Lily Violet Bryant-Peterborough's First Female Mayor

Reverend Bosley, Lily Violet Bryant, Lady Craig, General Strong

This rather splendid photograph shows Lily Violet Bryant, known to all as Violet, in full mayoral splendour. On her right is her Chaplain, Reverend Bosley, the vicar of Peterborough, and on her left is Lady Craig, her Mayoress and General Strong. She also appointed Councillor Eric Mays Hayward as her Deputy. 

Violet has two firsts to her name. She was the first female councillor in Peterborough in 1930 and in 1938 she was Peterborough’s first mayor.

Lily Violet Bryant, nee Hickes, was born on 10th June 1882, at her grandparents’ residence, Elm House in Hornsey, Middlesex.

Violet’s grandparents were Leopold and Emily Keller. Leopold was a successful, and wealthy, diamond and pearl merchant and goldsmith. Elm House was impressive and when Lily was born there was a staff of five indoor servants and a coachman.

Violet was one of five surviving children born to William Hickes and Louisa Keller. Baby Charles died at just a month old in 1880.

Violet was the middle child. Her older siblings were William Leopold, 4 years her senior and Emily Katherine, known as Katie, 5 years her senior. Her younger siblings were Lancelot Daryl two years her junior and Marguerite Christine three years her junior.

Education was important to the Hickes family. William attended Clifton College in Bristol before training as an accountant, whilst Lancelot attended a private school in Bedford before joining the army where he ultimately reached the rank of Major General.

Katie attended a boarding school in Dresden, and at just 13 years of age, after attending school in Chiswick, Violet was sent to keep her sister company.

On returning to England Violet’s social class left her with limited options for work and like so many other young ladies, she took a post as a governess for the Woolner family.

In the early years of the twentieth century Violet was a young lady about town, from a successful family, who embraced success. But love was in the air for young Violet.

On the 6th October 1902, Violet married Charles William Bryant, at the Holy Innocents Church, Hornsey. Their marriage was celebrated in style, with a wedding breakfast for one hundred guests, at Elm House.  

The description of the wedding in the newspaper report creates a wonderful picture. It reads that the bride wore white satin with a chiffon yolk and sleeves. Her veil was held in place with a wreath of orange blossoms, and these complimented her bouquet which consisted of orange blossoms, along with roses and lilies. She also wore an ornament of diamond and turquoise which was a gift from her grandfather. Amongst her attendants were her sister Marguerite and Miss Juliet Woolner, Violet’s charge when she was a governess. The newspaper also recorded that the wedding gifts were ‘numerous and costly but beautiful and useful’.

The newlyweds started their married lives at ‘Semplemarsh’ in Addlestone, Surrey, and it was here that their first two children were born, Phyllis Mary in 1903 and Helen Katherine in 1905.

Violet’s husband, Charles Bryant, is another notable Peterborian. He worked for Peter and Stanley Brotherhood. Their company was based in Belverdere, London, and named after its founder Peter Brotherhood senior. Charles became the general manager of their naval department. In 1907 after having difficulties with the water supply to drive their machinery, Charles assisted Stanley in the removal of the company to Peterborough. When the company took the next step and went public Charles became a managing director.

The move to Peterborough in 1907 resulted in the family taking on the lease of Charnwood, in Fletton. As befitted her station she held ‘at Home’ days, where she received visitors, including Sir Ernest Shackleton. The local ladies were probably in awe of her connections and her staff, which included a cook, parlour maid, housemaid, nanny and various nursery maids, gardener, knife boy and boot boy. The families time at Charnwood brought great happiness to the Bryants, as it was there that their son Charles Stanley Daryl, known as John, arrived in 1908.

Violet’s second eldest daughter, Helen, recalled her childhood in her memoirs’. Her memories of Charnwood make it sound like a country retreat. It had a path from the front door to the gate which was flanked by acacia trees, and a group of big chestnut trees adorned the lawn. These were raided by the local boys when chestnuts were in season. The Bryant children also skated on the flooded fields near the house when they froze. But their greatest adventure was to visit the brickworks.

She writes: ‘what I liked best…the old brickpits were flooded and had islands you could jump on to, and the working pits had a mechanical marvel of little trucks filled going up endlessly. The workers cut out clay with special spades, on terraces, and when they struck bones, a man from the archaeological society came and supervised the careful extraction of a whole dinosaur. The brick kilns worked individually, like art pottery kilns nowadays, and the high chimneys, usually in sets of 3, were landmarks.’

The Bryant’s next move was to the Vicarage in Stanground. They spent three years there from 1913 to 1916. Stanground is of course home to the fictional ‘Stoneground’ made famous in Canon Swain’s ghost stories, which were published in 1912. Helen said that the children found all the ghosts even before Canon Swain wrote about them.

If Canon Swain’s description of Stoneground is accurate I don’t think they improved their surroundings by moving away from Fletton. He says that ‘it was once a picturesque village, but now it is neither a village or picturesque’ this was due to the ‘unlovely signs of industry (that is the brick industry) which changed it’s population and aspect’.

It was at their next house that the family felt most at home - Westwood House. The family moved to Westwood House in 1916 and stayed for nearly twenty years. It was at Westwood House that the Bryant’s youngest daughter, Audrey Margaret was born in 1918, and it was always referred to by the family as ‘Dear Westwood’.

It is hard to believe that when the Bryant family moved to Westwood House it was on the edge of the countryside, and family walks included going through Thorpe Park to Longthorpe, and walks along the towpath to Holy Well and the monk’s fishponds.

Violet’s children’s childhoods sound like a scene from a Famous Five book. Helen had a science laboratory in the outbuildings, they played in the cellars and made dens from old venetian blinds in the hedges on the driveway, whilst Violet refused to have their first one valve radio in the house due to the risk from the acid.

But education was also important to Violet and Charles. Their son, John, attended Clare College, Cambridge, before joining his father at Brotherhoods as an engineer. Their daughters also received a good education, although Violet also wanted her daughters to be, and I quote, ‘little ladies’.

After starting their education at Miss Gibson’s Laurel Court, in Minster Precincts, the eldest Phyllis attended Boston House, Eastbourne then the Bedford Physical Education College, and Helen attended St. Michaels, Bognor, then Cheltenham Ladies College before attending University College, London.

Tragedy struck the family twice in close succession. On 2nd March 1935, Charles died. He was in his 69th year and had been unwell for some time. Violet’s grief was compounded when just six months later, on 17th September, her son, John, also died, after a long illness.

Westwood House must have seemed a lonely place for Violet and in 1935 she made the decision to move to Cleeve, in Park Road.

A girl’s school, under the leadership of Miss Somerville, moved into Westwood House, from Park Road. Violet took an active interest in the transformation of her home into school accommodation, especially as the move co-incided with the school’s 40th anniversary.

Violet was elected councillor on 1st November 1930 when she was one of two successful Conservative candidates for the West Ward seat. She received a record breaking 2,620 votes.

The Peterborough Standard praised Violet’s achievement saying that she received ‘all honour for breaking the city’s exclusively male tradition’. In fact, at this time Peterborough stood in almost splendid isolation in having no female councillors. Violet proved a popular choice, and she successfully defended her seat twice.

Violet was elected Mayor of the City of Peterborough, in November 1938. At Violet’s swearing in ceremony General Strong commented that this was a ‘unique occasion’ and her appointment was a very ‘important departure from precedence’.

Violet was appointed mayor on the 30th anniversary of the appointment of Britain’s first female Mayor. That honour belongs to Elizabeth Anderson. Elizabeth had also been the first woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon, and the first female magistrate. She was elected Mayor of Aldeburgh in 1908.

But Violet’s appointment may never have happened. Prior to the election there had been some reservation, and fear, that the senior members of the council would try to defer the appointment of a female mayor, as they had done before. But in the event no opposition was raised, and Violet was a popular choice.

Violet argued that certain areas of local administration could only be explored by women, and these areas included child welfare, child education, maternity work, and housing. 

The statistics for child welfare in 1933 makes for unpleasant reading. In that year 382 children had been helped by the NSPCC Peterborough office. That was more children than had been helped in any year since the Great War. The inspector had even found one child living with a cow.

Violet was more than a figurehead. She believed that you couldn’t make changes unless you were part of the broader political landscape, and she ensured that she engaged with local, national and international groups.  

She was a member of both the Primrose League and the National and International Council of Women. These were two pioneering groups.

The Primrose League was formed in 1883, by amongst others Randolph Churchill, Winston’s father. Its emblem was the primrose as this was the favourite flower of Benjamin Disraeli. The aim of the league was to spread conservative principles throughout Great Britain, and it achieved this by offering membership to associates at just a few pence. At the height of its popularity the Primrose League had more members than the trade union movement.  

The International League of Women was formed in 1888, in Washington, USA, by a group of women. Even today their aims seem daring and brave. They wanted to address the issues of gender bias and discrimination. International conferences were held so that delegates could share ideas and campaign for change and Violet attended conferences whenever she could including one in Montreal and one in Dubrovnik.

Closer to home Violet was a member of the Stanground Social Service Association. The association was founded in 1938, by the Vicar of Stanground, Mr Morley Wells. As a previous resident of the village Violet had a vested interest, but the aims of the society also aligned with her own as a councillor. They were fourfold: to promote welfare in Stanground, to promote reasonable dwellings and remove the caravans, to rid the parish of unsightly places and to rid the parish of the ‘dead ends’ in the village.

Being elected Mayor in 1938 means that Violet was in post when the Second World War was declared on 1st September 1939. She led the city when the country entered a period of great uncertainty, and fear, recalling as they must have the horrors of the Great War. Some may say that she was the city’s figurehead when the darkest days of the war were upon the country.

The minute books for the City of Peterborough from November 1938 to November 1941, when Violet was Mayor, record in detail the preparations that were made throughout the city in the months leading up to the declaration of war and in the first months of hostilities.   

Violet led the council in discussions as varied as air raid precautions, where to place air raid shelters, the establishment of watch committees, whether school children should wear gas masks, the purchase of vehicles for emergency ambulances, the installation of air raid sirens, the acquisition of land for allotments for the dig to victory campaign, the arrival of evacuees, and perhaps the most chilling of all the number and placement of civilian mortuaries.

An ongoing problem for the council was the increase in prices for a myriad of items, such as coal and paper, even blotting paper had increased in price by 33%. Added to those increases there was also additional expenditure required like black out material, A.R.P. provision and the issuing of 260 sets of undergarments and socks to the Civil Defence Service.

Violet not only sat on committees, but she was also active in war work. She worked with St John’s Ambulance and passed an examination in home nursing. She was also sister in charge of the First Aid post in St Martin’s Street. She worked with the ARP service and aided the Ministry of Information and food control. She also assisted with the Women’s Services Canteen and was Chairman of the women’s section of the British Legion and was a vital member of the Memorial Hospital’s maintenance committee.

The 1939 National Register, which was taken on 29th September is an historical entry as it shows her occupation as Mayor of Peterborough. Living with her at 2 Westwood Park Road was her daughter Audrey.

The National Register confirms that Violet was active in the war effort, it records that she was in the St Johns Ambulance and the WVS. But it wasn’t just Violet. This extract also shows that her daughter had answered the nation’s call and was a WVS driver.

In November 1940 Violet handed the reins of office over to James Alfred Bartram. The chamber thanked her for her ‘efficient services’ which she had ‘faithfully and zealously rendered to the city’.

It would be another twelve years before Peterborough elected another female Mayor, Mabel Wood, in 1952.

It may surprise you to know that since 1874, that’s 150 years of mayoral records, there has been 137 mayors, of course some served for more than one year. Of those only 16 were female. The full list of female mayors is on the screen, and familiar names may jump out at you like Maud Swift, Constance Gray and Audrey Chalmers.

One of Violet’s greatest passions was travel. In 1934 daughter Helen, a journalist, whose memoirs I have used extensively in this article, married Australian engineer, William Atkinson, and they settled in Australia. Phyllis, Violet’s eldest daughter, also chose Australia to make her home. Then in 1939 youngest daughter, Audrey, married Charles Emery, an articled clerk at Buckle Mellows, and they moved to Canada.

With her daughters living around the globe Violet had the opportunity to travel and she spent substantial periods of time away from Peterborough. Like a modern-day documentary her journeys were always reported in the local press, and on her return, she entertained local groups with talks about her adventures.

These journeys were not to be undertaken lightly. For example, to reach Vancouver, where Audrey lived, a seven-day voyage was followed by a four-day train journey across Canada.  

In 1960, at the age of 77, Violet emigrated permanently to Australia, to live with her daughter Phyllis at Mittagong. Phyllis was the Headmistress of Frensham, one of the Winifred West schools, in New South Wales.

Her departure was reported in the paper and her loss to her various interests in Peterborough must have been widely felt. At her farewell the mayor expressed his thanks for all she had done for the city, he said ‘she had put women on the map in city life’.

Violet made many friends in Mittagong, as was evidenced by the lovely letters of condolence the family received when she died, quickly and unexpectedly from a heart attack on 23rd February 1965, whilst travelling in a car.

Although Violet died in Australia, she is remembered alongside her husband and son in Eastfield cemetery.

Memorial services were also held St John’s church. The Venerable C. J. Grimes led the service and paid tribute to a woman of clear principles and ideas which had root in her deep personal faith. He spoke from personal experience as Violet had welcomed him, and his family, when they arrived in Peterborough 32 years earlier. He also spoke of her loyalty and devotion not only to her friends but to the causes she supported.

Violet was a pioneer in Peterborough and her legacy should not be underestimated or forgotten.

Thanks to Dr Jane Atkinson for her support and willingness to share family photographs and her mother, Helen’s, memoirs.