Blue plaque to life-saving 'mermaid' of Bognor Regis unveiled on the pier
and live on Freeview channel 276
Revealed on the east side of the pier, the blue plaque is the last of ten intended to pay homage to important local figures like Sir Richard Hotham and Sir W E Butlin.
Wheatland’s great-grandchildren, a representative from the Royal Humane Society, and a range of local dignitaries attended the ceremony, paying their respects to an icon of Bognor Regis history.
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Hide AdKnown for her blue serge dress and straw hat, Mary lived from 1835 to 1924 and manned Bognor’s bathing machines from her teens well into her seventies.
The machines were the 19th century’s answer to beach huts – wheeled into the sea by a horse, they gave visitors a chance to take a dip without upsetting a stringent sense of Victorian dignity. More than that, though, she was also famous for saving more than thirty people from drowning in the sea, an achievement which saw her commended by the Royal Humane Society.
According to John Wilson, assistant secretary at the Royal Humane Society, Mary was a strong woman at a time when women were considered anything but. “She was a business woman,” he said. “She had a business to run, a family to look after. It must have been hard.
"I hadn’t realised, but when you have all these towels that are wet and soaking, she had to rinse them through and wring them out by hand. It would have taken a lot of strength.”
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Hide AdFor local historian Sylvia Endacott, who has written a book about Mary, Thursday’s unveiling represented the culmination of years of hard work.
“This has taken about two years. We were going to do it in March 2020, but Covid hit and pushed it back.
"I’m really pleased. When I wrote the book it was evident that there was something missing in our celebration of the town, that there were people missing, people like the king, like Sir Richard Hotham – people like Mary. So this is the last plaque, but also one of the best.”
Mary’s descendants were similarly delighted. Great-grandchild David Humphrey said the family remain ‘proud’ of Bognor’s bathing machine lady, and ‘honoured’ by the plaque.