The stories of the women recruited to the ±«Óãtv in the 1920s and 1930s are as varied as they are individual. Some joined the pioneering broadcasting organisation from offices and industry, some were university graduates, some got a foot in the door through family and friends. They would become part of what could be described as the 'Reithian' family, and with its 'office boy to Director General' mentality, there was the chance to excel.
When Olive May arrived in March 1923, the ±«Óãtv had just moved to its new home at Savoy Hill in London, where it would remain for almost 10 years. Miss May, as she would be known, was to be the first telephone operator. Her new released interview from the ±«Óãtv Oral History Collection gives us the chance to hear one of the earliest accounts of a member of staff. And hers is a rare interview because she was not from a middle-class background, nor would she rise to a senior post. But her role was a crucial one and she was interviewed for the job by John Reith himself:
The interview portrays a ±«Óãtv bursting with activity and Miss May was soon so busy dealing with staff business during the day and taking listener's calls at night, that a second person was employed, to enable the switchboard to stay open until 10.30pm. And, she was often visited by Reith:
The audio recording also includes a surprising detail that relates to Miss May’s departure from the ±«Óãtv in 1928. It was because of her marriage to the Leeds-based engineer, Cecil Bottle, whom she had met over the telephone lines. Reith was so upset by this, that he even reprimanded his Chief Engineer, Peter Eckersley, about letting this happen, as Olive Bottle reveals:
Reith did forgive his star secretary. His diary entry for 27 January 1928 states, "Mrs Bottle, senior telephonist since 1923 departing today. I gave her a silver inkstand and went along to see her presents. She has been beyond praise in every way and I regret her going very much."
While most women were employed behind the scenes in clerical positions, some did rise to positions of considerable importance.
There are no recordings of the three women who would become department heads before the Second World War, Mary Somerville as Director of School Broadcasting, Hilda Matheson as Director of Talks and Isa Benzie as Foreign Director.
Reith, however, did record his first impressions of Mary Somerville, and very intense they were:
Mary Somerville would remain with the ±«Óãtv until her retirement in 1955. And Reith continued to remember Somerville as a driving force. Writing her obituary in The Times in 1963 he pondered "what this eager, restless, determined, irresistible pioneer, prince among men, and hero, is doing now".
Hilda Matheson was another Reith protégé, head-hunted to join the ±«Óãtv as its first Director of Talks, in 1927.
Although their working relationship would eventually falter, leading to Matheson's resignation in 1932, she spent five impressive years at the helm of what was then the most high-powered and controversial department of the ±«Óãtv, the Talks Department, one that dealt on a daily basis with the British cultural and political elite.
Janet Adam Smith joined the Corporation as a secretary in 1928, but quickly moved to work on the ±«Óãtv publication The Listener. In her oral history interview with Leonard Miall she spoke of Matheson as an inspiration:
Janet Adam Smith cut short her ±«Óãtv career in 1935, when she married. By then she had carved out a notable role for herself at The Listener, particularly overseeing its literary reviews.
As this extract from her interview shows, she worked closely with the Editor, Richard Lambert, and she was also prepared to upset John Reith, by publishing WH Auden's Modernist poem 'The Witnesses':
Janet Adam Smith, like Hilda Matheson and Mary Somerville, was an Oxford Graduate. Mary Lewis, who joined the ±«Óãtv in 1938, had studied for her degree at London University.
Lewis would have a 38-year career with the Corporation, ultimately holding the significant post of Head of Pay Policy, but her first position was far lowlier, as a Temporary Checking Clerk in the Duplicating Office.
Looking back to her arrival at the ±«Óãtv, she remembered the intrinsic fascination of the job as well as the familial atmosphere. But, she also recalled that the rules were strict:
The excitement and cachet of working at the ±«Óãtv attracted a wide range of women. And by no means all were graduates. Kathleen Lines who established the Photographic Library, Florence Milnes who headed the Reference Library, Ella Fitzgerald and Elise Sprott who led the way on women's talks and Florence Minns who became a leading talent scout were all older women without degrees.
Probably the most famous 'rags to riches' story of the early ±«Óãtv is that of Doris Arnold. Her talent for playing the piano was spotted and she was promoted to staff accompanist (these were pianists who were employed full-time by the ±«Óãtv). She would then become Britain's first woman 'DJ' in 1937, with her gramophone programmes The Melody is There and These you have Loved.
Arnold, who had left school at sixteen to work as a clerk for the London County Council (LCC), had originally joined the ±«Óãtv as a 21-year old recruit in 1926. And it was with great relief, as she told Roy Plomley on Desert Island Discs in 1967.
Arnold made her name as an accompanist. She also produced music and variety programmes on the ±«Óãtv and would present These you have Loved until 1963.
Undoubtedly the most famous female employee who began her association with the ±«Óãtv before the war was Grace Wyndham Goldie. Goldie recorded several extensive interviews for the ±«Óãtv Oral History Collection, including an account of early married life in Liverpool, where her husband was an actor. She described how she picked up work linked to the theatre - as a writer of its history, a reader of plays and a lecturer on drama.
It was this theatrical experience that led her to become the Drama Critic for The Listener, in 1935 - and it happened by a chance encounter. Settling into a new life in London, she was a guest at a dinner party, as she explained:
Grace Wyndham Goldie's reflections are especially revealing. Like the other newly released Oral History Collection interviews, they give a fresh perspective on working lives at the ±«Óãtv in the 1920s and 1930s.
In Wyndham Goldie's case, the confidence she displays would lead to her becoming the doyenne of current affairs in the 50s and 60s. They also show how the Corporation was open to bright, motivated, determined women, many of whom did make a significant mark and could have long and successful careers.
Suggested Reading
- Dr. Kate Murphy, Behind the Wireless: An Early History of Women at the ±«Óãtv (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).