Julia Varley OBE was an English trade unionist and suffragette. She worked in a mill from the age of 12. In 1909 Varley moved to Birmingham and established a branch of the National Federation of Women Workers at the Cadbury factory at Bournville. Varley went on to campaign for both men and women at a national level. A Birmingham Civic Society plaque was unveiled earlier at Selly Manor. It will be put up at her old home in Hay Green Lane, Bournville Varley, who was born in 1871, started as a millworker aged 12. By the time she was 15 she had become involved with the first of many trade unions that she would work with for more than 50 years. Her relatives remain unfound.
*(Image reproduced by permission of the Library of Birmingham)