Ex-suffragette marks Women’s Day

A 105-year-old former suffragette got a film star’s welcome yesterday when she marked International Women’s Day by attending a wreath-laying ceremony.

As Hetty Bower arrived at a statue of women’s rights heroine Emmeline Pankhurst in Victoria Tower Gardens in Westminster, London, dozens of politicians and supporters lined up to have their picture taken with her.

Mrs Bower, who walked sprightly in to the gardens to applause from the assembled throng, later chatted to Labour leader Ed Miliband about her life.