Women’s history month 2019 -Gladys Benstead

The next featured blogger for Women’s History Month is Hazel Perry. Hazel is a PhD research student at DMU and researches Trade Union history. To read more of Hazel’s stuff head on over to her blog https://tradeunionhistoryresearcher.wordpress.com or follow her on twitter @HistoryHaze1

 

GLADYS BENSTEAD

by Hazel Perry, BA (Hons) History, Post-Graduate (PhD) Research Student, DMU

I came across Gladys Benstead as part of a wider study for my PhD. Women are not obvious in the older records of the trade union movement, however, when I discovered information about Gladys through a newspaper article, I wanted to share her name with everyone.

Gladys, nee Palmer, was born in 1896 in the small Lincolnshire Market Town of Spalding. Her Father, George Samuel Palmer, was recorded as a Railway Engine Driver on the 1901 Census and his wife, Kate and son Alfred, were also recorded on the document, living in St Pauls Road, Peterborough.

George, was very much involved in the labour movement. He was a founding member of Peterborough Trades Union Council in 1898, one of the first working class men to become a Councillor and he was an active member across the District in the National Union of Railwaymen.

Gladys, had a lot to live up to. She became the first Woman Clerk to work for the Great Northern Railway outside of London. She was also a member of the NUR and sat on the Committee which negotiated wages and conditions for women.

In 1922, Gladys married John Benstead, also an NUR member from Stamford, just up the road in Lincolnshire.  However, this did not stop her involvement in the trade union movement and in March 1926, she attended a meeting at the Westgate Hall in Grantham to discuss the formation of an NUR Midland District Women’s Guild. Gladys was elected as President of the Guild for the first year, as agreed by a large majority of attendees.

Gladys and John had their only child, Winnifred, in 1930, the same year that Kate Palmer was elected Mayor of Peterborough and by the end of the decade, the Benstead’s had moved to Croydon in Surrey, where John was a Trade Union Officer for the NUR. However, they returned to Peterborough and during WWII, Gladys serving on the Standing Committee of Working Women’s Organisations and on the Fuel Advisory Committee, under William Beveridge, assisting with fuel rationing. She was elected as a Labour Councillor to Peterborough City Council in 1944.

Meanwhile, John was elected as the General Secretary of the NUR and in 1946, received an OBE giving the couple the title of Lord and Lady. Nine years later, Gladys was elected as Mayor of Peterborough, choosing Winnie as the Mayoress. Her duties from now on included:

• Presenting awards for Road Safety campaigns
• Campaigning for library provision
• Opening bazars
• Attending garden parties
• Greeting guests from twin city Peterborough in Canada and Hungarian Refugees
• Opening exhibitions
• Judging competitions
• Holding civic receptions
• Setting up an American Air Forces Club in Peterborough

In 1957, Gladys attended the local branch of the Electrical Association for Women’s dinner and in 1958, it was reported that Gladys was still attending the NUR District Women’s Guild Meetings. Gladys’ involvement in the local labour movement was an important contribution to civic life in the city of Peterborough and she continued her civic duties until her death in the mid-1960s. We should celebrate more local Women who impacted greatly on our cities.

Helen’s take on Gladys Benstead – 

Well, what a woman! I’d never heard of Gladys before now but I am so pleased to have learnt about her from Hazel especially as their is so little information published about her. The work that she did in Trade Unions and as mayor was, and is, inspirational and I’m sure the effects are still being felt in Peterborough today.