In my last post, I introduced the Crowd Cymru project that brings together volunteers to work remotely on digital archival collections from Gwent Archives, Glamorgan Archives, and Cardiff University Special Collections & Archives.
Read it here: Welcome to Crowd Cymru - National Library of Wales.
Our family has since expanded and we are proud to introduce Carmarthenshire Archives, Conwy Archives, Swansea University Libraries and Archives, and University of Wales Trinity Saint David Library and Learning Resources, as new Crowd Cymru partners.
Originally funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we were then fortunate to receive funding from the National Library of Wales and are currently funded by the Welsh Government.
Previous posts have reported on project news and achievements but, here we will be looking at an example of archives at their most accessible best, signposting the way through collections, and enabling those connections so vital in bringing stories together.
One such connection concerns the subject if this post, a most accomplished woman named Blanche Baker-Gabb who has pulsed to light and ran, like an electric current, through a circuit board of archives, digital collections and heritage repositories in a profound and gratifying way.
She was originally found within a collection our volunteers are currently working on, and then within a family archive held at the National Library Wales and finally, within a 100-year-old peace petition signed by almost 400,000 Welsh women in the aftermath of WWI.
![Blanche Baker-Gabb passport photograph 1920 [National Library of Wales] Blanche Baker-Gabb passport photograph 1920 [National Library of Wales]](/fileadmin/images_gwefan/new_structure/blog/2024/202412/blanche_passport_photo.jpg)
Let’s begin with our volunteers working on early minutes books of the Llanwenarth Women’s Institute [WI]. Llanwenarth is a small village in the Usk Valley of Monmouthshire, close to Abergavenny. Several WI groups from this area have placed their records [minutes, committee books, general ephemera, photographs etc.], in the very capable hands of Gwent Archives.
Minutes books are a fascinating chronicle of activities and, our volunteers, were initially surprised at the sheer amount of work, this WI managed to cram in, as they transcribed page after page. They became enchanted with access to a “forgotten world”, a time devoid of the digital technology that so dominates our lives today. The early books begin just after WWI and activities consist of fundraising for good causes [always a top priority], lectures, competitions, fetes, concerts, days out, and [of course], the obligatory Whist drives. Then as the years roll by, we see the WI prepare for WWII by growing vegetables, knitting mittens for the troops, and partaking of home nursing classes.
A recurring aspect of these records are names; WI committee members, those present at rollcall, those involved in copious sub-committees and those thanked for specific stand-out work and kindnesses. One such name peppered through these reports is that of our Miss Blanche. Mentions of her are numerous, she is listed as attending the first annual outing of the Llanwenarth WI in July 1919 [along with her nephew], was Vice-President for a number of years, hosted numerous fundraising summer garden parties in the beautiful grounds of her home, appears on sub-committees for Christmas concerts, Easter and Harvest Festivals and organised lectures and demonstrations. She appears to have thrown herself wholeheartedly into the philanthropic business of the WI.
![Llanwenarth W.I. Minutes Book, June 1923 [Gwent Archives] Llanwenarth W.I. Minutes Book, June 1923 [Gwent Archives]](/fileadmin/images_gwefan/new_structure/blog/2024/202412/llanwenarth_wi_minutes.jpg)
The next pulse of light, leads us to the Baker-Gabb family archive, deposited, at various repositories including The National Archives and the National Library of Wales. Included in the latter are the standard family and household papers you would expect to find. But this archive also contains a collection of registers of handwritten meteorological (thermometer, barometer, and rain gauge) readings recorded at the Baker-Gabb residence, The Chain, during the period 1881-1947. The Chain was a beautiful house with a two-acre Victorian walled garden in Abergavenny, purchased by Richard Baker Gabb in 1918. Richard had married Rosa Mary Middleton in 1863 and they had four children, Richard Frederick, John Walter, Constance Mary and the youngest, Blanche Rosa Minnie (1874-c.1953).
We learn more about Blanche in the meteorological registers. These weather readings appear to have been recorded by Blanche’s older brother, Richard Frederick, as all other members of the family are mentioned in the third person. Along the bottom of each of the intricately detailed tables is a tiny diary entry recording the daily life of the family. From these excerpts we learn that Blanche, being from an affluent family, was able to enjoy a comfortable, carefree, and social life. She visits Cardiff, London & Scotland regularly, lunches out with a long list of friends, plays lots of golf and tennis and travelled abroad extensively to locations such as the Austrian Tyrol, Italy, Norway, Sicily, and Switzerland.
![The Chain Papers, 1780-1972 [Baker-Gabb family] meteorological register entry 30 January 1912 The Chain Papers, 1780-1972 [Baker-Gabb family] meteorological register entry 30 January 1912](/fileadmin/images_gwefan/new_structure/blog/2024/202412/chain_papers.jpg)
However, there was more to Blanche than high society living, she was a suffragette, regularly attending meetings and was listed as a member of the cause in Women’s Suffrage: The Common Cause of Humanity from as early as 1914. She was an active member of many societies including Secretary of the Abergavenny branch of the Girl’s Friendly Society, regularly attending national society meetings in London. She was also on the local Eisteddfod committee and from 1915 onwards, attended Red Cross, Women on the Land, and War Agricultural Committee meetings.
That said, in the 1921 Census, we find her staying in London at 31a Mortimer Street. The census form is signed by Mrs Octavia Boyd and the 38 names on the form make for an interesting read. The majority are staff such as housekeeper, parlour maid, waitress, porter etc., and list their employ as Miss Debenham, Ladies Club at 31a Mortimer Street. Those not employed at the club, like Blanche, are listed as visitors and whereas a number, like Blanche, are listed as not employed, there are many with varied employments such as the Young Women’s Christian Association, Salop Education Authority, and National Baby Week Council. Alongside these are also a book illustrator, several nurses, a trained masseuse and a musician. Unfortunately, no information is currently forthcoming on Octavia Boyd and the Miss Debenham Ladies Club but Mortimer Street has an interesting history. It appears to have been the location of some of the earliest women-only housing in the country, some created by private companies, others by charitable organisations such as the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Girls’ Friendly Society.
Blanche’s final pulse of light on our hypothetical circuit board is her name on a petition in amongst 390, 296 signatures of Welsh women who endeavoured to safe-guard world peace after the horrors of WWI. The petition was organised by the Welsh League of Nations Union [WLNU], it was a plea from the women of Wales to the women of America to persuade their President to join and lead the newly established League of Nations. They appealed to America ‘from home to home’ and from ‘hearth to hearth’ in a call for ‘LAW NOT WAR’.
This campaign was a remarkable Wales-wide effort involving almost every household, through peace activists going door to door. A delegation, led by WLNU Chair, Annie Hughes-Griffiths travelled from Wales to America in March 1924 to present the petition to the President, Calvin Coolidge and then to embark on a 2 month ‘Peace Tour’ of the States, building support through American women’s organisations involving over 60 million people.
The National Lottery Heritage Funded project, Hawlio Heddwch has been celebrating this centenary of this event, run by Academi Heddwch, Welsh Centre for International Affairs [WCIA]and partners. Numerous petition-related community projects have been held, and names and addresses on the petition are being transcribed by volunteers and uploaded to the following fully searchable database: The Welsh Women's Peace Petition - Home.
![Blanche Baker-Gabb signature on the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition 1923 [National Library of Wales] Blanche Baker-Gabb signature on the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition 1923 [National Library of Wales]](/fileadmin/images_gwefan/new_structure/blog/2024/202412/blanche_petition_signature.jpg)
In conclusion, the work our Crowd Cymru volunteers are doing enables research like this. Thanks to this project we found Blanche hidden within the minutes of the Llanwenarth WI, this lead to finding her in the Baker-Gabb family archive at the National Library Wales where we learned more about her home life and then, a fitting end, her signature was found on the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition. Blanche never married, living all her life at The Chain until she passed away in 1953, aged 79. It was no surprise to find her name on the petition, given her tireless philanthropic activities, and passion for the suffrage cause but, it was still a thrill.
Archives are full of characters like Blanche, perhaps unexceptional in the grand scheme of things but whose stories tell us so much about the time in which they lived, a time very different from our own. Blanche was fortunate to have been born into a life of privilege and could easily have lived out a leisurely existence but instead, she filled her time with good deeds and charitable endeavours. Her story deserves to be told and while our volunteers are working to improve access and searchability, we look forward to finding and telling more stories.
If you’d like to join our Crowd Cymru volunteers do get in touch.
Jennifer Evans
Digital Volunteering Project Officer / Swyddog Prosiect Gwirfoddoli Digidol
Twitter: CrowdCymru
Email / Ebost: jennifer.evans@gwentarchives.gov.uk
More information on Blanche and her family at National Library Wales can be found here: Personal papers of Blanche Rosa Minnie Baker-Gabb, 1874-c.1953
Read more about the history of Mortimer Street here: Safe spaces for working women: Mortimer Street in late Victorian and Edwardian times - The Fitzrovia News
This blog post titled Connections through digital archives: the life of Blanche Baker-Gabb as seen through Crowd Cymru, National Library Wales and the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition by Jennifer Evans is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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