Radical Sponsors

Radical Sponsors

As a Radical Sponsor you enjoy a range of benefits, including:

• Having your name proudly displayed in the museum, alongside your chosen Radical on a special Radical Sponsors board
• Invitations to special museum events throughout the year, including a celebratory reception with the Chair of the museum’s Trustees
• A special one-to-one behind the scenes session with a museum expert, exploring the collections and material related to your chosen Radical
• Invitations to all museum exhibition previews for you and and a guest
• Regular updates from the museum through e-newsletters
• 10% discount in the museum’s shop and cafe on production of your Radical membership card

You can Join the Radicals as a Sponsor in the following ways:

• Email radicals@phm.org.uk or phone the museum on 0161 838 9190
• Visit PHM’s Virgin Money Giving page and become a Radical Sponsor online
• Fill in the membership form and return to the museum

Your generous support helps the museum to celebrate the stories of radical thinkers whose big ideas have shaped our society; the men and women who believed in ideas worth fighting for.

Sponsor a Radical

Unsponsored Radicals

• DIANE ABBOTT
  First black woman to be elected to parliament in June 1987
• LEO ABSE
  Labour politician and gay rights activist
• CATHY ASHTON*
  Labour politician and EU High Representative
  Previously sponsored by The Follett Trust
• ERINMA BELL
  Community peace activist and co-founder of CARISMA charity which tackles gun crime in south Manchester
• TONY BENN
  Labour politician
  Previously sponsored by Nigel Taylor
• WILLIAM BEVERIDGE
  Architect of the welfare state, author of the Beveridge Report, economist and social reformer
• EVA GORE BOOTH
  Poet, dramatist, suffragist and fighter for sexual equality
• FRANCIS BURDETT
  Reforming politician
• BILLY BRAGG
  Leftwing musician and founder of Red Wedge
  Previously sponsored by Deb Milner
• JOHN BRIGHT
  Anti-Crimean War Liberal politician and leader of Anti-Corn Law League
  Previously sponsored by Lord Larry Whitty
• CAMPAIGN FOR HOMOSEXUAL EQUALITY
  Founded in 1964 in Manchester as North Western Committee for Homosexual Law Reform.  Played key part in campaigns leading up to decriminalisation of male homosexual activities in 1967
• BRIAN CLOUGH
  Football manager and lifelong Labour supporter who donated money to causes such as anti-fascism and the miners
• WILLIAM COBBETT
  Radical journalist
  Previously sponsored by Baroness Donaghy, Baroness Drake, Lord McKenzie of Luton, Lord Sawyer and Lord Young of Norwood Green
• RICHARD COBDEN
  Liberal politician and leader of Anti-Corn Law movement
• JO COX
  Labour MP, national chair of the Labour Women’s Network, and campaigner for a peaceful resolution to the Syrian War.  Assassinated in her home constituency in 2016
• WALTER CRANE
  Socialist artist
  Previously sponsored by Unity Trust Bank
• WILLIAM CUFFAY
  Chartist leader who was the son of a former slave
• JAYABEN DESAI
  Leader of the Grunwick Dispute
• CHARLOTTE DESPARD
  Suffragist writer and activist
• CHARLES DICKENS
• Novelist who criticised the inequality and depravation of Victorian society
• BENJAMIN DISRAELI
  Twice Conservative Prime Minister
  Previously sponsored by Barbara & Stanley Fink Foundation
• PRINCESS SOPHIA DULEEP SINGH
  Suffragette who demanded no taxation without representation
• FRIEDRICH ENGELS
  Social scientist, founder of Marxist theory
  Previously sponsored by John Nicholson
• DOUGLAS HOUGHTON OF SOWERBY CH
  Labour Party politician and equality campaigner
  Previously sponsored by Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe and Lord Christopher CBE
• CHARLES JAMES FOX
  Radical Whig politician
  Previously sponsored by Wayne Garvie
• JACK JONES Trade union leader and General Secretary of the TGWU
  Previously sponsored Unite the Union
• BRUCE KENT Peace activist and General Secretary of CND
  Previously sponsored by Dr Sean Young and Baroness Diana Warwick
• NEIL KINNOCK Leader of the Labour Party
  Previously sponsored by The Davies Family
• JENNIE LEE Labour minister who promoted the arts and was seminal in the foundation of the Open University
  Previously sponsored by Lord Melvyn Bragg
• MARY FILDES
  Led the Manchester Female Reformers and stood on the platform at Peterloo
• MICHAEL FOOT
  Leader of the Labour Party
  Previously sponsored by Lord Peter Snape
• ELIZABETH GASKELL
  Victorian novelist and short story writer.  Highlighted the life of the very poorest in Manchester
• DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
  Last Liberal Prime Minister, known as the ‘Welsh Wizard’
  Previously sponsored by Lord David Alliance
• WILLIAM GLADSTONE
  Four-time Liberal Prime Minister
• EARL GREY
  Whig Prime Minister who passed the Great Reform Act
• KEIR HARDIE
  Miner, union leader, ILP MP and Labour Party leader
• JOHN HODGE
  Labour Party politician and trade union leader
  Previously sponsored by Community Union
• ANNIE KENNEY
  Leading suffragette who adopted militant tactics
  Previously sponsored by Collective Spirit Community Trust
• JOHN LILBURNE
  Leveller who proposed greater suffrage and religious tolerance
• MARY MACARTHUR
  Trade union organiser and demander of votes for women
• HAROLD MACMILLAN
  Conservative Prime Minister
• TOM MANN
  Trade unionist, radical writer and campaigner. Leading figure in the London Dock Strike
  Previously sponsored by Unite the Union
• CARDINAL MANNING
  Archbishop of Westminster with a strong sense of social justice. Helped settle the 1889 London Dock Strike in favour of the dockers
• CHARLOTTE MARSH
  Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) organiser who was one of the first suffragettes to be force-fed in prison.  Founder of the Independent Women’s Social and Political Union
• SELINA MARTIN
  Cumbria born, working class suffragette whose force-feeding led to national protest against the treatment of imprisoned women
• KARL MARX
  Revolutionary socialist, philosopher and author of the Communist Manifesto
• IAN McKELLEN
  Renowned actor and LGBT+ activist
• BILLY MEREDITH
  Footballer and founder of the Players’ Union
• HANNAH MITCHELL
  Suffragette and socialist author of The Hard Way Up
  Previously sponsored by Matilda Simon in memory of Sally Mitchell
• JOHN STUART MILL
  Philosopher, Liberal Party MP, proponent of utilitarianism and the first MP to call for women’s suffrage
• WILLIAM MORRIS
  Artist and social activist
  Previously sponsored by Kevin and Rebecca Philbin, for Veronica Philbin
• DANIEL O’CONNELL
  Irish political leader who supported Catholic emancipation
  Previously sponsored by Lord Bernard Donoghue
• FEARGUS O’CONNOR
  Chartist leader who was brought up by the reformist Francis Burdett
• GEORGE ORWELL
  Writer, journalist and social commentator
  Previously sponsored by Michael Wills for his father Stephen Wills
• ROBERT OWEN
  A founder of the co-operative movement
  Previously sponsored by Co-op Group Members’ Council
• EMMELINE PANKHURST
  Leading suffragette and founder of the National Women’s Social and Political Union
  Previously sponsored by Frances Done and Jim Hancock
• HELEN PANKHURST
  Writer and activist for women’s rights and senior advisor to the international humanitarian agency, CARE
• MAXINE PEAKE
  Salford based actor, activist, feminist and socialist
• EMMELINE PETHICK-LAWRENCE
  Suffragette who founded Votes For Womennewspaper
• TOM PAINE
  Writer and political activist
  Previously sponsored by Brenda Dean and Keith McDowall
• PABLO PICASSO*
  Artist and anti-fascist
  Previously sponsored by The Bloxham Charitable Trust
• ROCHDALE PIONEERS
  Founders of the Rochdale Equitable Society and the Rochdale Principles upon which modern co-operatives are based
• JIMMY REID*
  Scottish trade unionist, Upper Clyde Shipbuilders’ Work-in
  Previously sponsored by Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP
• ESTHER ROPER
  First female graduate of Owens College Manchester.  Pacifist, suffragist and campaigner for sexual equality
• CLIFF ROWE
  Artist and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain
• ARTHUR SCARGILL
  Leader of the NUM during the Miners’ Strike 1984-1985
• SIR DAVID SHACKLETON*
  Cotton worker, trade unionist and Labour MP
  Previously sponsored by Lord Haworth
• JAMES SHARPLES
  Self-taught working class artist
• LADY MARGARET SIMEY
  Political and social campaigner
• SYDNEY SILVERMAN*
  British Labour politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment
  Previously sponsored by Bruce Shepherd for the Shepherd family
• MARIE STOPES
  Women’s campaigner, pioneer of birth control
• BETTY TEBBS
  Lifelong activist fighting for social equality and women’s rights
• MARGARET THATCHER
  First woman Prime Minister and free market radical
  Previously sponsored by Prospect Insurance Brokers
• BEN TILLETT
  Dock worker from Bristol, who became a union organiser and helped win the 1889 London Dock Strike
• ROBERT TRESSALL
  Author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
• BEATRICE AND SIDNEY WEBB
  Pioneers in social and economic reforms
• PAUL WELLER
  Singer whose sharp lyrics attacked the high unemployment of the late 1970s and 1980s.  A Founder member of Red Wedge
• H G WELLS
  Socialist writer
• REBECCA WEST
  Feminist author
  Previously sponsored by Baroness Cohen
• WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
  Led calls for the abolition of the slave trade
  Previously sponsored by Laura Harper for Andy, Grace and Thurston
• EMILY WILDING DAVISON
  Militant activist who fought and died for women’s suffrage
• JOHN WILKES
  Radical politician and journalist
• MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
  Writer and women’s rights advocate
  Previously sponsored by #GetMary crowdfund campaign

Sponsored Radicals

Sponsored Radicals

Thank you to our Radical Sponsors, whose donations are making a huge difference to the museum’s future:

• VIV ANDERSON
  First black footballer to represent England
  Sponsored by The Football Association
• CLEMENT ATTLEE
  Labour Prime Minister
  Sponsored by The Brighton family in memory of Samuel Blackburn (1838-1882)
• SAMUEL BAMFORD
  English radical reformer and was one of the leaders in the Peterloo protests
  Sponsored by Robert Poole
• ANNIE BESANT
  Socialist, women’s rights activist, writer and philanthropist
  Sponsored by The Monks Family
• ANEURIN ‘NYE’ BEVAN
  Labour Party politician, Minister for Health
  Sponsored by Unison
• ERNEST BEVIN
  Leader of the TGWU and Labour Foreign Secretary
  Sponsored by Lord Lea of Crondall
• RT HON TONY BLAIR
  Labour Prime Minister
  Sponsored by Baroness Prosser, Baroness Morgan of Huyton and Lord Cashman CBE
• MARGARET BONDFIELD
  Labour MP and first female Cabinet Minister
  Sponsored by Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
• MELVYN BRAGG*
  Labour peer and broadcaster who campaigns for the arts and education
  Sponsored by Baroness Jan Royall
• GORDON BROWN*
  Labour politician
  Sponsored by Lord Wilf Stevenson
• JAMES CALLAGHAN
  Labour Prime Minister
  Sponsored by Lord Lea of Crondall
• BARBARA CASTLE
  Labour Party politician who helped bring about the Equal Pay Act
  Sponsored by Leigh Day Solicitors
• WINSTON CHURCHILL
  Wartime Prime Minister
  Sponsored by Sir Victor and Lady Blank
• BOB CROW
  Socialist & General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Workers
  Sponsored by National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Workers
• DAGENHAM FORD MACHINISTS
  Their strike in 1968 for equal pay for men and women led to the 1970 Equal Pay Act. However, the fight goes on…
  Sponsored by First Actuarial LLP
• BRENDA DEAN
  Trade Unionist & Labour Politician
  Sponsored by Keith McDowall & Family
• ALF DUBS
  Labour peer who campaigned for changes to the Immigration Act
  Sponsored by Lord and Lady Bassam
• VICTOR GRAYSON
  Independent Labour Party MP for Colne Valley
  Sponsored by Lord David Clark
• HENRY HUNT Radical orator who was arrested at Peterloo
  Sponsored by Society for the Study of Labour History
• ERIC LANE BURSLEM* BALPA’s first Chairman and campaigner for air safety
  Sponsored by BALPA
• MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT Leader of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies
  Sponsored by the National Education Union
• EMMELINE PANKHURST
  Founder of the Suffragette movement in the UK
  Sponsored by ACCORD Union
• SYLVIA PANKHURST
  Leading suffragette and political campaigner
  Sponsored by MAPS Medical
• PAUL ROBESON
  Singer and civil rights activist
  Sponsored by Susie Orbach
• CHARLIE ROBERTS
  Founder of the PFA and leader of Outcasts FC who threatened strike action in order to gain recognition for the Players’ Union
  Sponsored by The PFA
• THE SEX PISTOLS
  Punk band who attacked the cultural conservatism of the 1970s
  Sponsored by Wayne Garvie
• GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
  Socialist writer
  Sponsored by Sir Trevor Chinn
• JOHN SMITH
  Labour Party politician who served as the leader of the party from 1992 until 1994
  Sponsored by Lord Haskell
• THOMAS SPENCE*
  English Radical, advocate of universal suffrage and for the common ownership of land
  Sponsored by Baroness Beeban Kidron & Lee Hall
• SIR SIGMUNG STERNBERG*
  Hungarian-British philanthropist, and international interfaith campaigner
  Sponsored by Michael Sternberg QC
• PETER TATCHELL
  Human rights campaigner
  Sponsored by John Deighan
• W H THOMPSON*
  Civil rights lawyer and founder member of the National Council For Civil Liberties
  Sponsored by The family of W H Thompson
• THE TOLPUDDLE MARTYRS
  Trade unionists transported to Australia for swearing a secret oath
  Sponsored by Thompsons Solicitors
• ALAN TURING
  Mathematician and World War II codebreaker. Persecuted for being gay
  Sponsored by Bernard Donoghue
• VICTIMS OF PETERLOO
  Slaughtered while peacefully demanding votes for all
  Sponsored by the TUC
• ELLEN WILKINSON
  Labour MP who led the Jarrow March
  Generously sponsored by an anonymous major donor
  Previously sponsored by The Monks Family

* Additional Radicals nominated by Sponsors