Lilian Winstanley

Place of birth: Manchester, suffragist

Service: Lecturer, University College Aberystwyth / Coleg Prifysgol A, 1898 - 1941

Death: 1960, Cause not known

Notes: Lilian Winstanley was an outstanding student at Owen’s College, Manchester, one of the constituent parts of Victoria University. She was a suffragist and keen cyclist as a student, graduating with a 1st class degree in 1897. In 1898 she moved to Aberystwyth with a companion, Marion Benson [d. 1900], to join the English Department of University College, Aberystwyth as an assistant lecturer. Lilian remained there until she retired as a senior lecturer in 1941. She maintained her interest in Suffrage (lecturing for example to the WSPU in Preston, Lancs, in 1908), was a member of the University Socialist Society and later the Liberal Party and wrote regularly for The Welsh Gazette and Welsh Outlook, including verse. She wrote and edited many academic books and at least one novel. She left her library to the University on her death in 1960.

Reference: WaW0454

Newspaper report

Report of the appointment of Lilian Winstanley. Cambrian News 23rd December 1898

Autograph

Lilian Winstanley’s autograph, 1901.

Death notice

Notice of the death of Marion Benson, Lilian Winstanley’s companion.

Newspaper report

Report of Lilian Winstanley’s talk to the WSPU in Preston. Welsh Gazette 16th January 1908.

Annotated page

Pages from the poem Adonais (by Shelley) annotated by Lilian Winstanley.

Poem

Poem ‘Land of Dante’, reflecting on the Austrian invasion of Italy. Welsh Outlook Vol 2 no 9 September 1915.

Book and book plate

Lilian Winstanley’s copy of Adonais, with her bequest plate.

Mary Brebner

Place of birth: not known

Service: Lecturer, University College Aberystwyth, 1898 - 1919

Notes: Mary Brebner was a University College, Aberystwyth, graduate and subsequently trained at the Cambridge Training College for Women under Elizabeth Phillips Hughes [qv]. She then took an MA at London University in 1891. After working in London as well as Wales, and travelled on a scholarship. Her book The Method of Teaching Modern Languages in Germany is still in print, and she has been described as the most influential women in the teaching of modern foreign languages in Britain. In 1899 she was appointed Assistant Lecturer at Aberystwyth in modern languages and Latin. At the outbreak of war Dr Ethē, Professor of German at Aberystwyth since 1875, was in Germany and did not return. Mary was promoted to lecturer and ran the department for the whole of the war, including the 1918-19 session which was ‘considerably interrupted owing to influenza’. She then retired, replaced by a man, to live in Penmaenmawr, though she remained on the board of the University of Wales.

Reference: WaW0451

Newspaper report

Report of Mary Brebner’s MA at London University. South Wales Daily News 31st July 1893.

Newspaper report

Report of Mary Brebner's appointment to the University College. Welsh Gazette 5th October 1899

Book catalogue

Mary Brebner’s book on teaching modern foreign languages 1898.

University College Report

Report of the German department, 1919. Reports submitted to the Court of Governors / University College of Wales, Aberystwyth

Oliver Annie Wheeler

Place of birth: Brecon

Service: Educationalist and pscychologist

Death: 1963, Cause not known

Notes: Olive Wheeler was born in Brecon in 1885 and attended the County Girls School there. Obviously a prized old girl of the school, she gave a speech at the 21st anniversary celebrations of the headmistress, Miss Davies, in 1917. Olive was a student at University College, Aberystwyth gaining her BSc in 1907 and MSc in 1911, and serving as President of the Student Representative Council. She then left for Bedford College London where she gained her doctorate. She did not return to Wales until the early ‘20s. She succeeded Millicent MacKenzie [qv] as Labour Candidate for the Welsh Universities in the 1922 election, and became Professor of Education at Cardiff in 1925. In 1949 Olive was made a Dame for Services to education in Wales.

Sources: https://biography.wales/article/s2-WHEE-ANN-1886\\r\\nhttps://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/cuarm/inspirational-people-1-dame-olive-wheeler

Reference: WaW0452

Olive Wheeler

Photograph of Olive Wheeler, probably taken when she was an MSc student at Aberystwyth.

Newspaper report

Report of Olive Wheeler’s attendance at Brecon County School celebrations. Brecon and Radnor Express 2nd August 1917.

Dame Olive Wheeler

Photograph of Dame Olive Wheeler, 1950.

Edith C Kenyon

Place of birth: Doncaster

Service: Writer

Death: 1925, Cause not known

Notes: Edith C Kenyon, a doctor’s daughter, had part of her upbringing in Machynlleth. She was an extremely prolific writer of novels for adults and children, and occasional non-fiction. Towards the end of her life she wrote a number of Welsh inspired romances, with title such as Nansi’s Scapegoat, The Winning of Glenora, The Wooing of Myfanwy, and The Marriage of Mari. This was serialised with much publicity in the Cambria Daily Leader in 1916. Her use of the Ceredigion landscape was much admired. She also wrote at least one war themed book for children: Pickles – A Red Cross Heroine. Her work was popular in both the United States and Australia.

Reference: WaW0455

Book

Pickles, A Red Cross Heroine by Edith C Kenyon, published by Collins. ‘Pickles dropped the deadly thing over the vasty deep’.

Newspaper report

Publication of The Wooing of Myfanwy, 6d. Cambrian News 26th March 1915.

Newspaper cutting

Heading and opening paragraphs of The Marriage of Mari. Cambria Daily Leader 26th October 1916.

Newspaper advertisement

Full column promotion of the serialisation of The Marriage of Mari. Cambria Daily Leader 23rd October 1916.

Newspaper report

Review of The Wooing of Mifanwy [sic] in an Australian paper. The Advertiser Adelaide 22nd March 1913.

Rose Owen

Place of birth: not known

Service: Abortionist

Notes: Rose Owen was brought before the magistrates in Bridgend in August 1919 charged with performing an illegal operation on Elizabeth Williams, a widow. The case was drawn out, because Elizabeth Williams was seriously ill. However she recovered, and the case went to Cardiff Crown Court where Mrs Owen was sentenced to 18 months hard labour. She seems to have been a professional abortionist, as ‘women from the valleys and from Cardiff’ had been seen entering her house, as well as single girls who stayed there.

Reference: WaW0461

Newspaper report

Part of the report of Rose Owen’s appearance before the Bridgend magistrates. Glamorgan Gazette 8th August 1919

Newspaper report

Part of the report of Rose Owen’s trial and conviction at Cardiff Crown Court. Glamorgan Gazette 21st November 1919

Gertrude Morgan

Place of birth: Bridgend ?

Service: Ticket cillector, GWR

Notes: Gertrude, a ticket collector at Bridgend railway station, was subject to an assault by Lewis Davies, who kicked her in the thigh. He and another collier had been attempting to travel without a ticket. The magistrate said that ‘there was far too much of this hooliganism’ at Bridgend and Davies was fined £2.

Reference: WaW0458

Newspaper report

Report of the fracas at Bridgend Railway Station. Glamorgan Gazette 13th September 1918

Nancy Davies

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Child performer

Notes: ‘Little Nancy Davies’, was billed as ‘Swansea’s little star’. She was a highly regarded child comedienne who appeared in fund-raising concerts in the Swansea area in 1918 and became a regular at the Swansea Empire. She also appeared on the bill of the Cardiff Empire.

Reference: WaW0456

Newspaper advertisement

Nancy Davies’s name on the bill of the Swansea Empire. Cambria Daily Leader 18th April 1919

Newspaper report

Review of Nancy Davies at the Swansea Empire. South Wales Weekly Post 10th May 1919

Newspaper report

Promotional piece about Nancy Davies. Cambria Daily Leader 15th November 1919

Fannie Thomas

Place of birth: Dolgellau

Service: Teacher, Suffragette, Councillor

Notes: Born in 1868, one of six children of an accountant at the National Provincial Bank, Fannie Thomas was a teacher, suffragette, and from1895 Headmistress first of the Infants school and after 1908 Ffaldau Girls School Pontycymer, where she remained for 35 years. Her interest in women’s suffrage arose through her membership of the National Union of Teachers where women teachers were fighting for equality with male teachers. In 1906 she was one of those who formed the National Union of Women Teachers, of which she was President in 1912. She invited Adela Pankhurst to speak on suffrage at Pontycymer (to raise funds for the NSPCC) in April 1907, and herself spoke on numerous occasion, being described by the Glamorgan Gazette as ‘a doughty warrior in the women’s cause’. She was part of the Welsh contingent of the Women’s Coronation Procession of 1911. Her position at the school made her fully aware of the poverty in the area and in November 1914 she stood unsuccessfully for the Board of Guardians (being beaten by another women, Mrs Edmund Evans, by 32 votes.) Fannie did however stand successfully as a Labour candidate for Ogmore and Garw Urban District Council in 1919 and later became leader of the council. Fannie Thomas is said to be the first woman in the Garw Valley to wear breeches (her nickname locally was Fanny Bloomers) and the first to ride a motor-bike. rnWith many thanks to Ryland Wallacern

Sources: Ryland Wallace :‘A doughty warrior in the women’s cause’. Llafur 2018 volume 12 number 3

Reference: WaW0460

Newspaper report

Report of Adela Pankhurst’s talk in aid of the NSPCC organised by Fannie Thomas. Glamorgan Gazette 19th April 1907

Newspaper report

Report of a debate on women’s suffrage at the Ffaldau Institute; Fannie Thomas proposed the motion ‘should women have the vote’. Glamorgan Gazette 22nd January 1909

Newspaper report

Report of the contest for a seat on the Board of Guardians. Fannie Thomas lost. Glamorgan Gazette 13th November 1914

Newspaper report

Comment on Miss F M Thomas’s election to Ogmore and Garw Urban District Council. Glamorgan Gazette 11th April 1919.

Miss F M Thomas

Miss F M Thomas President of the NFWT 1912

Women’s Coronation Procession

Fannie Thomas second from right, with a basket. Rachel Barrett also appears extreme left. Women’s Coronation Procession June 1911

Ffaldau Girls School 1925

Girls and teachers of Ffaldau Girls School 1925. Fannie Thomas is second right.

Margaret Lewis (Morris)

Place of birth: Merthyr Tydfil

Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1916 - 1919

Notes: Margaret Lewis trained in Cumberland, and was a Queen’s [district] Nurse before joining the staff at the 4th Southern General Hospital in Plymouth in November 1916. Margaret was posted to France in 1917, and served in several hospitals and casualty clearing stations. She was offered the chance to serve ‘in the East’ instead of being demobilised in 1919, but declined. She remained in the renamed TANS for several years, bring promoted from Staff Nurse to Sister in 1922 when she is described as ‘good tempered and tactful’. She resigned on marriage in 1928.

Reference: WaW0457

Document

Record of Margaret Lewis’s detail on discharge from TFNS

Document

Travel record for Margaret Lewis July 1919

Letter

Part of letter from Margaret Lewis to the War Office listing her postings.

Edith Picton Turbervill

Place of birth: Fownhope, Herefordshire

Service: Welfare worker, MP, Y W C A

Death: 1960, Cause not known

Notes: Edith (born 1872) was a twin [qv Beatrice Picton-Warlow], one of many children of John Picton Turbervill who inherited Ewenny Priory, Glamorgan in 1891. Always very devout, she worked with the families of navvies working on the Vale of Glamorgan railway and poor families in London After six years in India she returned to Britain to be foreign secretary of the Y.W.C.A. When war broke out, she raised quarter of a million pounds to build Y.W.C.A. hostels for young women munitions and farm workers. A strong supporter of ordination of women, she preached in several non-conformist chapels in Wales before becoming the first woman to preach in an Anglican church, in 1919, wearing ‘cassock and surplice’. As she was over six foot tall, with ‘a rather loud voice’, she impressed the newspapers. In that year too she joined the Labour party. After two unsuccessful attempts, she was elected MP for Wrekin in Shropshire in 1929. During her brief Parliamentary career she successfully introduced the bill to stop the execution of pregnant women.

Sources: Angela V John: Rocking the Boat, Parthian Press 2018

Reference: WaW0442

Edith Picton Turbervill

Photograph of Edith Picton Turbervill, c.1910

Newspaper report

Edith was clearly a good shot! Glamorgan Gazette 23rd October 1908.

Newspaper report

Report of the inaugural meeting launching the provision of Y.M.C.A. hostels for munitions workers in Wales (part 1). Glamorgan Gazette 13 October 1916.

Newspaper report

Report of the inaugural meeting launching the provision of Y.M.C.A. hostels for munitions workers in Wales (part 2). Glamorgan Gazette 13 October 1916.

Newspaper report

Report of Edith Picton Turbervill preaching in the Bishopsgate Congregational Chapel. Cambrian Daily Leader 14th February 1919.

Newspaper report

‘Small Talk’ column describing Edith Picton Turbervill preaching at a regular Church of England service in North Somercotes, Lincs. Glamorgan Gazette 11th July 1919.

Newspaper report

Report of Edith Picton Turbervill joining the Labour Party. Cambria Daily Leader 18th January 1919

Photograph

The Labour women MPs elected in 1929, Edith Picton Turbervill is centre back. Front right is a very young Jennie Lee, later married to Aneurin Bevan. Aged 24, she was too young to vote, but not too young to stand. Next to her is Ellen Wilkinson.