• Emily Hobhouse (9 April 1860 – 8 June 1926)

Though not from Exeter, it would be very fitting to place her statue near the Buller Statue, as she worked tirelessly campaigning for the rights of the people in the concentration camps during the second Boer War. 

Hobhouse was a campaigner, anti-war activist and pacifist. She reported on conditions in the camps, her findings in the "Report of a Visit to the Camps of Women and Children in the Cape and Orange River Colonies" were delivered to the British government in June 1901. As a result, a formal commission was set up and a team of official investigators headed by Millicent Fawcett was sent to inspect the camps. Neglect and lack of resources led to overcrowding in bad unhygienic conditions causing a mortality rate of 26,370, of which 24,000 were children under sixteen and infants. The rate at which the children died was some 50 a day. Initially she was highly criticised in by the British government and the media, but eventually received funding to help the Boer citizens

Through her offices, thousands of women and children were fed daily for more than a year in Central Europe after WWI. South Africa contributed towards this effort, and an amount of more than £17,000 (nearly £500,000 today) was collected by Mrs President Steyn for the cause.

Read more about Hobhouse and her achievements on her Wikipedia page: Emily Hobhouse - Wikipedia

• Mary Carpenter (3 April 1807 – 14 June 1877)

Carpenter was born in Exeter and was an educational and social reformer. She founded a charity school and reformatory schools in order to provide education for children in poverty and for young offenders. She went to India and campaigned for and improved female education, and prison reform.

She worked for educational and penal reforms in England too, as well as being active in the anti-slavery movement. Mary Carpenter was the first woman to have a paper published by the Statistical Society of London and her articles and books were highly influential in several education acts of the mid-nineteenth century. She also supported the Women's Suffrage Movement, and met with Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale in 1868. 

• Dorothea Hendy (1918-2002)

Dorothea Hendy was the daughter of a Jamaican sea captain father and a Cornish mother. She moved to Exeter in 1939 and trained as a light engineer. Hendy worked at an aircraft factory on Tan Lane, then at Exeter airport overseeing barrack damages. 

During World War II, she was stationed as a fire-watcher, looking out for fire bombs across the city. She she risked her own life to help rescue casualties during the Exeter Blitz in 1942. Dorothea Hendy suffered racial and gender based discrimination yet rose up in the face of adversity and continued to contribute to the war effort. After the war ended she joined Exeter City Council and became the only woman on the council, then later worked for Bow Council in London.