Margaret Llewelyn Davies

Margaret Caroline Llewelyn Davies[1] (1861–1944) was the general secretary of the Co-operative Women's Guild from 1899 until 1921.[2][3] During her tenure, the guild became far more politically active than it previously had been.[3]

Margaret Llewelyn Davies
Born
Margaret Caroline Llewelyn Davies

(1861-10-16)16 October 1861[1]
Died28 May 1944(1944-05-28) (aged 82)[1]
Dorking, England[1]
OccupationActivist
OfficeGeneral Secretary of the Co-operative Women's Guild (1899–1921)
Movement
Parent(s)John Llewelyn Davies
Mary Crompton
RelativesArthur Llewelyn Davies (brother)
Theodora Llewelyn Davies (niece)

Davies's election was a "turning point" in the organization's history; her tenure ushered in an era of unprecedented growth and success for the guild.[4] Davies was considered to be such a significant figure in the guild that Catherine Webb considered Davies's retirement such a significant loss for the guild that she began writing The Woman with the Basket, her history of the guild to that time.[2] She was a prominent and dedicated pacifist of her era.[5]

Davies had an unusual upbringing; her parents were involved in radical intellectual movements when she was a child.[6] Her father John Llewelyn Davies was a fellow of Trinity College and an outspoken foe of poverty and inequality, active in Christian socialist groups, and also involved in the early co-operative movement.[6] Many of her extended family were also politically active, especially around the issue of women's suffrage.[6]

Her brother Arthur Llewelyn Davies was a barrister, whose five sons were the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Her niece was Theodora Llewelyn Davies, a British barrister and penal reform campaigner and the first woman admitted to the Inner Temple in 1920.

References

  1. Stott, Mary (2006) [2004]. "Davies, Margaret Caroline Llewelyn (1861–1944)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37681.
  2. Blaszak, Barbara J. (2000). Matriarchs of the movement : female leadership and gender politics within the English cooperative movement (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313309953.
  3. Stuckey, Karyn. "Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861–1944) and the Women's Co-operative Guild". National Co-operative Archive. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  4. Gaffin, Jean; Thoms, David (1993). Caring & sharing : the centenary history of the Co-operative Women's Guild (2nd ed.). Manchester: Holyoake Books. ISBN 978-0851952017.
  5. Scott, Gillian (11 August 2005). Feminism, Femininity and the Politics of Working Women: The Women's Co-Operative Guild, 1880s to the Second World War. ISBN 9781135360313.
  6. Scott, Gillian (1998). Feminism and the politics of working women : the Women's Co-operative Guild, 1880s to the Second World War. London: UCL Press. ISBN 1857287983.
Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by
Mary Lawrenson
Secretary of the Women's Co-operative Guild
18891922
Succeeded by
Honora Enfield
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