Mrs George (Clara) Daymond (1873-1957) Clara Daymond (née Townshend) was one of the two first women elected to the Plymouth Borough Council in 1919. Best remembered as the Queen of St Budeaux, she was the daughter of a Devonport Dockyard shipwright, and Plymouth’s first woman Councillor, elected… Read More »Clara Daymond
Mrs Sylvia Bellamy (c1938-2016) One of the handful of women Lord Mayors of Plymouth, Alderman Sylvia Bellamy served as Councillor for the St Peter Ward for 19 years, before being appointed an Honorary Alderman in 2003. During her 19 years of service she was Deputy Lord Mayor of… Read More »Sylvia Bellamy
Dr Mabel Ramsay MD, FRCS, MRCOG, DPH (1879-1954) The daughter of a naval officer and his wife, Annie Ramsay – in her own right a noted suffragist – the family moved to Plymouth thanks to her father’s naval career. Mabel was as ardent a suffragist as… Read More »Mabel Ramsay
Dr Jessie Gilbert A woman GP, operating in the interwar period in Plymouth
Dr Sheila Cassidy (1937-) Sheila Cassidy qualified in medicine at Oxford in 1963 and embarked upon a career in what she calls ‘mending broken people’. In 1971 she went with her beloved chow, Winston, on a cargo boat to Chile where with her halting Spanish… Read More »Sheila Cassidy
Dr Rosa Bale (1864-1941) A Devon-born woman, she was Plymouth’s first woman GP. She was one of the early female entrants into medicine. She was trained at the London School of Medicine for Women, but also obtained qualifications in Glasgow, at a time when it was difficult… Read More »Rosa Bale
Frances Anne Wyatt JP (d1933) Mrs F.A. Wyatt, of Osborne Place, The Hoe, was a noted local activist during both her marriage and widowhood (she was Mrs P. Wyatt initially), and with a record of public service behind her (including being a Poor Law Guardian) was,… Read More »Frances Anne Wyatt
Mrs Edith Wilmot OBE, JP The wife of Dr Wilmot, a well-known and respected Plymouth medical practitioner, she was first appointed a JP on the Plymouth Bench in 1923. During WWI, she had been the local divisional secretary of the Red Cross, and subsequently took… Read More »Edith Wilmot
Miss Isobel Taylor One of the two policewomen in the Plymouth Women Police Department set up in the Great War, and dissolved as a cost-cutting measure in 1921 by the Watch Committee. She worked both in uniform and undercover as a detective.
Mrs Robert Simpson (1854-1941) (Sarah) Louise Simpson, known as Louie, was Plymouth’s first woman magistrate, and before the amalgamation of the Three Towns in 1914, she had been the first woman appointed to the old borough’s Board of Guardians, in 1898. The wife of Dr Robert… Read More »Louie Simpson