Plaque for market statue

9:23am Monday 4th February 2008

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THE figure is so familiar that we walk past him, standing there on his plinth, without a second glance.

But few Salisbury residents, shopping in the Market Square, have any idea who he is, or why he should matter to them.

There will be no excuse for ignorance in future.

A plaque now proudly explains that Henry Fawcett was one of the city's most prominent sons. It was he who introduced the parcel post and the postal order to Britain.

He was also a champion of women's rights and used his power as Postmaster General in Gladstone's government to further their cause.

"Many people don't realise just how important his contribution was to our daily lives," said chairman of Salisbury District Council Bobbie Chettleburgh, who presided over a plaque dedication ceremony with Salisbury Civic Society's chairman, Brigadier Alastair Clark.

Henry Fawcett was born into a politically active family above a draper's shop in Blue Boar Row in 1833, and his statue faces his birthplace.

He went to Cambridge University, graduating in mathematics. But that same year, 1857, he was blinded for life by a shooting accident on Harnham Hill.

Undaunted, he became Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge in 1863. Two years later he was elected MP for Brighton, and in 1880 was appointed Postmaster General.

His reforms also included the introduction of the sixpenny telegram, and he pioneered the employment of female medical officers. He died in 1884 from pleurisy.

The absence of information about his achievements was raised with the council by tour guides and by the Civic Society, which has paid for a Braille translation of the plaque.