These have been exciting times: • Sarah’s petition had publicity on Radio London with Louise Raw talking with Robert Elms • A Prom at the Royal Albert Hall featured a piece by Hannah Kendall which itself was inspired by Lemn Sissay’s poem about the Matchgirls • We have support from our local Southampton Labour Party, and at the UNITE Union, who a couple of years ago were involved in a play about the Matchgirls • We have approached Historic England about possible listing of the Sarah Chapman’s grave. This doesn’t seem likely, but they did point out that the Bryant and May factory is listed, and suggested we should add our story to that information via Historic England’s ‘Enhancing The List’ procedure. This is something we intend to do • Lyn Brown MP has approached English Heritage about a Blue Plaque for the Matchgirls. Now Parliament is back from recess, we hope this will progress Our supporters have included: • A gentleman who remembers his father putting on a play about the Matchgirls • Donna Diebel, whose Great Grandfather is also buried in Manor Park Cemetery. His son, Donna’s Grandfather, was part of the Dr Barnardo Canadian emigration program from the East End at the age of 11. After WWI, he started a family in Canada. On July 23rd this year, Donna’s hometown of Kitchener, Ontario hosted a special Canada 150th anniversary event for other descendants of British Home Children and she was asked to share her Grandads' story (see attached). • The descendants of Alice Wheeldon who are still fighting to clear her name – see http://www.alicewheeldon.org/about/ Manor Park Cemetery The Cemetery has issued a notice that it intends to reclaim, i.e. ‘mound over’, burials near but not including that of Sarah Chapman. A couple of months ago we marked her grave with a chain and a wooden cross. The Cemetery’s current position is that they will only allow a ground level memorial and they charge £100+ for a permit to do so. The Cemetery has said they will mound over the area where Sarah’s grave is located within a few years, although they cannot be specific about when, which rather leaves us in a state of limbo. If and when they do mound over, we have been told we could have the opportunity to purchase the new plot above her. Unlike local authority cemeteries, the private company Manor Park Cemetery does not make, or keep, any detailed survey of early graves that are mounded, so securing a plot we will know to be directly above Sarah may not be easy.  