Thread by @suzannezeedyk

Today marks 107 years since t death of Mary Lily Walker, one of Scotland’s 1st major campaigners for childrn’s & women’s health. I am #grateful to know her story &that her memory is restored to Dundee’s consciousnss. We’ve been fightng poverty a long time. @WhimSicALLusH @margl43

2. The interest in my tweet ths morn on Mary Lily Walker leads me to add a few more insights. Her memory had been largely forgotten until 2013, whn a group of her fans held a 3-day event to mark t centenary of her death. We publishd ths biography: “Forgotten Visionary of Dundee”.

3. Here’s a pic from the biography: Our group of researchers standing at her gravesite in Balgay Cemetery. I remember when we didn’t even know were her grave was. I now go up to visit her for a chat & ask her advice regularly.

4. Here’s another pic from the biography. It shows the desperate poverty in Victorian Dundee. Housing was terrible. Corruption was terrible. Inequality was terrible. Mary Lily Walker looked beyond her class privilege & used her STEM educ at @dundeeuni to make a difference.

5. The story of Mary Lily Walker shows how deep poverty, intergenerational trauma & ACES can run. 1905 report showed: In one set of 1345 children born, 53% died. Many children were sewn into their clothes because lost buttons were too expensive. That is only 115 years ago.

6/end. The renewal of Mary Lily Walker’s memory to the city of her birth Dundee is fitting. I feel proud to walk streets where her name can once again be found, thanks to determined campaigners&fans. Here’s the @connectedbaby team stopping off at her marker on an earlier outing.

https://t.co/rNEqWdm6mz

And now our @connectedbaby team has got new ideas brewing about the book....! https://t.co/kpnT32NOjE

I've just remembered there's a great wee film by @AbertayUni TV abt the establishmnt of Dundee's Discovery Walk in 2016, led by Kelly Marr & @WhimSicALLusH . Mary Lily Walker's name & plaque is amongst those 9 Dundee luminaries! She died 107yrs ago today.