Steadfast to the Liberal life: Miss Ginn

 

Looking up Queen's Road from the turning to All Saints' Church entrance

Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies

At the end of October 1929, Hertford’s Shire Hall was the venue for a large meeting of representatives and supporters from across the party-political divide. This was not an occasion for political discussion but to celebrate and honour the 30 years of service by the honorary secretary of the Hertford and Ware Women’s Liberal Association (WLA), Ella Ginn.

Receiving a bouquet and tortoiseshell toilet set, Ella thanked her friends and reflected on her experiences: “She said that she had really enjoyed her work for liberalism, although it had been very disappointing at times.”¹

Ella took up her secretarial role at the start of the century, a time when the last Liberal for the parliamentary constituency was thirty years before with William Francis Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple. During the first part of the century (1906-1929) however, the local Liberal party put forward candidates to oppose the incumbent representatives at seven elections.

Parliamentary elections

The 1906 election would perhaps have been the most exciting, when Liberal candidate Charles Buxton came within 80 votes of winning the seat from Abel Henry Smith, a majority of just 0.8%. The result bucked the national trend of a ‘Liberal landslide’ led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman over the Conservative Party, led by Arthur Balfour. In his address to supporters, Buxton said – “Theirs’s was a tremendous fight against old-established Toryism and feudalism… The electors had not altogether got that absolute independence they should have.”²

For the December 1910 election, the Liberal candidate was George Strachan Pawle. He later spoke about his personal gratitude “to Miss Ginn for her steadfastness in upholding the cause of Liberalism in the district: she had been a pillar of strength to the party.”³ The Conservative majority on that occasion was 14%.

But Liberalism was not the only cause to benefit from Ella’s work. She was born in 1862 into the Ginn family, successful local building contractors. During World War One Ella volunteered with the Red Cross at Wallfields Hospital, close to her home in Queen’s Road. Her social work took her on to Chairmanship of the Hertford Board of Guardians, until its disbandment in 1930.

Women’s suffrage

From the 1890s the women’s suffrage movement was building momentum. A new wing within the Liberal Party (the Women’s Liberal Association) emerged for women to gain government commitment to the full franchise for women. As secretary of the local WLA, Ella would have listened to an address on Women’s Suffrage by Mrs. E. O. Fordham, a past President of the Women’s Liberal Associations in 1907. Seven years later, Ella reflected that: “She was very keen for the cause of Liberalism and equally keen for the cause of woman suffrage, though not, of course, upholding the methods of the militants.”³

On stepping down as secretary in 1929, Ella had some words of advice: “To the many young Liberals present she urged upon them to study the political history of their country … It was true that the Conservatives extended the franchise to women under 30 last year, but that was entirely the outcome of the hard work of Liberal women for the past 50 years… Miss Ginn urged upon the older Liberals to recognize the needs of the Younger Liberals, and to satisfy their cravings for good music, dancing and other joys of life, and not to allow them through these channels to slip into the Conservative camp”.¹

¹ reported in the Hertfordshire Mercury 01/11/1929

² reported in the Herts Advertiser 27/01/1906

³ reported in the Hertfordshire Mercury 17/01/1914