Image published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.
Opportunities for women to serve in public office in the 19th century were few and far between but in 1894 significant changes came about. The Local Government Act of that year removed restrictive property, gender and status qualifications, enabling single and married women to vote and stand for election on the newly constituted urban rural district councils.
The local government reforms also extended to the Poor Law Board of Guardians, a bastion of male dominance, responsible for apportioning poor relief and in charge of the local Workhouse.
On January 2, 1895 the new Board of Guardians met for the first time. The Returning Officer laid before the Board his certificate of the result of the Elections of Guardians and Rural District Councillors with the names of four women among their number; Miss Elizabeth House, Mrs Elinor L. Buller, Mrs Elizabeth Williams and Mrs Maria Matthews. Three of these remarkable women are buried here in Radnor Street Cemetery.
The first four women elected to the Highworth & Swindon Poor Law Board of Guardians came from widely different backgrounds.
Elizabeth Williams was born in Wanborough in 1846 in a house attached to the Shepherd’s Rest public house. She was one of ten children, nine daughters and a son Henry who died aged 10. Her father Thomas Edwards, was an agricultural labourer and by the age of 15 Elizabeth was working as a general servant in Upper Stratton. Elizabeth married Henry Williams, a gas and water fitter and they had three children. The family lived at various addresses in Swindon and at the time of Elizabeth’s election to the Board of Guardians they lived at 23 Oxford Terrace, Faringdon Road.
Elizabeth served on the Ladies Workhouse Visiting and Boarding Out Committee for many years and in 1901 she was elected on to a new committee set up to address the payment of the Foster Children’s Quarterly Clothing Allowance. In 1902/3 Elizabeth also served on the Finance and House Committee where she objected to the proposal to award the Workhouse Master Mr Kilby seven guineas for his services in the preparation of Dietary Tables.
Elizabeth was a devout Primitive Methodist and strictly teetotal. Her great granddaughter Mrs Hazel Grace tells of how Elizabeth once tried to stop the male inmate’s Christmas beer allowance, a matter recorded in the Minute Book on November 20, 1901 during a discussion about the Workhouse Christmas dinner. The amendment ‘that no Beer be given but that Tea, Coffee or aerated waters be substituted,’ was proposed by local businessman Henry Raggett and seconded by Mrs Williams. However, the amendment was defeated by 16 votes to 12 and the inmates received their Christmas cheer.
In later years Elizabeth lived with her granddaughter’s family and Hazel remembered her great grandmother as a forceful character.
Elizabeth Williams died in 1948, aged 102. She is buried here, her grave marked by a headstone in the shape of an open book, symbolic of a love of learning and religious faith.
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Radnor Street Cemetery 