SINE – Prominent Women in Our Region
Catherine Marshall – Suffragist
S.I. Carlisle
1880 to 1961 – Catherine was a Suffragist not a Suffragette, she was born in Harrow on the Hill. Her father taught mathematics at Harrow School and her mother was also a teacher.
She was educated privately and then spent three years at St. Leonard school in Scotland.
When her father retired in 1908 the family moved to the Lake District where Catherine and her mother joined the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and started the Keswick branch.
In 1913 she led a peaceful march from the Old Town Hall in Carlisle to London and by the time they reached London there were 10,000 marchers.
In 2013 S.I. Carlisle arranged to replicate a part of this march by marching from the Old Town Hall in Carlisle to the Archive Centre, where an exhibition of Catherine’s papers had been arranged.
We were joined in the March by various other groups including the Girl Guides, Rotary and Towns Women Guild. We were waved off from the Old Town Hall by the Mayor and local press.
Unfortunately Catherine’s magnificent achievement in 1913 was overshadowed by the advent of WW1 the following year.
Catherine’s many roles included:
In 1911 she became Parliamentary Secretary of the NUWSS. She was involved with Liberal MP’s who claimed to support Women’s suffrage but in fact did little.
In 1915 The Women’s International Congress which she helped organise, was held in the Hague.
She then resigned from the NUWSS but established her country’s part of the Women’s International League for peace and freedom.
After recovering from overwork, she threw herself into ensuring peace, she was a delegate in Zurich at the Women’s International Congress, which reviewed the model for the new League of Nations.
She moved in the 21930’s to help people who were escaping from the growth of Nazi’s in Germany.
Her name and picture (with 58 other Women’s suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the Statue of Millicent Fawcett, in Parliament Square in London, which was unveiled in 2018.
Penny Kirby
S.I. Cockermouth and District
Our inspirational woman received her MBE from the Princess Royal on Wednesday 6 March 2024 – just in time for International Women’s Day – and was honoured with the Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award in October 2023.
She is not a native Cumbrian, having relocated from Hertfordshire for a role as a social worker but the space and beauty of the crags and hills have kept her here.
Penny Kirby joined Wasdale Mountain Rescue following a serendipitous meeting in a pub on the Isle of Skye with a man who turned out to live a couple of miles from her Wasdale home. He suggested that she may want to join the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team (WMRT) and a couple of months later invited her to an open event. Although she was not the first woman to join the team it was still something of a novelty, with Penny presuming her roles would involve making the tea or “manning the radio”. This was not to be and Penny has taken part in over 1,200 WMRT callouts – this figure increases every year as more and more incidents are called in. She is one of the four Operational Team Leaders
As well as Penny’s extensive knowledge of the local area and pathways, she is well known for her kindness and expertise by those that she rescues, as well as the wider community.
The majority of the team’s callouts are to hikers, either missing, injured or lost. Sixteen volunteers are needed when somebody has to be stretchered out, a minimum of four are required for a basic search. All of the team are volunteers.
No matter the reason behind the call out though, the 50-strong Wasdale team will respond; but the team has been getting busier, responding to 139 incidents in 2022 and 167 in 2023 and there were 3 on New Year’s Day 2024!
Not being content with being a volunteer rescuer, Penny also became a Search Dog Trainer and Handler. Over the years she has trained and worked with 5 dogs; Ben, Miff, Pippi, Olly and most recently Jess. To be both a dog handler plus a mountain rescuer goes well beyond what is expected from volunteers within mountain rescue.
As a member of the Mountain Rescue Search Dog Team (a national organisation) Penny and her dogs have taken part in searches in many areas of the country. Penny along with her first search dog Ben were heavily involved in the Lockerbie air disaster of December 1988, spending nearly a week helping with the enormous search operation to locate victims. She was also involved in the search for victims after taxi-driver Derek Bird went on a shooting spree in West Cumbria in June 2010, killing 12 people and injuring 11. The Wasdale team recovered the murderer’s body after he shot himself in woods, and Penny was among those out early the following morning scouring hedgerows and fields for anyone else caught in his destructive trail.
Penny said of her recognition, “It is an immense honour to be receiving this award. I am very fortunate to be in a position to help people in an environment I love. It is a privilege to play a small part in my local mountain rescue team, Wasdale MRT, also the Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs Association, and the wider Mountain Rescue community. I value the fact that we are voluntary organisations and I am extremely proud of the service we provide. Mountain Rescue would not exist if it weren’t for the efforts of hundreds of colleagues and supporters across the country and I would like to thank them for their own time and commitment”.
She said that despite all the difficulties, it is ‘incredibly rewarding’ to be able to help people and there is no other organisation that can do what we do so if we didn’t go people would be stuck.
We have chosen Penny as our inspirational women as she has forged a valuable role within a male orientated environment and is at the forefront of the work being done to help people enjoy our local fells.
Clara Curtis Lucas
S.I. Darlington
Clara Curtis Lucas was the first woman member of Darlington Council.
Miss Lucas was born in Thirsk in 1853, but spent most of her life in County Durham, completing her education at Polam School, Darlington.
She was well known for her strong personality and advanced views on political and social matters. She was particularly interested in Education, was elected to the Darlington School Board in 1894, and subsequently co-opted to the Education Committee when the Council took over from the Board.
Clara was a zealous advocate of ‘Votes for Women’: a Suffragist rather than a militant Suffragette. When some women were finally given the vote in 1918, it was acknowledged that no-one had worked harder locally to achieve this.
In 1915 Clara was elected, (by men, of course), to become a councillor for Darlington Borough Council.
It was reported that after her first council meeting, having endured the excessive and pompous utterings of the male councillors which dragged out the proceedings, she said: “If we’re going to be here all this time every month, I’ll bring my knitting!”
On International Women’s Day 2024 a blue plaque was unveiled outside the house in Darlington where Clara lived until her death in 1919. She would have been a wonderful Soroptimist, so it was good that five Darlington Soroptimists were able to join the Mayor and others for the special occasion.
Heather Wood – An Activist
S.I. Durham
Supporting her mining community of Easington, County Durham.
1984 was an auspicious year for the North East. The threat of mine closures triggered the Miners Strike which in turn had a crippling effect on mining communities. Within many communities women suddenly found their voice as they realised that without the miners weekly wages their efforts would be needed to feed and support their families.
One of these women was Heather Wood.
Hers was the voice that galvanised the women at Easington Colliery, rallied support for miners on the picket lines and organised practical solutions to support their families.
She is the daughter of a miner, and was born and raised in Easington. She says,
“I hated the Pit, we all did. But I love the community that was brought about by it.”
Her principles are the antithesis of those held by Maggie Thatcher embodied in this sound bite, “ There’s no such thing as Society”.
Heather is from a family of strong working class women and like her mother became active in local politics at a young age. When rumours of a miners strike started to circulate, she immediately became involved with SEAM – the Save Easington Area Mines action group.
She sent a letter to every woman in the Easington area and this resulted in 14 support groups….but how were they to support their communities?
Heather quickly realised that FOOD was KEY to keeping the community together.
Two weeks into the strike she had food kitchens up and running, providing hundreds of daily meals and food parcels too. Initially proud miners were reluctant to accept charity, but as time passed and the effect of strike tightened its grip, the food kitchens became the hub that both fed and supported the community.
It was the efforts of Heather and other women that kept the villages alive…quite literally.
The women of the support groups worked relentlessly but in so doing also changed their own lives.
Mining villages were traditionally a male stronghold, but now the miners had to recognise the contribution that women were making both in keeping families fed and in supporting their fight against pit closures. They found that they were welcomed as equals on committees, were listened to in debates and even took their fight to Westminster.
As we all know, ultimately they were unsuccessful in saving coal mining in the North East but the achievements of women like Heather have demonstrated the power of women when they work together. They held their communities together and increased their resilience in the face of the difficulties they had to overcome.
Together they raised the profile of women within their communities.
Suddenly women who had never spoken in public had the confidence to speak out and many have gone on to influential roles in politics, local government and one as Mayor of Sunderland.
Heather continues to support her community, appearing in documentary films, writing her book ‘Just A Pit Lass’ a memoir of growing up in Easington and recently organised the 40th anniversary celebrations.
As she says, it is a chance to Celebrate, Commemorate and Inspire future generations of women.
A sentiment not too far from our own Soroptimist ideals.
Gertrude Bell
S.I. Middlesborough
Born Washington, Co. Durham, 1868
Died Baghdad, 1926, aged 57.
She was a writer, traveller, political strategist, archaeologist and mountaineer.
Gertrude was born into a wealthy family. Her mother died when Gertrude was only 3. Her father was Sir Hugh Bell who paid for the cost of a new grammar school in Middlesbrough which bore his name. Sir Hugh had many business and philanthropic interests in the north-east. He made sure his workers were well paid and cared for. He was mayor of Middlesbrough three times and amongst many other initiatives, he developed the Middlesbrough Winter Garden for the benefit of local people and an alternative to public houses. This was demolished in1963. He was also responsible for building Middlesbrough’s iconic Transporter Bridge.
Her father re-married when Gertrude was 7. Her step-mother, Florence, a playwright and author, ensured Gertrude had an excellent education. Florence worked with the wives of iron workers in Eston, Middlesbrough and it is thought that this influenced Gertrude later to promote the education of Iraqi women.
Gertude’s privileged upbringing enabled her to attend Oxford university and to travel widely, making links with policy-makers. She travelled widely in the middle-east, participating in archaeological digs, but also moving in diplomatic circles. She briefly joined the Arab Bureau in Cairo where she worked with T E Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia. She helped get British soldiers across the Egyptian desert. She joined the British Administration in Mesopotamia in 1917. She was a key player in building the modern nation of Iraq, becoming a confidante of the new King Faisal. She supported education for Iraqi women and founded the Iraq museum.
She had a remarkable life. Perhaps her diplomatic skills would help in the present day middle-east conflict, if she were still around. There is much more to tell, but time today does not permit. The film “Queen of the Desert” portrays much of her life.
Dr. Dorothea W. Sinton M.B. Ch.B.
S.I. Newcastle On Tyne
Dorothea Wardlaw Rogers was born on 9th June 1899 in York. She qualified in medicine in 1923 from Liverpool Medical School, the only woman member on that particular course. She then married John Sinton who was a Solicitor and they moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in the same year – 1923.
During the 1920’s there was considerable public debate about the rights and wrongs of birth control. Advice clinics run by voluntary organisations consolidated their positions, and the fight centred on seeking to remove an official ban which prevented Local Authorities from providing contraception services. Into this fray entered Dr Dorothea Sinton, a newly qualified doctor who had just moved to Newcastle upon Tyne.
A visiting representative from what was to become the ‘Family Planning Association’ had come from London and formed a voluntary committee to start a ‘Women’s Advisory Clinic’. She had found the first premises to be used as a clinic at 670 Scotswood Road which had been a pawn shop in a slum area. However the progress of forming a supportive committee and attracting funds was more difficult due to the prevailing attitude that this type of medical service was somewhat wicked and immoral. She was banned in no uncertain terms from speaking to any Medical Students at the Newcastle Medical School. The ladies who were interested in supporting the project could not tell their husbands the truth and the local clergy and medical practitioners were against any progress.
Then in 1929, Dr Sinton became the brave pioneer to move this project forward to bring free medical services to the poorest women who already had large families to raise.
he establishment of this first Clinic was uphill work and initial funding came from donations of £100 each from Lady Denham and the Durham Miners Welfare Committee.
Dr Sinton’s husband had provided ongoing support to his wife but it was a struggle to form a committee and expand the work of the ‘Women’s Advisory Clinic’ but in 1934 the clinic was able to move to improved premises at 24 Shieldfield Green with his assistance. Women came with all kinds of gynaecological conditions, as well as for birth control, as they had never had a woman doctor in the area before. They also came for advice on infertility, which Dr Sinton described as surprisingly successful given the limited resources available to her.
Dr Sinton fought publicly for the equal rights to education by women, and the recognition of the role of women doctors. In April 1943, she had a letter published in the British Medical Journal advocating the role of women doctors to work alongside their male counterparts. She asked her medical colleagues to – “look at past and prevailing social and economic conditions in order to discover the causes of the declining birth rate. The reasons for the existence of contraception services was to enable motherhood, not to degrade it. There is nothing dignified in a diseased woman bringing a sickly child into a poverty stricken household”.
Later, Dr Sinton was able to open additional clinics in the colliery villages around Ashington and Sunderland where previously only the male doctors working for the Coal Board had been available.
Dr Sinton was a founder member of S.I. Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937 and was the club’s second President from 1939 to 1941.
On 23rd September 2022, a commemorative plaque was unveiled by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Newcastle at 18 North Avenue in Gosforth which had been Dr Sinton’s family home for many years. This plaque, provided by Newcastle City Council, was sponsored by S.I.Newcastle upon Tyne who worked with the Sinton family to mark the significant contribution of their relative to medical and wellbeing services to the poorest women in Newcastle and in particular in providing birth control advice which was in its infancy in the 1920’s.
Her service to the women in our area will not be forgotten.
Lady Anne Clifford – Proud Northern Lady
S.I. Penrith
My prominent lady is from way back in history, Lady Anne Clifford was born in 1590, daughter of George, 3rd Earl of Cumberland and Margaret Russell, daughter of 2nd Earl Bedford. She was their only surviving child and should have inherited. It had been decreed in the 13th century that all the Great Northern Lands of Westmorland, Cumberland and Northumberland were to be entailed in direct line of succession from parent to child even if said child was female.
This did not happen, so Anne fought for her rights in many of the courts in the land, including the court of James 1. This was not easy for a woman in those days, therefore she had to be extremely determined and strong to fight for her rights.
She finally came into her inheritance which included most of the land in Westmorland, including 4 castles together with Skipton Castle where she was born. She was renovating Skipton Castle during the time of Cromwell. He kept knocking it down but she defied him to rebuild each time saying “As long as I have a shilling in my pocket I will rebuild”. In the end he left her to get on with it as long as the roof would not carry a cannon.
She spent the last twenty years of her life at her castle at Brougham near Penrith, from where she visited her tenants and properties in Westmorland.
Lady Anne renovated her 5 castles and 7 churches on her lands, employing local men to do the work.
On December 31st 1650 Lady Anne purchased some land in Appleby close to the castle and had the Lady Anne Alms houses built. The complex consisted of 12 small one bedroom units for elderly or infirm women, plus a 13th unit for a “Mother” to look after them. To qualify the women had to be poor, Appleby Parish dwellers, who because of great age or great debility of body are not able to gain their food and clothing by labour. The women who were allocated the units would have been very pleased as the alternative would no doubt have been for them to beg to be able to exist.
These Almshouses are still in use today with the units having been renovated a number of times. The Chairman of the Trust running them is a direct descendant of Lady Anne.
Lady Anne was a strong woman before her time who fought all her life to make life better for women.
I have 3 photographs one shows Lady Anne at the age of 28, one of the Alms Houses and lastly one of a model wearing an outfit made by local stitchers at Appleby and shown at St Lawrences Church, Appleby recently.
G
S.I. South Shields
Notes pending
Mary Butterwick
S.I. Stockton
During the Second World War Mary Butterwick joined the Land Army and she drove an ambulance. It was at this time she met her future husband, John Butterwick. The couple raised 4 children: Keith,Carol. Susan and Julia with Mary as a full time mother. In 1979 John was diagnosed with a brain tumour and he died shortly afterwards aged just 54. Mary was disappointed by the level of support they received when he was dying and decided that others coping with a terminal illness should have a better experience. Mary was told by hospital staff to go home and try to forget her husband as there was nothing she could do for him now. She refused to do that. Mary spent a long time thinking about was needed and how families could be supported. She had a strong Christian faith and she claimed this was part of her inspiration for opening the hospice. Her life story is one of faith, love, vision and dogged determination.
She began to write down about a house. A house where dying people and their families could go to be cared for, with a warm word and a home cooked meal. At this time, Mary worked at the local tea factory and she decided to sell her own home and set her sights on buying a 3 storey, Victorian semi in Hartburn Lane. With tree roots growing in the front room, damp in the hall, iron bars on the kitchen windows and no central heating, there was
a lot of work to do. The John Butterwick Day Care Centre opened in 1984 but with debts from all the renovations, it took another 6 months of fundraising before they could apply and be awarded charity status later that year.
Since then it has moved premises twice , with its current home a 1.2 purpose built Butterwick Hospice opened on July 22nd 1997, next to the University Hospital of North Tees.
In 2002, months Mary s tireless devotion to the care of the terminally ill earned her an OBE.A year later, much to her amusement, she even enjoyed the honour of driving a flock of
sheep through Stockton High Street – an unusual ceremony she was permitted to perform after being granted the Freedom of the Borough of Stockton in 1999.
Mary passed away in 2015, at the age of 91 in the hospice. The North East lost one of its most inspirational women.
Many members of our Club knew Mary and some worked or volunteered at the hospice. They have fond memories of a strong, determined woman – a woman who had faith, love, vision and dogged determination.
In the past few years the hospice has had troubled times but as one member of staff said – if we remember Mary s principles we will be fine ! A member of staff said we follow the example she set in our everyday practice here at Butterwick Hospice Care and are dedicated to carrying on this inspirational woman’s work.
Myrella Cohen – Her Honour Judge Cohen
S.I. Sunderland
Myrella was born to a Jewish family in Manchester in 1927. Her
parents Sam and Sarah, wanted to name her a er their mothers
who were Myra and Ella, hence Myrella. She was educated at
Manchester High School for girls and Colwyn Bay Grammar
School, then read law at Manchester University. She married Lt
Col Mordaunt Cohen MBE TD DL, a decorated Burma veteran, and moved to Sunderland where he was a solicitor. Aged 44, the
youngest Judge at that me, she presided over numerous high
profile cases in both Newcastle and London including at the Old
Bailey.
In 1992 she became the first person to receive an honorary
doctorate from the University of Sunderland. In 2001 she starred
as a Judge in the TV programme “Trial by Jury”. Judge Myrella was highly active in the Jewish community, and she led the campaign in the UK for Jewish women whose husbands would not allow them to re-marry-‘agunot’. This campaign took over 10 years working with Gloria Proops, a Soropmist. However, in 2001 she successfully pushed a law through parliament making it a lot
harder for husbands to withhold a divorce. The bill received Royal Assent from the Queen in 2002.
She had helped to formulate more sympathetic divorce laws. She was a formidable Judge with a no nonsense reputation on among offenders in the North East, who dreaded appearing before her.
A strict observer in her Jewish beliefs and practices, she was a firm believer in women’s education on and careers, and castigated the prevailing religious attitude pushing women into early marriage.
She also called for women to hold office on communal and
synagogue organisations, as she believed they were as
experienced as the men.
She was President of the North of England Cancer Research
Campaign, a founder of International Family Media on Services,
and Patron of the Sunderland Council for the Disabled. She was
also Patron of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and Chairman of the UK
branch of the International Association on of Jewish lawyers.
After her death a street in Sunderland, Myrella Crescent,
was named in her honour Soroptimist International of Sunderland granted her Honorary Membership in recognition of her many talents, achievements, and service to local, national, and international issues around the status of women, as well as her outstanding contribution to the law.
Louise Ross – Author
S.I. Tynedale
I am sure that many of us here today will have read, on a cold winter’s night, a murder mystery. Here in the North East we have
several prominent famous female authors including Catherine Cookson, Ann Cleves and Mairi Hannah but the person we have
chosen as our prominent woman is the author L J Ross.
Originally born in Northumberland, Louise Ross graduated from King’s College, London with undergraduate degrees in Law. Louise worked in London, Paris and Florence for about a decade but realised that she needed to make a change in her life.
For some years ideas for thriller novels occupied her thoughts and when the first of her two children came along she began writing in earnest in 2015. In her first four to five years, Louise produced more than 10 novels primarily the series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Ryan. These are set in or very close to Northumberland
and their titles and plots incorporate local landmarks and countryside locations. In 2019 Louise and her husband James set up Dark Skies Publishing.
The DCI Ryan series began in 2015 with “Holy Island” and by now encompasses some 20 novels praised for their realistic characters and intriguing plots also now featuring a map by Andrew Davidson giving the locations associated with each title. We were particularly taken by the title of the second book in the series published in 2015 and named “Sycamore Gap” now made more poignant because the glorious 200 year old tree was illegally felled overnight on the 27th/28th September 2023 resulting in
an outpouring of grief in the immediate area and around the world. The National Trust and other bodies are taking great pains over the preservation of the seeds and the tree stump which remains in situ and is apparently showing signs of re-growth. The wood from the actual tree is being used to the greatest extent possible and the largest section of the trunk will go on display at the Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre in September 2024.
The third book title “Heavenfield” is set near St.Oswald,s church close to the site of the 634 Battle of Heavenfield between Northumbrian and Welsh armies commemorated by a wooden cross sited near Chollerford, all very close to Hexham. To date L J Ross has sold more than 10 million books worldwide including other thriller series and individual titles. When Louise returns to writing about DCI Ryan she says it is like greeting old friends and her heart lifts.
In May 2021 Louise was shortlisted for the prestigious Crime Writer’s Association “Dagger in the Library” Award which recognises a writer’s body of work consistently enjoyed by library borrowers and an author’s longstanding support of libraries. Louise has also been shortlisted for the British Books Award “Crime and Thriller Book of the Year”. Louise has set up a number of philanthropic projects including the Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction, Northern Photography Prize, Frank’s friends, the L J Ross Book Club and the Northern Film Prize, all supporting literacy and community in North East England.
In November 2021 the 500 page collection of short stories called “Everyday Kindness” was published as edited by L J Ross. This unique collection features 55 authors across the spectrum of literature including some international bestselling authors and award winning writers. There are tales of hope and small everyday kindnesses intended to to support positive mental health goals and to foster well being through acts of good will.
Louise and James and their two children have a home in Edinburgh but live in Northumberland, Louise’s true home.
Margaret Alderson – Honorary Life Member
S.I. Tynemouth and Whitley Bay
SI Whitley Bay & District is delighted to submit this tribute to a celebrated Soroptimist and member of our Club – Margaret Alderson, Honorary Life Member of Soroptimist International.
For many years, Margaret has given her time, knowledge and skills to the grass roots work of Soroptimism as well as serving Soroptimist International at Club, Regional, National and International level. Margaret joined SI Tynemouth in 1977 and has been Club President twice, Programme Action Officer, Secretary and Treasurer. She has been a Regional Representative, International Liaison Officer, Programme Action Officer and Regional President. Margaret was the Federation Programme Action Representative from 1989-1991 and Federation Adviser for Education Programme Area 1991 -1995, a post which no doubt drew on her professional background in educational management. This commitment to education was evident again when she served as SI Programme Co-ordinator for Education from 1995-1999. Margaret was also a member of the board of directors for Number 63 for many years.
Those who know Margaret will remember her passion for promoting gender equality, education for girls and women and equality of opportunity. Her approach was always an active one, urging Soroptimist sisters to set the agenda in relation to such issues, rather than just reacting to it. She travelled widely as SI Programme Co-ordinator for Education, speaking at conferences and working to build up communities and families by developing policies which supported and empowered women worldwide. This commitment to education was clearly in evidence when she served as SI Programme Co-ordinator for Education from 1995-1999.
Margaret attended the UN on several occasions between 2000-2007 as part of a group of Soroptimists who worked hard to establish equal participation in decision-making processes and more presence in leadership positions. In this role she was articulate, formidable on the podium and always memorable in her personal impact. She successfully chaired the committee of members for the Soroptimist Conference at the Sage in Gateshead 2013 and got the best out of everyone involved. It was a huge success! Margaret was also a member of the board of directors for Number 63 for many years.
43 years of active service and leadership have secured a legacy and level of recognition that even now inspires so many of our members. Whilst Margaret chooses to live more quietly now, she remains a star to so many and especially to those of our members who have worked alongside her over the years as true Soroptimist sisters.