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.
@parboo Samantha Brick is Brummie! Will you be adding her to #brimmin ---- #controversial !
—
Sheena Ignatia (@SheenaIgnatia) April 05, 2012A 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
New Year’s Honours 2012
So New Year’s Eve arrives and so too the usual honours. Overall 43% this year have gone to women according to Direct Gov. S0 what of the Brimmin? Well a Dame, a CBE, OBE and 2 MBEs compared with 5 MBEs last year. An OBE also went to a male teacher at Swanshurst School. Frankly anyone who can spend all their working days in a school of nearly 2,000 teenage girls and still deliver inspiration and education deserves a medal, so an honorary mention to him.
Meanwhile, 5 women working with, for and about people and communities; this is becoming a theme of the brimmin awardees:
Chief Executive, University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. For services to Healthcare.
Professor Karin BARBER CBE PHd FBA
Professor of African Cultural Anthropology, University of Birmingham. For services to African Studies.
Head of Policy, Forensic Science Regulation Unit, Home Office
Founder, MumsClub. For services to Entrepreneurship
Executive Officer, Jobcentre Plus, Department for Work and Pensions
Congratulations to you all, be proud and continue to inspire.
If I’ve missed any please let me know. The full list is here.
PS – I’ve altered this on 5 January. I read Karin’s award wrongly: she’s a commander not officer. Unfortunately I also misread Jane and Antonina, they are both members not officers. Jeez, I really do struggle with the pdf released by the government – its not easy to use. My apologies for the mistakes, I hope it didn’t cause any problems or embarrassment.
Support for another Birmingham Women’s festival
I had a visitor to the brimmin site referred from another yesterday. Not unusual, but exciting. The site is seeking to encourage brummie women to pull together a Women’s festival in March to coincide with International Women’s Day. Fitting as it’s 25 years since my good friend Emma co-ordinated the first.
I’ll keep my eye on it. Meanwhile, anyone with the time and energy, pop over there and get involved.
In case you can’t find the link to the Birmingham Women’s Festival hidden in this post, it’s here: http://womensfestival2012.wordpress.com/
EDIT 22 Feb 2012, the festival is taking shape and has a new dedicated website: http://www.birminghamwomensfestival.org.uk/
2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours
So it’s the Queen’s Birthday. Sitting here watching the Trooping of the Colour, gives me time to search for all the women from Birmingham on her honours list.
From what I have gleaned there are eight this year, which is quite a few. Let’s take a look:
For services to Healthcare.
Her Honour Frances Margaret KIRKHAM CBE
For services to the Legal Profession and to the Administration of Justice.
For services to Training and to Exports.
For services to Business and to the community in Birmingham.
For services to the community in Moseley, Birmingham
For services to Vulnerable Women in Birmingham
For services to Local Government
For services to Art.
I’m quite sure there are more women on the list who could claim a Birmingham link. The Birmingham Post details all of the West Midlands honours. Some names are ringing bells and others almost certainly live there. Please add a comment if I’ve missed anyone.
Dilys Halford
The Birmingham Mail writer, Brian Halford, has put together a blog which follows the Warwickshire County Cricket Club 100 years ago, in the 1911 season, when they won the championship for the first time. Hat-tip to Steve Nicholls for tweeting about it). A fascinating read, if you are interested in cricket, or history or both. Today’s introduces us to Algernon J Halford’s wife. It’s a lovely piece, in which he discovers (through reading the local paper) that his wife is a suffragette. I am quite sure his response is a true reflection of husbands’ attitudes of the time. I fully recommend you read it.
If only she were real, she’d be right there under D on the brimmin list!
Bertha Ryland – 1882 ~ alive 1963
There is a lot of recorded information online about the high profile women of the Suffragette Movement in the UK and Birmingham.
Bertha was clearly one of the more active campaigners based in Birmingham. She had been involved in window smashing campaigns in London prior to her best known act, when on 8 June 1914 she was arrested for attacking a painting in Birmingham Art Gallery. The painting in question was Master Thornhill by George Romney a fashionable portrait painter of the 19th century.
“…I attack this work of art deliberately as a protest against the government’s criminal injustice in denying women the vote, and also against the government’s injustice in imprisoning, forcibly feeding, and drugging suffragist militants…”
Bertha Ryland, quoted in Elizabeth Crawford, ‘From Frederick Street to Winson Green.’
That reference document above is a fantastic narrative ‘Votes for Women: Tracing the Struggle in Birmingham’. I found it on the magnificent Connecting Histories Website, which was a 3 year project by academics and archivists to record local history stories. Well worth a rummage.
In 1907 a hyperlocal (sic) publication called Edbastonia ran an advert. Bertha Ryland served as Honorary Treasurer of the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union), which placed this advertisement for funds and office space when it was getting started in Birmingham. Edbastonia was established in 1881, determinedly non-political, it rarely commented on women, save to recognise some good charity work. Women like Bertha were high profile residents of Edgbaston and the editors could not help but start reporting their stories.
I like that this advert gives us various home addresses. Bertha lived at 19 Hermitage Road, Edgbaston, the hyperlink takes you to the Google Map with a wonderful street view of the house. I wonder if the current owners have any idea!
View Larger Map
Information about our brimmin comes from the strangest of places. Here is an article from an ancestry website. Walter Ryland on the hunt for ancestors tells of a medal for valour featured on Antiques Roadshow in 2000. It transpires it was awarded to Bertha on her release from a stint in prison, after she was paraded triumphantly through the streets. The medal was given by the WSPU – one can only assume the advert had the desired effect. I wonder what recognition she was given in response to her more direct action in 1914?
New Year’s Honours 2011
It’s time for the annual trawl through the pdf which is the New Year’s Honours List. It really is quite an inaccessible document – a 98 page pdf without an index or contents page, I guess it’s nice to work from an original source for a change. Anyway, the format of the announcement is pretty irrelevant. The point here is that these announcements offer a moment in time for us to reflect more formally on the contributions made by our people.
So what of the Women in Brum this year? On the face of it (I have been known to miss some brummies) only 8 awards attribtued to the people of Birmingham, of which 5 went to women.
Again, I am proud to say I count one as a personal friend. Congratulations to Dorothy Wilson. The work on the mac refurbishment has been a very long endurance test for Dorothy and her numerous colleagues over a large number of years. When I was General Manager at mac in the late 1990s it was already a huge part of Dorothy’s work. These impressive and major projects really do take time to prepare and plan. It is a real pleasure to see Dorothy recognised not only for that fantastic project, but her significant contributions to the arts over a number of years.
For services to Athletics
Leader, International Wives’ Group. For voluntary service to International Students.
Mrs Lesley Meriel FRANKLIN MBE
Leader, Stonehouse Gang Youth Group. For services to Young People in Weoley Castle, Birmingham.
For services to the community in North Birmingham.
Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Midlands Arts Centre. For services to the Arts.
So there they are, a fine array of generous people who make commitments to others way beyond the call of duty. At least a couple with no presence on the internet (prior to these awards and this article): a cautionary reminder to those of us who struggle to get by without wifi – there really is plenty to be done without the internet!
Here is the full list I explored to find these people…
So finally, thank you to all of you for your contributons to our community and congratulations on your award.
