Women Clerks and Typists in the British Foreign Office, 1920-1960: A Prosopographic Study

ABSTRACT

The history of modern British foreign policy largely devolves from an exclusively male perspective. In many respects, this was natural and appropriate because, until the 1940s, only men held senior positions in the Diplomatic Service. During the early twentieth century, attempts to change the “Foreign Office mind” to promote a greater acceptance of the role of women in the conduct and formulation of British diplomacy remained largely resisted. However, when examining the careers of the other group of women who worked at the Foreign Office, the clerical staff, the vast ranks of filing clerks, and shorthand typists, a very different view of this bastion of male conservatism emerges. With prosopography and on-line genealogy resources, this analysis traces a large cross-section of these women and analyses their life patterns and working experiences. It reveals that many of these women enjoyed quite a flexible working experience, with plenty of opportunities for career advancement, with some even transferring from the clerical classes to the Consular Service. This exegesis represents the first attempt to use prosoprographic techniques in the study of British foreign policy and suggests other ways to expand the present study and other similar projects undertaken to examine other government departments concerned with foreign affairs.

Notes

^1. See, for example, Harold L Smith, “Sex versus class: British feminists and the Labour movement, 1919–1929”, Historian, 47/1(1984), 19–37; idem., “British feminism and the equal pay issue in the 1930s”, Women’s History Review, 5/1(1996), 97–110; Laura Beers, “A Model MP? Ellen Wilkinson, Gender, Politics, and Celebrity Culture in Interwar Britain”, Cultural and Social History, 10/2(2013), 231–50.

^2. An exception is Peter Hennessy, Whitehall (London, 1986); idem., The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution (London, 1995); idem., Establishment and Meritocracy (London, 2014).

^3. For example the work of Kevin Theakston, The Civil Service Since 1945 (London, 1995); idem., ed. Bureaucrats and Leadership (Basingstoke, 1999); idem. and Philip Connolly, William Armstrong and British Policy Making (Basingstoke, 2017).

^4. Susan Pedersen, “Gender, Welfare and Citizenship in Britain during the Great War”, American Historical Review, 95/4(1990), 983–1006; idem., “Metaphors of the Schoolroom; Women Working the Mandates System of the League of Nations”, History Workshop Journal, 66/1(2008), 188–207.

^5. Influential studies include J. Ann Tickner, Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security (NY, 1992); V. Spike Peterson, “Transgressing Boundaries: Theories of Knowledge, Gender and International Relations”, Millenium, 21/2(1992), 183–206; Craig N. Murphy, “Seeing women, recognizing gender, recasting international relations”, International Organization, 50/3(1996), 513–38; Jill Stearns, Gender and International Relations; Issues, Debates and Future Directions (Cambridge, 2006); Laura J. Shepherd, Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations (London, 2015).

^6. J.W Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (NY, 1988); idem., “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, American Historical Review, 91/5(1986), 1053–75; idem., Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man (Cambridge MA, 1996); idem., Théorie Critique de l’Histoire: Identités, expériences, politiques (Paris, 2009); idem., The Fantasy of Feminist History (Durham, NC, 2011); idem., Sex and Secularism (Princeton, NJ, 2017); idem., “Women’s History: The Modern Period”, Past and Present, 101(November 1983), 141–57; idem., “History in Crisis? The Others’ Side of the Story”, American Historical Review, 94/3(1989), 680–92; idem., “Feminism’s History”, Journal of Women’s History, 16/1(2004), 10–29; idem., “Gender: Still a Useful Category of Analysis?” Diogenes, Volume 57, Number 225(2010); J.W. Scott, B. Sicherman, W. Monter, and K. Sklar, Recent U.S. Scholarship on the History of Women (Washington, DC, 1980);

^7. See especially G. Sluga, “Madame de Stael and the Transformation of European Politics, 1812–1817”, International History Review, 37/1(2014), 142–66.

^8. G. Sluga and C. James, eds., Women, Diplomacy and International Politics since 1500 (London, 2015).

^9. Ibid., 11.

^10. Ibid., 9.

^11. Ibid., 4; H. McCarthy, Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat (London, 2015).

^12. H. McCarthy, “Petticoat Diplomacy: The Admission of Women to the British Foreign Service, c.1919–1946”, Twentieth Century British History, 20/3(2009), 285–321; idem.”, Women, Marriage and Work in the British Diplomatic Service”, Women’s History Review, 23/6(2014), 853–73

^13. See, for example, M.M. Wood, “Diplomatic Wives: The Politics of Domesticity and the ‘Social Game’ in the U.S. Foreign Service, 1905–1941”, Journal of Women’s History, 17/2(2005), 142–65.

^14. Sluga and James, Women, Diplomacy, 8.

^15. Dame Freya Madeline Stark (1893–1993) was a British explorer and travel writer, who wrote more than 20 books on her explorations of the Middle East and Afghanistan. She was one of the first European women to travel through the southern Arabian Desert.

^16. S. Crowe and E. Corp, Our Ablest Civil Servant: The Life of Sir Eyre Crowe, 1864–1925 (Braunton, 1993).

^17. J. Tilley and S. Gaselee, The Foreign Office (London, 1933); another “insider history” was W. Strang, The Foreign Office (London, 1955). Cf. R. Bullen, ed., The Foreign Office 1782–1982 (NY, 1985); J. Connell, The Office. The story of British Foreign Policy, 1919–1951 (London, 1958); G. Johnson, ed., The Foreign Office and British Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century (London, 2004); Z. Steiner, The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy 1898–1914 (Cambridge, 1986); T.G. Otte, The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy 1865–1914 (Cambridge, 2013).

^18. It should be noted that the use of prosopography as a research tool in gender history is well established. Examples include Lula J. Rupp, “Is feminism the province of old (or middle aged) women?”, Journal of Women’s History, 12/4(2001), 164–73; Alison Booth, How To Make It as a Woman. Collective Biographical History from Victoria to the Present (Chicago, IL, 2004); Krista Cowman and Louise A. Jackson, Women and Work Culture c. 1850–1950 (Basingstoke, 2005); Gaby Weiner, “Olive Banks and the Collective Biography of British Feminism”, British Journal of the Sociology of Education, 29/4(2008), 403–10; D. Crystal Coles, F. Ellen Netting, and Mary Katherine O’Connor, “Using Prosopography to Raise the Voices of Those Erased in Social Work History”, Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, 33/1(2018), 85–97.

^19. L. Stone, “Prosopography”, Daedalus, 100/1(1971), 46–79.

L. Stone, “Prosopography”, Daedalus, 100/1(1971), 46–79.

^20. G.H. Bennett, British Foreign Policy during the Curzon Period, 1919–1924 (Basingstoke, 1995); G. Johnson, “Curzon, Lloyd George and control of British foreign policy, 1919–1922”, Diplomacy & Statecraft, 11/3(2000), 49–71. qq

^21. K. Neilson and T.G. Otte, The Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 1854–1946 (NY, 2009), 84. Born Limehouse, died Lambeth, both regions of London; Foreign Office typist, 1889–1894, Superintendent of Typists 1896, Chief Superintendent of Typists in 1911. Accompanied British Mission to the Peace Conference in The Hague in 1907; retired 1916.

^22. Sir Horace Rumbold (1829–1913), British ambassador to Austria, 1896–1900. His son, Sir Horace George Montagu Rumbold (1869–1941), inter alia, British ambassador to Madrid, 1924–1928, and Berlin, 1928–1933.

^23. Sir Eyre Crowe, permanent under-secretary, Foreign Office, 1920–1925; see Note 16, above, for biography details. His son, Sir Eric Eyre Crowe, (1905–1958), counsellor at the British embassy in Oslo, 1948–1951; and his son, Sir Brian Crowe (1938–2020), ambassador to Austria, 1992–1996.

^24. They consist of ten classes of documents, with the prefix CSC and housed at The National Archives, Kew.

^25. G. Johnson, “Lord Curzon and the Appointment of Lord D’Abernon as British Ambassador to Berlin, 1920”, Journal of Contemporary History, 39/1(2004), 57–70.

^26. Josephine Edith Barnwell (1878–1952), father a civil servant. Foreign Office typist 1899; shorthand writer and typist, 1908, retired in 1911. Unmarried.

^27. Athalie Doris Phippard (1898–1991); died Gosport, Hampshire. Mother a licenced victualler at the Prince Arthur Public House, Hackney, London. Foreign Office typist, 1920; superintendent of typists 1926; resigned 1939; married Walter C.C. Pharo.

^28. Adeline Elizabeth Mary Braby (1898–1984), died Hounslow, London. The daughter of a domestic rate collector, Foreign Office typist, 1916; superintendent of typists, 1925. Married a Mr Miller in 1925.

^29. Grace Madeline Painter (1900–1976), the daughter of an accountant, Foreign Office, 1918 as a shorthand typist; resigned 1927 to marry shipping clerk, Arthur William Ainsworth, Friern Barnet.

^30. For example, Vera Redhead (1905–1991); clerk Liverpool Passport Office, 1921; resigned as clerical assistant, 1949; married Joseph R. Herring.

^31. For example, Elizabeth Robertson (1910–1981); died Havering, London. Foreign Office typist, 1930; Paris, 1931; resigned 1933.

^32. For example, Edith Louise Scott (1907-??), Foreign Office typist, 1925–1932.

^33. For example, Winifred Elsie Beazley (1905–1995); died New Forest, Hampshire. The daughter of a Civil Service clerk; Foreign Office shorthand typist, 1925–1927; British Legation Berne, 1927–1929; Clerical Officer 1938. Unmarried.

^34. For example, Gertrude Agnes Bigg (1897-??); daughter of a farrier; Foreign Office typist, 1917–1930. Unmarried.

^35. For example, Hilda Emily Holdway (1899–1996); died Newport, Glamorgan, Wales, The daughter of an ivory importer; Foreign Office clerical officer, 1922–1933; married Geoffrey H. Friend, 1933.

^36. For example, Christine Gladys Ethel Holt (1912–1995); died Hastings, England. Foreign Office clerical officer, 1929.

^37. For example, Cynthia Elizabeth Lake (1908-??); father a chartered surveyor. Foreign Office shorthand typist, 1928; Paris, 1933–37; resigned 1939. Unmarried.

^38. For example, Dorothy Mary Kathleen Lawless (1908–2003); died Leicester, England. Father a police officer; she was Foreign Office clerical officer, 1926; married John T Sawday, 1940.

^39. For example, Mary Macbeth (1896–1959); died Ploughley, Oxfordshire. Father an engraver; temporary clerk Foreign Office, 1920; clerical officer, 1921; acting higher clerical officer, 1939. Unmarried.

^40. For example, Kathleen Meredyth Pidgeon (1908-??); daughter of a dental surgeon; Foreign Office typist, 1926; married Edward M Dimock, 1931.

^41. For example, Mabel Jane Clarkson Scupham (1905–1945); the daughter of a pharmacist, she died when the aircraft on which she was travelling crashed en route to London from Montreal. Foreign Office typist, 1929; shorthand typist, 1934.

^42. For example, Amy Dorothy Edgington (1898–1964); died Surrey, England. Foreign Office clerk, 1927; clerical officer, London Passport Office, 1936.

^43. Gwendolen Margery Ayers (born West Ham, 1908); Violet Maud Acton de Winton (born Gloucester, 1903); Frances Eleanor Mary Gertrude Woulfe Flanagan (born Dublin, 1902); Eileen Nancy Hatton (born Derby, 1907); Amy Catherine Johnston (born Edinburgh, 1896); Irene Lilian Lewis (born Neath, South Wales, 1901); Muriel Mouldsdale Williams (born Liverpool, 1901).

^44. Dorothy Aileen Humphrey (1895–1991). Foreign Office Clerical Officer, 1921–1932. Died Truro, Cornwall; married Bertram O.F. Phipps.

^45. Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick (1897–1964), Foreign Office permanent under-secretary; Married Violet Caulfield Cottell (1900–1987) in 1929, daughter of Colonel Reginald James Cope Cottell, an army surgeon. Foreign Office typist, 1921; superintendent of typists at the time of her marriage.

^46. Pat Thane, “Gender in the workplace”, History Workshop Journal, 84(Autumn 2017), 273–80; idem., “Afterword: challenging women in the British professions”, Women’s History Review, 29/4(2020), 748–58; Helen Glew, Gender, rhetoric and regulation. Women’s work in the Civil Service and the London County Council, 1900–1955 (Manchester, 2016).

^47. The information about the marriages and dates of death of the women comes from internet genealogy databases; it is not included in the Foreign Office List.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gaynor Johnson

Gaynor Johnson is Professor of International History at the University of Kent, UK, and is an Honorary Researcher at Lancaster University’s Centre for War and Diplomacy. She is a member of the Peer Review College of the AHRC and is a member of the editorial boards of a number of leading international history journals. She is the author and editor of several books on British foreign policy and international history in the twentieth century, including The Berlin Embassy of Lord D’Abernon, 1920-1926 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), The Foreign Office and British Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century (London: Routledge, 2004) and, most recently, Lord Robert Cecil: Politician and Internationalist (London: Routledge, 2016).