Anne Godwin
Dame Beatrice Annie Godwin DBE (6 July 1897 – 11 January 1992[1]), known as Anne Godwin, was a British trade unionist.
Early life
Born in July 1897 in Farncombe, Surrey, Godwin's father was a draper. She attended school in Godalming until age 15, in 1912, when she left to start working as a counting house clerk in London's West End. In 1916 she joined the Army Pay Office as a civilian clerk, earning 16 shillings a week. Other women working at the office organised to unsuccessfully request a higher salary from the Army Paymaster.[2] She joined the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries (AWCS) after moving to an engineer's office in 1920.[3]
By 1928 she was a trade union organiser. Women civil servants belonged to two different classes of unions, back then. Temporaries joined the AWCS, and after being made permanent they joined the NAWCS (National Association of Women Civil Servants).
Later life
In 1940, a majority of AWCS members voted in favour of amalgamation. The two unions joined and became known as the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union. Anne Godwin was Assistant General Secretary, and edited the union's journal, entitled The Clerk.[2] From 1961 to 1962, she served as one of the first women to become President of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Britain's main organisation of trades unions, following Margaret Bondfield, Anne Loughlin and Florence Hancock.[3]
Appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1962, Dame Anne Godwin was the guest speaker at the 1980 Conference when the union celebrated its 90th anniversary.[2]
References
- "Dame Anne Godwin". The Times. London. 13 January 1992. p. 16 – via The Times Digital Archive, 1785–2008.
- Anne Godwin bio at WCML website
- Grenier, Janet E. (2004). "Oxford DNB article: Godwin, Dame Beatrice Annie [Anne] (1897-1992)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49654. Retrieved 2016-05-15. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
External links
Further reading
- Middleton, L. (1977). Women in the labour movement: The British experience. Early years in the trade unions / Anne Godwin. London: Croom Helm.
| Trade union offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Dorothy Evans |
General Secretary of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries 1931 – 1941 |
Succeeded by Position abolished |
| Preceded by George Walker Thomson |
President of the National Federation of Professional Workers 1948 – 1956 |
Succeeded by Jim Bradley |
| Preceded by Florence Hancock and Anne Loughlin |
Women Workers member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress 1949 – 1963 With: Florence Hancock (1949 – 1958) Ellen McCullough (1958 – 1963) |
Succeeded by Winifred Baddeley and Marie Patterson |
| Preceded by Fred Woods |
General Secretary of the National Union of Clerks and Administrative Workers 1956–1963 |
Succeeded by Henry Chapman |
| Preceded by Ted Hill |
President of the Trades Union Congress 1962 |
Succeeded by Frederick Hayday |
| Preceded by Claude Bartlett and Bill Webber |
Trades Union Congress representative to the AFL-CIO 1963 With: Harry Douglass |
Succeeded by William Carron and George Lowthian |