THOUSANDS of people gathered to see the long-awaited statue of fossil hunter Mary Anning unveiled - on what would have been her 223rd birthday.

Mary Anning was an early pioneer of palaeontology in the 19th century and was also a scientist with a huge capacity to understand the fossilised remains she discovered in the cliffs of Lyme Regis.

She was the first person to discover a complete plesiosaurus in 1823.

Due to her poor working-class background and living in poverty her works were forgotten and left out of history books.

This led to local schoolgirl Evie Swire, 15, and with help from her mother, Anya Pearson, founding the ‘Mary Anning Rocks’ campign in a bid to not only remember Mary but to address the imbalance of female role models in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Trustee and co-founder, Ms Pearson explains the other reason the statue was important: “There are way too many fusty old white men on pedestals. 85 per cent, in fact, of our statues, are just that. So, Mary’s statue goes a long way to counter that.

“If we don’t have balance in our civic monuments, what does that tell our children? Who do they grow up being inspired by?”

The statue, which is of Mary and her dog, was unveiled on Saturday May 21 in Lyme Regis and has been placed by Church Cliff beach – where Mary lived and made her discoveries.

Official figures reveal that a whopping 2,000 people turned up to watch the unveiling – although it is reported to have possibly been more.

Denise Dutton was commissioned to create the statue following a successful £100,000 fundraising appeal.

Ms Pearson added: “Mary is so inspirational to young and old. You only have to look at the images from the day to see the mix of age groups that love her and came together to celebrate her.

“She transcends many boundaries that often tie us up in knots like class, gender and age. So not only was she a pioneering scientist, but she is also a modern-day role model.”

When asked what it meant for the Mary Anning Rocks campaign to have accomplished what they set out to do Ms Pearson replied: “I’m not going to lie. I feel vindicated. Vindicated for all the times I was told ‘what does that woman and her child think they can do?’ Well – we showed you, didn’t we?”