I know I know it sucks. But our group has the biggest captive audience of actual customers & a community, rather than it being open to random people across the web. The reason for not adding votes from elsewhere is to keep it transparent & less confusing.
For example, like Eurovision, someone could be clearly winning & then suddenly votes pile in from elsewhere & it doesn’t feel fair/clear. And it’s just messy. And I could cheat! (Hey er John from Hockley just tipped the votes to the one I want to make)
The reason for showing you the nominations before voting time was so you could get a chance to know them rather than voting on instinct for famous ones. But I might just slam them out next time!
Thanks for sticking around while it’s teething, it will smooth out!
One of the important things is to make sure you’re voting for you who you would like to see (and even buy!) as a miniature, rather than who you like the most.
Thankyou to the contributors (listed below) for submitting these THIRTY suggestions. The four most popular will be made into miniatures! Please have a read through them all and have a think about who your favourites are! You will be able to vote for as many as you like, but please only vote for your favourites, ie what you’d REALLY like as a mini.
VOTING WILL OPEN 6PM WEDNESDAY 10TH MAY AND CLOSE 6PM SATURDAY 13TH MAY on our Facebook group. I’ll make a post here when it’s live with the direct link.
Images: Images are not necessarily how the minis will be dressed, just chosen for an easy glance and public domain, you are encouraged to look up more photos and information, we just haven’t gone in full detail for everyone or it would take a long, long, time!
Notes: Most of the text below is written or sourced by the contributors – you wonderful people via our Facebook group where such decisions take place, some may have more written about them, as that person just submitted more information. Some with low levels of info I, (Annie) have written a bit more to give them a fighting chance.
Dates: All dates are CE (Common ERA) unless stated.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) Mathematician and Scientist, considered to be the first computer programmer,
Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) British citizen born in Belgium, a fundraiser and supporter of the resistance in the Netherlands, as well as well known performer and actress.
Caroline Amelia Nation AKA Carrie Nation AKA Hatchet Granny November 25, (1846 – 1911) Women’s Rights Campaigner & radical Temperance member. Known for refusing to wear a corset against the standard of the times & for smashing up establishments that served alcohol with a hatchet in the name of the Temperance movement.
Charlotte de la Tremoüille (1599 – 1664) Famous for her robust defence of Lathom House (late February to late May 1644), and the subject of the song “They called her Babylon” by Steeleye Span, which appears on their 2004 album of the same name.
Clémentine Delait (1865 – 1939) “the most illustrious and celebrated bearded lady in France”, icon and feminist
Cleopatra (70-30BCE) Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, built up the economy establishing important trade deals, personally commanded fleets, and much more.
Eleomore Prohaska (1785 – 1813) A German soldier who fought in the Prussian army with the Lützom volunteer Jaegers disguised as a man. Honoured as “Potsdam’s Joan of Arc”
Emilia Plater (1806-1831) Polish–Lithuanian noblewoman and revolutionary, national heroine in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus
Fu Hao (1240-1200 BCE) Royal consort, military general and high priestess of the Shang Dynasty. Buried in her own grave (unusual for royal wives) with both precious goods and 130 weapons including two (or more) massive bronze axes.
Henrietta Maria (Queen) (1609 – 1669) English Civil War provocateur, nicknamed the generalissimo by Charles the 1st, got up to some shenanigans both useful and hurtful to the royalist cause.
Jean Ross (1911-1973) Journalist and political activist. Remembered as the inspiration for Caberet’s “Sally Bowles”, which she was not fond of. She was a journalist in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 – 1938.
Hypatia (Between 350 and 370 to 415) Alexandrian philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. Teacher, editor, commentator (not sports), and counsellor to the powerful. Though a pagan Neoplatonist philosopher, she taught Christians including a future bishop but was murdered and torn to pieces by a Christian mob as (probably) part of a political conflict.
Jeanne d’Arc (1412 – 1431) More or less got France back into gear to kick out the English in the Hundred Years War. Got captured and executed in the end. Patron Saint of France as a result of all that.
Jeanne Laisné “Jeanne Hachette” (1454 to ?) Axe-wielding peasant heroine of the siege of Beauvais
Kate Ter Horst (1906-1992) The “Angel Of Arnhem Her house was used as a regimental aid station, and she helped out nursing and scrounging potable water.
Kenau Simonsdochter (1526-1588) Folk hero defender of Haarlem, later led an army of 300 women against the Spanish.
Khutulun (1216-1306) Great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan and first cousin once removed of Kublai. Noblewoman of the Chagatai Khanate. Renowned athlete, archer and warrior. Accrued a herd of more than ten thousand horses in competitions and by defeating suitors in wrestling matches. Was her father’s chief advisor and preferred successor but this was prevented by her male relatives. Still became the army’s commander on his death. The probable basis for the character of Turandot in various Western works of art.
Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) She was a British woman who travelled widely in the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant and the Middle East, usually wearing male Turkish/Ottoman clothing. She was an archaeologist, an antiquarian and and explorer. She lived in what is now Lebanon for many years until her death. She was the first person to carry out an archaeological dig in Palestine, at the site of Ashkelon, although she was probably trying to find a legendary treasure that didn’t actually exist. Her narrated memoirs were published after her death by her physician Dr Charles Meryon.
Lucy Parsons (1851-1942) Anarchist, labour organiser, founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World, called “more dangerous than a thousand rioters” and an active writer, editor, orator and firebrand right up until she died in a house fire aged 91.
Madam Yoko (1849–1906) Madam Yoko was a leader of the Mende and was also a member of a secret women’s society which provided her with access to a whole load of traditional knowledge. A few marriages later, she became essentially a tribal chief and was negotiating with the British in her late 20s. She trained young women as influencers and wives and so was able to make and maintain alliances. Unfortunately seems like she got a bit too cosy with the Empire types and she ended up rich but seemingly not happy.
Maria Bochkareva (1889-1920) WW1 Russian army officer, formed the 1st Russian Women’s Battalion of Death. She was the first Russian woman to command a military unit.
Mary Fields “Stagecoach Mary”, (1832-1914) First black postwoman in the USA, carried multiple firearms, most notably a .38 Smith & Wesson under her apron to protect herself and the mail from wolves, thieves and bandits.
Mary Smith (1862-1946) A famous East End ‘knocker-up’, used a pea shooter to hit windows and wake people up early.
Nadezhda Durova (1783 – 1866) Born in an army camp at Voznesenskoe, Ukraine, her father was a major. Disguised as a man, she joined the Russian army in 1807 as a lancer and later became a lieutenant of Hussars. She survived the Napoleonic wars and later published her biography.
Nicola de La Haye (1150-1230) Defender of Lincoln castle against TWO seiges
Nzinga Ana de Sousa Mbande (Queen) (1583-1663) Queen Nzinga was an emissary to Portugal and eventually queen. She was very firm about presenting the Kingdom of Ndongo as an equal player in negotiations with the Portuguese, using her linguistic skills, wealth, and opulent clothing to prove a point. When she turned up to a negotiation and found chairs were provided for the Europeans and a mat for her, apparently she had one of her attendants go on hands and knees so she could sit on him and talk eye-to-eye. She rose to power and led a series of military campaigns against the Portuguese.
Rosalin Franklin (1920-1958) Discovered critical information about DNA that led to the famous double helix model, largely uncredited.
Taytu Betel (1851-1918) Empress Taytu Betel was essentially the person in Ethiopia who said, “Pull the other one,” when the Italians tried it on. She noticed that the treaty they’d been given to sign in Amharic didn’t quite match the one the Italians were scrutinising in Italian, in which Ethiopia would have become an Italian protectorate. So she hard-noped them, and saw them off.
Tomyris (?-520 BCE) Queen of the Massagetae (a Saka-Scythian tribal confederation). Cyrus the Great of Persia sought to acquire her kingdom through marriage but she was having none of it. So he attempted it by invasion. The tribes routed his army so he set out a great banquet with lots of wine. When the pursuing warriors found this and got drunk, the Persians ambushed and slaughtered them. Tomyris swore vengeance and led her army to crush the Persians in battle. She sought out the corpse of Cyrus, cut off his head, and shoved it into a bag filled with his soldiers’ blood, proclaiming ‘Drink your fill of blood!’. Which was nice.
Wu Zetian (624 – 705) personal name Wu Zhao, was the de facto ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right.
Thanks to the contributors: Alan Monk, Alistair Samson, Andreas Persson, Carole Flint, Claire Hearn, Donnie Kelly, Edmund Kyberd, Felicity MacLeod Cullen, Kh Ranitzsch, Marianne Wells, Phil Leedell, Sarah Arnold, Simon S, Skodster Dbg, Staffan Gustafsson, T Micha Trout and Tim Edwards. Anybody can make suggestions, while it’s currently closed for figures 7,8,9 and 10, you will get another chance when we choose the next three, keep tuned.
Community Miniatures Project 