which promotes meditation/contemplative prayer) and Silence in the City. She is also together with Liz Watson taking meditation to the prisoners of Holloway Prison in weekly meetings.

Bernadine Idowu-Onibokun. Worked as a scientist and became a Diversity and Inclusion champion. Started her own charity, YACnCAY, to help young people to get out of gangs and gun crime.

Myra Poole. Myra Poole has been a Notre Dame sister for more than forty years. She has been instrumental in founding numerous women's groups including Catholic Women's Network; Catholic Women's Ordination and the British and Irish School of Feminist Theology.

Caroline Criado-Perez. She campaigned successfully for a woman to be on a five pound note.

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Here are a few more suggestions we received via our feedback form. Thanks all for sharing and please keep your great ideas coming!

Joanne Rowling. Writing the most successful book series of all time. Rowling lived in London for a period of time and a lot of Harry Potter was set in London.

Helen Sharman. Being the first British person in space. (She did her PHD at Birkbeck University).

Ally Owen. Ally runs the Hoxton Finishing School - a 12 week digital 'accelerator' that fills the skills gap between education and work for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who aren't going to university. It delivers 'work ready' talent to the media industry. They train talented people from groups who may not otherwise have a robust network or route into work, and connect them with the companies who are in need of that talent. They provide training in the soft skills that are essential to thrive in the workplace and practical experience.This is a wonderful programme and I really feel like it should get some recognition.

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