Beatrice Green

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Beatrice Green
Green c. 1920s
Born
Beatrice Dykes

(1894-10-01)1 October 1894
Abertillery, Monmouthshire, Wales
Died19 October 1927(1927-10-19) (aged 33)
Aberbeeg, Monmouthshire, Wales
Resting placeBlaenau Gwent Church, Abertillery
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Ronald Emlyn Green
​
(m. 1916)​
Children2

Beatrice Green (née Dykes; 1 October 1894 – 19 October 1927) was a Welsh labour activist who was a key figure in the 1926 United Kingdom general strike and the subsequent miners' lockout. A highly-regarded orator and writer, she became a leader in the labour movement in South Wales and was a prominent member of the Labour Party in Monmouthshire.

Biography

Early life and entry into activism

Beatrice Dykes was born on 1 October 1894, in the town of

Grammar School. She later became a teacher and was active in the Sunday school at Ebenezer Baptist Church. On 22 April 1916, she married coal miner Ronald Emlyn Green, and despite being a well-regarded teacher, she was forced out of her job due to the United Kingdom's marriage bar.[1][3]

Ebenezer Baptist Chapel, that Beatrice attended

With her husband's parents able to care for their two children, Green was able to become involved in

labour activism beginning in the early 1920s.[4][5] She gave her first known speech in January 1921 to the women's branch of the local Labour Party, in which she contested women's traditional roles in society, stating: "For too long the idea has been allowed to circulate that woman's place is in the home, and man's in the world. With the inadequate measure of franchise, woman is realising that politics have a direct bearing upon her home, and that she has to get out in order to put things right".[6] The speech, titled "Women in the State", was later published in the local newspaper and garnered significant attention.[4] Similarly to other female Labour activists in South Wales, Green "did not call for radical transformation of gender roles in society. She did, however, believe that women should gain control over those areas of life which most concerned them and that, to this end, they should engage in public work on the same terms as men".[1][5]

In 1922, Green became the secretary of the local hospital's "Linen League", which consisted of a group of forty women who volunteered to wash and supply the hospital's linens. With much of its success attributed directly to Green, the league had organised into a social club by the following year, with an annual membership subscription and regular events. A "fervent campaigner in favour of birth control", Green and Marie Stopes led a successful push to establish a birth control clinic at the hospital, though it was forced to close after sixteen months due to "intense opposition" from the local clergy.[1][7] During this period, she also began contributing to a French socialist magazine – she was proficient in the language – and wrote for the periodical Labour Woman in Britain.[4]

1926 miners' lockout

Red Cross".[4][8] A skilled orator, Green held several fundraising rallies in London on behalf of the WCRMWC, becoming a well-known public speaker. A significant portion of the organization's fundraising also came from miners in Canada and the Soviet Union.[4][9]

Vivian Colliery, Abertillery, photographed around 1910

Because there were few jobs in Abertillery outside of the mining industry, the town was devastated by the lockout, which plunged it "into economic misery".[7] As part of the effort to relieve the economic strain on the town, Green and Elizabeth Andrews headed a program which temporarily fostered 2,500 vulnerable children from communities across the South Wales Coalfield for the duration of the lockout, easing "the financial burden on their parents".[4][7] The pair personally led a group of fifty children from Abertillery, as well as the nearby towns of Dowlais and Merthyr Tydfil, directly to foster families in London.[10] In addition, Green operated a soup kitchen in Abertillery, which fed up to 1,600 people per day.[11] She also founded the Abertillery Maternity Relief Committee, which provided supplies for pregnant women and mothers, and advocated for maternity relief for imprisoned women.[1][12] In July 1926, Green gave an interview to Labour Woman, in which she described "what it was like to be a mother of a large family without a waged income coming in".[10] Due to her orations and writing, she became well-known among political circles across the United Kingdom.[7]

Soviet Union tour, later activism, and death

From 27 August until 16 October 1926, Green was part of a nineteen-member delegation sent by the

Donets Basin, comparing the state-owned enterprises favourably to the privately-owned mines of Britain; they also visited the oilfields of Grozny.[13] Large crowds received the group at every train station, with Green giving speeches to onlookers regarding the labour struggle in Britain.[4][14]

Though she was not a

women in the Soviet Union had been emancipated and "possess an absolute equality of rights with man".[4][7] Though she conceded that there were serious issues in regions like Azerbaijan, where "male opposition to the new equality laws created serious tension and violence", she also broadly praised the Muslim-majority areas, claiming that Muslim women had gained their own identities.[4][13] These reports were later described as being "somewhat naïve" in retrospect by historian Sue Bruley.[15]

According to fellow labour activist Marion Phillips, the Soviet trip was "a crowning happiness in [Green's] life during which she blossomed as a speaker, writer and activist".[1] In November 1926, a month after her return, the lockout had largely ended, as the miners were "deprived and starved into submission".[4][7] Despite this loss, Green continued her activism, writing frequent columns in the Labour Woman, particularly about issues relating to child care and motherhood.[16][17] The Dictionary of Labour Biography praised her writing style, stating: "Her articles were written in a simple and accessible style in order to reach her intended — predominately working class — audience. Her approach was informative rather than preachy, practical rather than patronising. The words were those of a working-class woman who knew of the problems surrounding child rearing at a time when economic difficulties ensured there were shortages of all kinds".[13] In September 1927, she was the presiding officer of the Monmouthshire Labour Party women's conference, which was attended by over 800 delegates.[7]

Green died of ulcerative colitis on 19 October 1927, at the hospital in Aberbeeg, aged just 33.[1][16] Her young death was attributed to stress caused by the "harshness and uncertainty" of the period.[18] She was buried at Blaenau Gwent Church in Abertillery. Despite the brevity of her political career, Green had "established an impressive political track record and would have had a promising future ahead of her in the labour movement", while biographer Lowri Newman stated that her leadership and oration skills "would have ensured her a place in Parliament".[1][16]

External links

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Boots, Bryan (2022). "Green, Beatrice (1894 - 1927), Political Activist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
  2. ^ Bruley 2010, p. 101.
  3. ^ Bruley 2010, pp. 101–102.
  4. ^
    WalesOnline
    . Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  5. ^ a b Bruley 2010, p. 102.
  6. ^ Leeworthy 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Stewart 2020.
  8. ^ a b Gildart, Howell & Kirk 2016, p. 79.
  9. ^ Gier-Viskovatoff & Porter 1998, p. 209.
  10. ^ a b Bruley 2010, p. 103.
  11. ^ Bartley 2022, p. 87.
  12. ^ Phillips 2020, p. 117.
  13. ^ a b c Gildart, Howell & Kirk 2016, p. 81.
  14. ^ Gildart, Howell & Kirk 2016, p. 80.
  15. ^ Bruley 2010, pp. 103–104.
  16. ^ a b c Bruley 2010, p. 123.
  17. ^ Palmer 1986, p. 121.
  18. ^ Gildart, Howell & Kirk 2016, p. 82.

Bibliography

Further reading

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