“Sally’s Oak”- an homage to strong Brummie women
I am proud to introduce you to my husband Andy Parsons. He’s a proud Brummie and a talented song writer. He’s written a few songs about his life in Birmingham. I would love you to listen to his song about a fable about how Selly Oak got its name. How does one song draw together Sally, Malala and all the brilliant women of Birmingham? Take a listen to find out.
International Women’s Day in Sheffield
My good friend Helen W asked me to join her on a Sheffield Boost Walk on a Sunday morning. Anyone who knows me, will tell you this is a bold ask, but also that if I was going to drag myself out of the house on a Sunday morning for anything, then probably a walk about Suffragettes in Sheffield would do it.
Local Historian and generally interesting woman Ann Beedham led the talk beginning at the Old Queens Head on Pond Hill and wandering the streets of the city centre describing the exciting part the city’s women have always played in campaigning for social justice improvements.
So what, I hear you say… So now we’ve moved to a new city (again), I think it’s time to add another list to this site. Watch this space for a list celebrating the contribution women have made to Sheffield. First I’m off to twitter to crowd source the list.
#iwd15
New Year’s Honours 2013
Apologies for the delay in writing this post, I guess this gets harder the longer it is since I lived in Brum. Nevertheless, I’m still keen to keep up with the posts that celebrate the passion and commitment constantly shown by ordinary people. Yes, it’s flawed, but preparing these posts always helps me understand a little bit more about who makes our city tick. So I’ve found 7 women this year, that’s looking slightly more than usual. I had the pleasure of meeting Christine a few years ago – an inspirational leader, who I wish I’d worked with. Meanwhile, recognition for the work of the Chief Exec of St Paul’s in Balsall Heath, they often looked after my daughter so I could work through the school holidays – St Paul’s CDT is one of those organisations that is right under the skin of its community – and has been for decades. It has the added attraction of being home to a neat inner city farm.
Congratulations and thank you to all of you.
Principal and Chief Executive, Birmingham Metropolitan College. For services to Further Education.
Head of International Competition, UK Athletics. For service to Sport.
Chief Executive, St Paul’s Community Development Trust. For services to the community in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.
Principal, North Birmingham Academy. For services to Education.
Senior Officer, Criminal Investigation, Birmingham, HM Revenue and Customs. For services to Prevention of Smuggling and Asset Recovery.
Ms Rose Gabrielle Cooke-Coton BEM
For services to the community in Masefield, Birmingham.
Chair, George Coller Memorial Fund. For services to People with Asthma.
Click here for the full list – still on a pdf (grrr).
To my huge delight, my daughter decided to go in to her Y7 school history day dressed as one of our Brimmin. Gladys Morgan grew up in a Fish n Chip shop and died a Hollywood film star. The Birmingham Mail wrote an obituary with some great photos.
The text below is the fact sheet my daughter prepared as part of her homework for the day. Thanks Pippa, you are now officially a blogger…
Gladys Morgan Pageant Profile:
Name/s: Gladys Morgan/ Lisa Daniels/ Lizbeth Keen.
Experience: Fish and chip assistant. The official Miss Birmingham. Dancer in Cinderella, Walt Disney Production ‘101 Dalmatians Hollywood movie star.’
Biography: The star to be, who was crowned Miss Birmingham in 1944, lived the American dream becoming a TV and movie star!
Lisa Daniels was born Gladys Morgan in the backroom of the fish and chip shop, which her mother May had rented in 1929 after winning cash in a newspaper competition. Gladys’ niece, Jean Bytheway, who was born in the same bed nine years later, told the Birmingham Mail her aunt had lived an ‘extraordinary and colourful life’ which was down to her desire and ambition.
She was always involved in singing and dancing. She was so talented and beautiful.Then at 13 Gladys was crowned Miss Birmingham, the family kept the photographs and the silver cup she won. Her Grandmother sent her to London to take part in the musicals and shows. This is where she got noticed my an employer and got her big break!
When she was 14 she was a dancer in Cinderella at the Alexandra Theatre and when Noele Gordon, who was in Crossroads, fell ill, her aunt Lisa stepped in as Cinderella. When the Pageant research team spoke to Mrs Bytheway she said,: “She was so beautiful, photographs do not do her justice, she had perfect skin and teeth, and she was such a good person, she was practically perfect.” We think this captures the essence of why she is in the final perfectly!Gladys became best known as Lisa Daniels, was friends with some of the biggest names of the big screen. She was married to the late film executive Roger Hill Lewis – producer of the Shaft series in the 1970s.
Later on she played a girl who was murdered by Jack the Ripper in The Man In the Attic. She also had a small part in The Virgin Queen, in which Joan Collins had the lead, and she was the voice of Perdita in the first ever version of Walt Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
The glamorous couple, who later separated, had three children together, all now working in the Hollywood music business.Lisa’s (Gladys’) extraordinary life ended in early 2010 when she passed away peacefully in an LA retirement village at the age of 79.
Enjoy her pageant performance!
2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours
In keeping with what I can now call tradition, I am happy to share with you the women of Birmingham who have been honoured by HM in this her Jubilee year.
Vice-Chancellor, Aston University. For services to Higher Education and Technology.
Finance Director, University of Birmingham. For services to Higher Education.
Creator and Leader, Yes We Will Leadership and Achievement Programme, Birmingham. For services to Education.
Ms Ulite Malcolm MBE
Chaplaincy Volunteer, HM Prison Birmingham. For services to Prisoners and their Families.
This is the year Cameron has re-introduced the British Empire Medal (BEM) awarded locally by the odd County Lord Lieutenant, to recognise volunteering. Well, not one for a Birmingham woman. I’ve trawled through all 121 pages of honours and this is all I can spot – 4 women. awarded.
Samantha Brick, who cares?
Who really cares about Samantha Brick’s vain article in the Daily Mail earlier this week? Not me. In fact I was doing really well at avoiding the whole sorry affair of Samantha and her over-inflated sense of self importance. Until somebody sent me a tweet that claimed her a brummie.
https://twitter.com/SheenaIgnatia/status/187863949876797440
A quick bit of research backed this up: not just Birmingham, but she was born and raised in the neighbouring suburb to mine – Kings Heath. So what choice did I have but to add her to the brimmin listing. In what way is she brilliant I hear you cry. Well, I never claimed to support or like the actions of all of the women on this list. The point is that is recognises the contribution made by the women of our city. Any woman who can write an article and get so much international attention is getting something right. I see plenty of nonsense on the internet every day, but rarely does it catch on like this.
My challenge to Samantha now is to find something constructive to say. Something that might improve the economic and social status of women? Something that might illustrate more depth of thought than she has managed so far? Something that will turn her from laughing stock to leader? I’m not holding my breath, but meanwhile she’s into our #brimmin list at number 107 (for now). If she engages in more outlandish trolling I may make her the first woman to be removed…
Head Mistresses at the King Edward VI Foundation
It was a rare thing in 1883 to find women teaching in schools never mind working in such a senior role as leading one. So it is appropriate for us to give all those women who did that the hat tip on this site. More precisely, this is a list of the 25 women who have already headed up one of the schools in the King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham. So far all have worked at the girls only schools. I understand Handsworth, Camp Hill and Five Ways are all due new Heads this autumn, so maybe we will see a female head for boys in a foundation school for the first time in the schools’ history.
So, this post really is no more than though than an acknowledgment. To begin with I haven’t given any of the women a cursory hyperlink to another part of the internet. I will do my best to come to that, as my initial research has shown that these women were powerful, determined and able to achieve success in a very much harder world than today.
So, starting with King Edward VI High School for Girls, the only independent girls school in the foundation:
| Miss Edith Elizabeth Maria Creak | 1883 – | 1910 |
| Miss Edith Helen Major | 1911 – | 1925 |
| Miss Lilian K Barrie | 1925 – | 1941 |
| Dr Mary Sybil Smith | 1941 – | 1953 |
| Miss Sylvia Lloyd Williams | 1953 – | 1964 |
| Miss Jean RF Wilkes | 1964 – | 1977 |
| Miss Ena Evans | 1977 – | 1996 |
| Sarah Evans (Principal) | 1996 – | current |
Next up Handsworth, the first of two all girls selective voluntary-aided schools in the group. Interestingly, their accounts for y/e March 2010 show turnover of more than £4m, mostly public funding, yet no formal requirement for them to produce audited accounts. If anyone can explain why, I’d be pleased to understand that better. But I digress:
| Margaret Nimmo | 1883 – | 1915 |
| Miss Brew | 1915 – | 1942 |
| Miss Bamforth | 1942 – | 1963 |
| Miss Fox | 1963 – | 1966 |
| Miss Reid | 1966 – | 1971 |
| Miss Sergeant | 1971 – | 1989 |
| Miss Inch | 1989 – | 2012 |
Finally my alma mater, KE VI Camp Hill School for Girls:
| Miss Harriet Grundy | 1883 – | 1903 |
| Miss Helen Sullivan | 1903 – | 1913 |
| Miss Mary Keen | 1913 – | 1943 |
| Miss Muriel Mandeville | 1943 – | 1962 |
| Miss Joan Miller | 1963 – | 1978 |
| Miss Ann Percival | 1979 – | 1992 |
| Mrs Joan Fisher | 1992 – | 2003 |
| Mrs Dru James | 2003 – | 2012 |
So there we are. Three all-girl selective schools, producing hundreds of highly educated, impressive women in Birmingham every year and the 23 women who have led them for nearly 130 years.
Bessie Rayner Parkes – 1829~1925
I hate the idea of women being identified only as mothers of great people. So a look at Bessie Rayner Parkes needs to go beyond the fact that she was mother to of Hilaire Belloc and Marie Lowndes-Belloc. By the same measure, I must also go beyond her parents’ great heritage (daughter of Joseph Parkes, a solicitor and Unitarian, and Elizabeth Priestley, eldest granddaughter of the scientist Joseph Priestle) to find out what earned Bessie a place in our history.
So according to the Literary Heritage website she established the English woman’s journal in 1958. It’s aim was the advancement of ideas on the reform of women’s education and legal rights. As is sometimes the case, sharing ideas through a journal gave rise to some tangible improvements: a women’s employment bureau, reading room, clerical school, and the Victoria Press. She set the journal up with Barbara Leigh Smith, both were from politically active families. They had slightly different views about the purpose of the journal: “Parkes saw the Journal as an expression of a moral crusade, to reclaim fallen prostitutes, or to promote improvement in workhouses. Bodichon wanted its offices in Langham Place to be the the London hub of practical feminist enterprises. An employment register won so overwhelming a response that it grew into the Society for the Promotion of the Employment of Women (still active today)” according to an article in the Independent in 1999. Nevertheless, they were clearly close friends. One source describes how they embarked on “an unchaparoned trip across Europe in 1850 to visit some friends who were training to be artists in Munich.” Small, but courageous steps towards giving women the freedom we enjoy (take for granted) today . That same source contains detailed information about the circulation of this small scale monthly – reaching around 1,000 readers a month. Rather like their defiant ‘un-chaperoned’ trip a small step, but significant in developing thinking around feminist issues of it’s day.
She was a poet of some note. So I leave you with her call to action: “Rise, Leav’ning the masses with your energies.” from To Birmingham:
To Birmingham
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Dear smoky Birmingham, since long ago
I left your native streets, my heart and hope
Have been with those dense crowds which daily flow
Over their pavements, finding ample scope
For meditation and for thought-born plan
Of active life within the destinies
Of these my fellow-townsmen. Every man
Inherits a great memory, how was won,
Hardly, the first of many victories
Over Feudality; and a command
Insep’rably goes with it hand in hand,
That, as the father strove, should strive the son.
Therefore, brave Town, say to thy best ones, “Rise,
Leav’ning the masses with your energies.”
May every effort as the spring-dew fall
On a prepared soil, and, like the ore
On which you spend your labour, may there spring
From out your social depths a noble power
To cope with and work out each worthy thing.
Women MPs in Brum
It occurred to me it might be interesting to look at which women have represented the people of Birmingham in Parliament. Edith Wills was the first woman MP in the city serving from 5 July 1945. It had always seemed to me that we had been well represented with a high proportion of our MPs being women. It seems not. Whilst that may have been true for a while, it seems they all served at the same time. Only 10 women have been an MP in Birmingham. Here they are:
| Name | Election date | Party | Constituency | From | to | Years |
| Edith Wills | 5 Jul 1945 | Labour | Duddeston | 1945 | 1950 |
5 |
| Dame Edith Pitt DBE | 2 Jul 1953 | Conservative | Edgbaston | 1953 | 1966 |
13 |
| Dame Jill Knight, DBE | 31 Mar 1966 | Conservative | Edgbaston | 1966 | 1997 |
31 |
| Mrs Doris Fisher | 18 Jun 1970 | Labour | Ladywood | 1970 | 1974 |
4 |
| Miss Sheila Wright | 3 May 1979 | Labour | Handsworth | 1979 | 1983 |
4 |
| Rt Hon Clare Short | 9 Jun 1983 | Labour (’06 – Ind Lab) | Ladywood | 1983 | 2010 |
27 |
| Dr Lynne Jones | 9 Apr 1992 | Labour | Selly Oak | 1992 | 2010 |
18 |
| Rt Hon Baroness Estelle Morris | 9 Apr 1992 | Labour | Yardley | 1992 | 2005 |
13 |
| Ms Gisela Stewart | 1 May 1997 | Labour | Edgbaston | 1997 | date |
14+ |
| Shabana Mahmood | 6 May 2010 | Labour | Ladywood | 2010 | date |
1+ |
Since 1945 there have been just two years when Brum had no women MPs (1951-52). For 1 (election) year, there were 5 women MPs and for the rest of 1992 to 2005 we had 4 women in office at a time. They were Jill, then Gisela alongside Clare, Estelle and Lynne.
The longest serving female MP in the city is Joan Christabel Knight, Baroness Knight of Collingtree, DBE (31 years) closely followed by Rt Hon Clare Short – 27 years. Edgbaston has been served by women MPs continuously since 1953 – I wonder how many other constituencies in the land can claim the same. As of January 2012 there are two women serving.
A few held higher office:
- Clare Short wasSecretary of State for International Development in the Blair’s government from 3 May 1997 until her resignation from that post on 12 May 2003.
- Estelle Morris served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2001. She was the first (former) comprehensive school teacher to have the position.
- Pitt had been Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions from 1955 to 1959, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health from 1959 to 1962.
- Gisela Stewart was a junior health minister until 2001.
- Jill Knight, along with David Wilshire, was responsible for introducing the Section 28 amendment to the Local Government Act 1988, which barred local authorities from “promoting”homosexuality. She was also an opponent of abortion, and supported successive attempts to reduce the time-period when the operation could be legally performed.
More information about all these MPs (and the male ones too…) can be found at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/. All the dates information for this post came from here
Women in Brum 