Soroptimist International celebrated its centenary in 2021, and to mark this milestone m embers of SI Richmond & Dales decided to compile a record of women who, in their lives, had inspired and influenced them. Here are the citations for our Women of Influence, which were read out at the AGM:
Jean Crouch – Role model for education, nominated by Jan Beeton
As the co-editor of the “Girl” comic and annual, Jean Crouch provided life stories of influential women from British History and the Arts. This counterbalanced a very male view of history being taught in schools in the 1950s, being full of battles, revolutions, and royalty.
Each Christmas I would get a Girl annual and as an avid reader, I read them over and over again. It’s via this comic that I learned about Boadicea, Florence Nightingale, Edith Cavel, Flora McDonald, Elizabeth Barret-Browning, The Bronte sisters, Kathleen Ferrier, Emmaline Pankhurst, and many others.
Marjorie Clague, Role model for humour and stoicism, nominated by Jan Beeton
In 1932, my Auntie Madge, as the only girl, had to leave Grammar School at just 14 to cook, wash and housekeep for her four brothers after the death of first her father and then her mother. My father and Uncle Eric, her older brothers, were old enough to work, the younger ones still at school.
My memory of her is of fun! She was warm, energetic, clever, witty and a really good cook. She could make a roomful of people laugh!
Although she coped with later problems, including the death of her first child, there was never a sense that she thought life had dealt her a rough deal, although she had little tolerance for any of us children moaning over minor issues. She would jolly us out of it and give us something to keep us busy.
At times when my life has veered from the expected path, her stock phrases and attitude have kept my head up.
Current introspective practises and concerns about entitlement would have been a complete anathema to her.
Mary Jane Blewitt – Role model for self-sufficiency and enterprise, nominated by Susan Eastham
My great grandmother, who was an enterprising and hard working lady. She ran a business in Darlington during the 1930/40’s, and while her husband, brothers and sons were at war, she never stopped working. She was able to continue paying their NI stamp, so that when they returned from the war, they were first in line for employment
Amanda Owen – Role model for strength and vision, nominated by Susan Eastham
Now known as the Yorkshire Shepherdess – but anyone who lives somewhere as remote as Ravenseat in the far Yorkshire Dales, raises 9 children, looks after over 1000 sheep, and writes books in her spare time, as well as being a TV personality and after dinner speaker, is certainly is worthy of admiration.
Susanne Spencer – Role model for persistence and strength in adversity, nominated by Jane Priestley
Susie has raised a son who has Downs Syndrome. Her husband worked in the oil industry and Nathaniel has lived in various ‘wild’ parts of the world small towns in Sarawak, Venezuela, and the much larger Lagos to name a few. She has constantly battled with basic health care, found speech therapists and was tenacious in getting him to a good level of education. Nathaniel is now 31, they live in Houston where he has a job in a grocery store again something his mother convinced the store was possible and he was recently sent to ‘advise and settle in’ another employee with Downs at a sister store. Susie is someone who does not recognise the word no and I admire her greatly.
Susan de Wardt – Role model in enabling others, nominated by Jane Priestley
Susan funded herself through university in Chicago by belly dancing and cooking for others. She became a drilling engineer for Shell when few women saw that as a career choice. She gave up the day job to have a family but women and their well-being was always central to her life. She was vital to me when I had my first child in Sarawak, no child birth classes there, we practiced the Lamaze breathing method on her living room floor, meditation and poetry after although I was a rather ‘dull student’ in the latter two!
The family settled in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where Susan soon formed a relationship with the police helping victims of domestic abuse, setting up writing classes where women could discuss their lives and find support.
Maggie Beech – Role model for resilience and courage, nominated by Faye Doorbar
Maggie was my Great Aunt who has instilled a sense of adventure and inspired many in our family with her resilience. At the age of just 16 in 1904 she travelled alone from Norfolk to Northern Ontario to find and help her sister who had been taken there previously to work at a hotel of family friends, set up for the mining industry. Her journey, by road, rail, sea and on foot, alone of just over three weeks, following many incidents, found her in Montreal and from there she travelled to North Bay on which journey, a train derailed, a bridge collapsed and fires appeared to be burning all around. The short memoir that she wrote, tells of a life which seems incredible to readers in 2021. A dangerous time in the new Canadian mines and lumber camps, peopled by miners and very few women meant she quickly learned how to look after herself and rely on her own judgment.
She writes of astonishing experiences in a no-fuss, casual way, such as: “Some mornings when I got up the polar bears were sitting outside. They were hungry as the snow was so high and lake frozen. So I gave them something to eat and shut the door until they went away”!
Maggie travelled to different camps and mines, met her husband, returned to England then travelled again to rejoin her husband who had then moved with his work to Peru! Several babies were born during her time in South America and the years passed in harsh and challenging environments. She returned to Norfolk in 1920 while her husband settled somewhere deeper into Peru. She was to rejoin him once more but the letter never arrived and after many attempts to find her husband no trace of him was ever found.
Maggie brought up her five children alone and lived into her 90s. She was a remarkable person and her story is still marvelled at within the family.
Elspeth Robinson – Role model for enterprise, education and enabling others, nominated by Faye Doorbar
Elspeth has shown how through a desire to help people to help themselves, through her faith, dogged determination and abilities, the lives of others can be changed for the better.
Elspeth has forged relationships in Kumi, Uganda, used her own physiotherapy knowledge and skills to identify and offer the means for this underdeveloped and poor area of Uganda to improve the lives of those in need of medical interventions and for those caring for them. By quietly fundraising at home in England, by identifying how to deliver resources such as wheel chairs or visiting specialists and developing and nurturing a team on the ground in Kumi, Elspeth has enabled and empowered many women in particular, to help each other to improve their own lives. Elspeth’s charity has gone from strength to strength, powered by her own tenacity, single minded belief in her vision to educate and improve others’ lives and inspire many who know her.
Dame Barbara Castle – Role model for women’s careers and justice for women, nominated by Jenny Cathcart
Dame Barbara Castle was one of the first women to hold senior Ministerial Posts in the British Government, an influential figure in my teens. She was an outstandingly successful woman in a male dominated arena, and achieved this from relatively modest origins. She used her position to champion the cause of justice for women, as proponent of The Equal Pay Act 1970.
Mary Bevan – Role model women’s careers, fairness, caring service and charity work, nominated by Jenny Cathcart
Mary Bevan became the deputy head of Kingswood Grammar School, Corby, from it’s opening in 1965, when I was one of the original pupils. This was still an unusual achievement for a woman. She had been a missionary teacher in India in the 1950’s, when India was still a byword for poverty and deprivation, and was also active in the local Methodist community.
Miss Bevan taught maths – also unusual for a woman, and though she was strict, she was always fair, and willing to make time for pupils.
She was also an active supporter of LEPRA, the Leprosy Relief Association, and she promoted supporting this and other charities in the school. She set a great example of what a woman could achieve, and the exemplary way she lived. She even put up with the trials of trying to teach me maths…