10 Badass British Women You’ve Never Heard Of
Sarah Stook
On International Women’s Day, it’s important to remember the great and powerful women that history has given us. You’ll see so many posts about Margaret Thatcher, Florence Nightingale and Queen Elizabeth I of course, but some women remain in the shadows.
Here are 10 Badass British Women You’ve Never Heard Of
1. Mary Morris Knowles (1733-3rd February 1807), Abolitionist
The daughter in a wealthy Quaker family, Mary Morris’ strong religious beliefs influenced her passion for liberty. She became Mary Morris Knowles upon her marriage to Thomas Knowles. She supported America’s push for liberation in the Revolutionary War, though as a Quaker, she did not believe in the violence that was used to achieve their goals.
After the Revolutionary War, Thomas Knowles was invited to join a Quaker committee on slavery, which expanded as the years went on. His death left Knowles wealthy, and she used that money and influence to continue the fight for abolition. When a friend asked her to write an inscription for tobacco boxes, Knowles wrote the following:
‘Tho various tints the human face adorn
To glorious Liberty Mankind are born;
O, May the hands which rais'd this fav'rite weed
Be loos'd in mercy and the slave be freed!’
The inscription was never published but became widely documented and circulated among others. Knowles’ inscription encouraged the idea of boycotting products that were made through slavery before the idea was widespread in Britain. Though she died several decades before abolition, Knowles paved the way for using consumerism to boycott slavery. She was also a fierce advocate for women and religious liberty, hoping for a perfect world in which the sexes were equal.
She died at home on the 3rd February 1807 after a short illness, aged 73/74.
2. Janet Taylor (13th May 1804- 25th January 1870), Astronomer and Navigation Expert
Born Jane Ann Ionn, her father was an educator who ran a grammar school that included navigation in its curriculum. He encouraged her interest, as she was a maths prodigy from an early age. Her father died when she was young. She changed her name to Janet upon marriage. Taylor established a nautical academy upon a move to London.
Taylor invented a navigational tool called ‘The Mariner’s Calculator’ but the Admiralty decided not to commission the invention. As well as this, she corrected existing tools, owned her own business, was a teacher and an astronomer among other things.
Her most important contribution to science was realising that the Earth is spheroidal and not spherical, meaning the polars are slightly elongated. This revolutionised the way the nautical world acted, as it allowed proper mapping and ensured that fewer sailors died needlessly.
Taylor died of bronchitis aged 55 on the 25th January 1870.
3. Octavia Hill (3rd December 1838- 13th August 1912), Activist and National Trust co-founder
Octavia Hill was born to a prosperous family, which included a mother strongly interested in education and social welfare. The family hit hard times when her father suffered both financial woes and a mental breakdown. He declared bankruptcy and abandoned the family. Hill’s mother educated the family at home and at 14, Hill was overseeing a toy workshop.
With the help of a financial backer, Hill took over a housing project that was in dire need of help. She used returns on the rent to regenerate the area, which attracted investors and helped build her empire. Hill was firm but fair, ensuring rent was paid on time. She and her assistants essentially became social workers, going round the houses to check on tenants and encouraging after-work activities.
Hill was a fervent believer in the beauty and greenery of the country, and was firm in her belief that the urban poor needed to experience it. She wanted the following:
‘a few acres where the hilltop enables the Londoner to rise above the smoke, to feel a refreshing air for a little time and to see the sun setting in coloured glory which abounds so in the Earth God made.’
Along with allies, Hill ensured open spaces in and around London were protected. The founding of the National Trust allowed these places to be protected officially. She came up with the term ‘the green belt’ to describe areas protected from urbanisation.
Hill died aged 73 on the 13th August 1912.
4. Charlotte Angas Scott (8th June 1858- 10th November 1931), Mathematician
Educated at Cambridge, Charlotte Angas Scott was unable to receive her bachelors as the university didn’t issue women degrees at that point. In 1880, Scott received permission to take the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. The prestigious course, which still runs today, is known to be difficult. Women were not allowed to take it, but Scott got eighth overall.
Those who got first class honours were called wranglers, but Scott was not allowed to receive the honour of ‘eighth wrangler.’ The students shouted her name anyway and though she was not permitted to attend the award ceremony, a party was held in her honour. Scott’s victory allowed women to now take the exam, though their results were separate to men and not included in the rankings.
Scott moved to America and helped found Bryn Mawr College, an all-girls university in Pennsylvania. She mentored many female mathematicians, wrote a book and became the first woman to join what would later become the American Mathematical Society.
Scott died aged 73 on the 10th November 1931, back in Cambridge, England.
5. Beatrice Shilling (8th March 1909- 18th November 1990), Spitfire engineer
Inquisitive from a young age, Shilling bought a motorcycle aged 14 and began tinkering. When she left school, she was apprenticed under an electrical engineering company led by Margaret Partridge. Partridge encouraged Shilling’s talent and Shilling later became one of the first women to study engineering at the University of Manchester.
After working in several research assistant posts, she joined the RAF just before the war. At the beginning of the war, it was discovered that Spitfires had a problem- when they nose dived, a problem with the system stopped the engine. Shilling created a tiny orifice calculated to exact calculations, which was a huge step towards eliminating the problem. Pilots called them ‘Miss. Shilling’s orifice’ or ‘Tilly’s orifice.’
She also raced motorbikes along with her husband. The pair enjoyed several wins and Shilling was even brought in to help with overheating in F1 cars. Shilling retired from the RAE (Royal Aircraft Establishment) in 1969.
Shilling died aged 81 on the 18th November 1990.
6. Margaret Allan (26th July 1909- 21st September 1998), Code Breaker and Race Car Driver
Born into a progressive family, Allan was permitted to drive as soon as she was old enough. Allan started racing in her family car and soon graduated to professional events, such as the Monte Carlo Rally. She turned to circuit racing and became one of only four women to win a 120MPH prize at Brooklands, Surrey. Allan would also take part in Le Mans as party of an all-female racing team.
Allan retired from racing upon marriage. During WW2 she was initially an ambulance driver, but later became a code breaker at Bletchley Park. After the war she was a motor journalist and lover of gardening.
Allan died aged 89 on the 21st September 1998.
7. Susan Travers (23rd September 1909- 18th December 2003), Only woman in the French Foreign Legion
An Englishwoman who spent a lot of her life in France, Travers was a nurse and ambulance driver in the country at the outbreak of war. When France fell to the Nazis, Travers joined up with the Free French movement. During this time, Travers was a driver in the Middle East.
Her car was attacked several times, with Travers having to repair it on the spot and driving it as it was shelled upon. She later worked in Italy and on the Western front. After the war was over, Travers became the only woman to be officially inducted into the French Foreign Legion. Her awards included the Légion d'honneur.
After the war, she married a fellow member of the Legion. They had two sons and soon moved to Paris to live out the rest of their lives.
Travers died aged 94 on the 18th November 2003.
8. Dorothy Hodgkin (12th May 1910- 29th July 1994), Nobel Prize winner
Born in Cairo but educated in England, Hodgkin was well travelled from an early age, exploring Sudan and Jordan with her archeological family. She entered Oxford to study chemistry and became only the third woman to achieve first class honours at the university. Hodgkin later studied for her PhD at Cambridge.
She returned to Oxford as a faculty member, with Margaret Thatcher as one of her students. Hodgkin was instrumental in discovering the structure of penicillin, steroids and insulin, the latter of which allowed it to become widely produced for diabetes sufferers. What Hodgkin was most famous for was her work on the structure of Vitamin B12, which netted her the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Hodgkin died aged 84 of a stroke on the 29th July 1994.
9. Noor Inayat Khan (1st January 1914- 13th September 1944), Spy
Born to an Indian Muslim noble and his American wife, Khan was born in Moscow but the family left for England as WW1 started. They moved to Paris a few years later, where Khan was educated. Khan was a writer and journalist when the war started.
She initially joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force but disliked the work. Khan was working as a wireless operator when she was hired as a spy for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). She was sent to France after turbulent training where she was nearly rejected from the programme. Organisers decided that Khan’s fluency in French and her position as the best wireless operator outweighed the drawbacks of sending her.
Khan was eventually betrayed and captured by the Nazis. She withstood torture but her notebooks were used as evidence. A faked wireless from Khan was used to lure agents to their death. When it was determined she wasn’t going to be of any use, Khan was sent to the infamous Dachau.
Khan was executed along with three other SOE women at Dachau on the 13th September 1944. Her last words were ‘Liberté.’
10. Eileen Nearne (16th March 1921- 2nd September 2010), Spy
The youngest of four children, Nearne and her family moved to France when she was two. Nearne and her sister moved back to London in 1940 whilst their parents and brothers remained in France.
Nearne’s skillset got her recruited to the SOE. Her sister Jacqueline was also a member. Initially Nearne worked in code breaking but was then sent to France as a wireless operator. She worked on financing operations and sent 105 messages in five months. Unfortunately, a transmission was discovered and the Nazis captured her.
Nearne was brutally tortured but managed to convince them she’d been paid by a businessman. When she refused to work she was sent to a forced labour camp and tortured again. Nearne eventually escaped with two other girls and when caught again by the SS, they managed to fool them and be released. The Americans initially didn’t believe their story upon liberation but they were eventually released to the British.
The two Nearne sisters lived together after the war. Nearne suffered from PTSD. After her sister died in 1987 she lived alone. Nearne died alone in her flat sometime in late summer 2010, her body was found presumably after several days on the 2nd September.