The Scottish woman who changed consumer laws – thanks to a snail

A monument to a Glasgow woman who changed consumer law after she found a decomposing snail in her ginger beer almost a century ago has become the 900th addition to a project which maps memorials to notable Scottish women.
A monument to May Donoghue, who sued the maker of a bottle of ginger beer she bought at a cafe in 1928A monument to May Donoghue, who sued the maker of a bottle of ginger beer she bought at a cafe in 1928
A monument to May Donoghue, who sued the maker of a bottle of ginger beer she bought at a cafe in 1928

Mapping Memorials to Women has added to its website the story of May Donoghue, who sued the maker of a bottle of ginger beer she got at a cafe in 1928.

Ms Donoghue was enjoying a drink at Paisley’s Wellmeadow Cafe when a decomposing snail fell out of the bottle. Ms Donoghue reportedly suffered shock and later an upset stomach.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, as she had not bought the drink – it had been purchased by her friend – it was originally believed that Ms Donoghue had no contract with the cafe owner, or the manufacturer. The success of the case, which saw Ms Donoghue paid £200 in an out-of-court settlement of compensation, subsequently changed the law across the UK on whether a company should have responsibility for what should happen to anyone using their products, not just the person who bought it.

A memorial to her – a bronze sculpture entitled Dear Duty, which shows Ms Donoghue with her twin granddaughters, erected near the site of the cafe – is the 900th monument to be listed by the Mapping Memorials to Women projects, which was set up in 2012 as an extension of a Girl Guiding Scotland project to encourage young girls to find memorials to women. It is now run by Women’s History Scotland and Glasgow Women’s Library as well as the Girl Guide movement.

The statue to Ms Donoghue, by sculptor Mandy McIntosh, is in Paisley’s Ferguslie Park.

Alison McCall, committee member of Women’s History Scotland, said that the memorial was a fitting tribute to a working-class woman who had changed history.

She said: “This is often known as the story of ‘the snail and the ginger beer’, but what this does is take the emphasis off the snail and put it back onto this determined woman, who pushed this through and changed consumer law. I studied law and this is one of the first cases you learn about, as it is so distinctive.”

After years of legal debate, and the case being dismissed from the Court of Session, the case was finally heard in the House of Lords. During proceedings, the Bible story of the Good Samaritan was cited by Lord Atkin, who said he believed manufacturers should care for consumers of their products in the same way neighbours should care for each other.

Ms McCall said: “Mrs Donoghue was a single mother, with one living child who had left her husband and didn’t have a lot of money behind her. But she fought this case through.”

Those involved in the memorials project have traced hundreds of memorials from street names to large statues on display in galleries and museums.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ms McCall said: “We are on the lookout wherever we go. Some of them are not always obvious, such as street names, which may just be a surname, so it is not always obvious that it is to a woman.

“We are pleased to say that we have not yet found a memorial to a woman that we have had to remove due to links to slavery.”

Related topics:

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.