Clarke was born in Salford and was one of ten children, including older sister Emmeline, of Robert Goulden and Sophia (née Craine).

[1] The Gouldens were a humble Manchester family with its own background of political activity; Robert's mother, a fustian cutter, worked with the Anti-Corn Law League, and his father was press-ganged into the Royal Navy and present at the Peterloo massacre, when cavalry charged and broke up a crowd demanding parliamentary reform.

[3] Clarke was admired by fellow suffragettes for "superhuman strength of spirit" as well as "sweet sympathy and gentleness", after getting hurt in an angry crowd throwing rotten apples at them at Bournemouth.

[6] She was arrested a few days later for window smashing after returning to protest, on 23 November 1910, and imprisoned for a month in HM Prison Holloway, where she was force-fed after going on a hunger strike.

[9] Mary Jane Clarke appears in the 2018 German docudrama We are half the World (Die Hälfte der Welt gehört uns) about the women's suffrage movement in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, played by Alexandra Schalaudek.

The design maquette includes references to Black Friday in Votes for Women newspaper, examples of force-feeding implements, the Hunger Strike Medal and words from Emmeline Pankhurst: "She is the first to die.

"[5] The Mary Clarke Statue Appeal is fundraising to complete the project, and its chair, Jean Calder, said: “Nationally, women who have achieved a great deal are not commemorated.