I’VE always enjoyed true stories about heroes and heroines. I especially love the tale about Harriet Tubman – a black woman who escaped from slavery in the US, then spent years building the ‘Underground Railroad’ to help others escape servitude.

Paul McCartney became another of my heroes when I learned that, as a 12-year-old, he was thrown out of the Liverpool Cathedral Choir because he ‘could not sing’.

And there’s the story of Stephen King who binned his first novel, Carrie, after 30 rejections from publishers, only for his wife to re-submit it and bring him international fame and fortune.

Overcoming setbacks on the way to success has always gained my deepest respect. That’s why, this week, I’m writing about a Barnsley heroine whose pugnacity helped bring about huge improvements to the lives of all British women. If you’ve not heard her name before, it’s because many female pioneers have been airbrushed from history by a male-dominated world.

I, therefore, bring to your attention, Celia Wray, a fierce fighter for women’s rights, who was born at Fairfield House, Barnsley, in 1872. The house is the former Barnsley Art College that still stands in Berneslai Close.

Her father, Charles, owned an extensive butcher’s business which made him quite wealthy, and was a town councillor. He even became Barnsley’s mayor twice, and was eventually awarded the ultimate civic accolade - freeman of the borough.

Nevertheless, despite her father’s success, Celia was destined not to realise her full potential because of her gender. At this time, all adult females were barred from many professions and from having access to training for professional qualifications. Furthermore, in the Victorian period, once married, a woman’s property was automatically transferred to her husband, lock stock and barrel – in other words, a married woman in the Victorian age was not legally allowed to own anything.

If that wasn’t bad enough, women at this time didn’t have the right to vote.

And even worse, until the Clitheroe Judgement of 1891, rape within marriage was perfectly legal.

But Celia and her female comrades were determined that such unfair laws must be changed. In 1896 they joined a national organisation called The Women’s Emancipation Union, which campaigned for equality for females, in education, in training, in career opportunities and in marriage and parental rights.

As she campaigned, Celia also discovered she had a flair for design and somehow managed to teach herself the skills of technical drawing – although there is no evidence that she was ever a properly qualified architect. Nevertheless, her house designs were outstanding enough for builders to turn them into real homes, and some still stand today in Cudworth.

In 1902, Celia became a key figure in the Barnsley Suffrage Society that fought for the right for women to vote. She didn’t merely pay lip service to it, either – she organised petitions, protests and mass demonstrations. In 1910, she and her colleagues were photographed protesting outside the Barnsley Chronicle Office. The photo shows four well-dressed females in posh broad-brimmed hats and overcoats, holding a big poster with the message: ‘WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE PETITION 7560’

The following year, the national census was undertaken and it coincided with another visit to Barnsley by Celia’s good friend and fellow activist, Alice Laura Embleton. Where the census form asked for their occupation, the two suffragists deliberately defaced it by writing “Getting votes for women”.

Alice, from Surrey, also had to fight the Establishment in order to qualify as a scientist and by some miracle she became one of the very few females who forced their way into a man’s world. After qualifying against all odds, she spent years conducting vital research to help cancer sufferers.

During World War One, Celia and Alice set up a secret lesbian society called the Foosack League because, despite the urban myths, lesbians in this era did, indeed, suffer personal abuse and state oppression. The two women finished up living together as a happy couple.

Because of the brave actions of Barnsley’s Celia Wray, women today have a far better life, and so I sincerely hope that someone reading this is willing to step forward and organise a Barnsley Civic Trust blue plaque in her honour. No-one deserves it more.