| Description | Collis
DOB: 1897
DOD: N/A
Grewup in severe poverty in the post-Boer War period.
Her father was unemployed for long periods; family was forced to pawn belongings including blankets.
Used improvised "paper blankets" for warmth.
Attended scholarship class but had to leave school early due to financial hardhsip.
Left school at age 13 passing the labour exam (instead of continuing to high school).
Attended every evening classes later in life to gain practical skills for thrift and self-sufficiency.
Started factory work at 15 in a North London printing firm on fast envelope-folding machines.
Led her first strike at 17after demanding was increases - resulted in a 50% pay raise. Became a union representative after the strike, joining the National Federation of women workers.
Taught colleagues on the job but was offer passed over for promotion due to lack of formal questions.
worked through wartime and experienced being bombed multiple times.
Never married, no children mentioned.
Lived independantly but lated moved into sheltered accommodation.
Knitting and needlework for charities.
Active in a local Baptist church community.
Enjoyed radio and reading library books.
Practiced lifelong grugalitly, upcycling clothes ad managing on limited resources.
Poverty, women's labour, trade unions, Mary Macarthur, 1909 strike, printing industry, National Federation of Women Workers, frugality, paper blankets, Rothschild estate, domestic hardship, warime bombing, education barriers, sheltered housing, Baptist Church, osteoarthritis, self-sufficiency. |