Caroline Selina Ganley (1879-1966) - Activist and Participator
Caroline Selina Ganley
Caroline Selina Ganley was one of the early twentieth century’s most active and energetic co-operative movement activists and politicians who fully participated in the fight for rights and then once achieved took advantage of them. She was born in Plymouth in 1879, the daughter of a tailor and was educated at church and national schools. Ganley illustrates well an activist who started at a grassroots level and took advantage of women’s advances throughout her lifetime.
In 1906 Ganley became active in left-wing politics and stood in opposition to the Boer War, a fairly radical stance to take as a women who did, could be attacked as unpatriotic or not understanding the issues fully as war is a male preserve. Dismayed by the poor living and working conditions of the communities in which she lived, Ganley joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1906. She was also active in the suffrage movement and played a leading role in establishing a socialist women's circle in Battersea and developing it into a branch of the Women's Labour League (later the Labour Party women's sections).
In 1914 she was involved in the British Committee of the International Congress for Peace and Freedom, a group including anti-war suffragists who detached themselves from the more patriotic National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies to work with European women for peace. She was therefore, on the radical side of politics and acting with her conscience.
Caroline S Ganley MP CBE
Following World War One, Ganley's politics moved gradually rightwards and, although geared more to reformism, she was no less energetic and passionate in championing her favourite causes. She joined the Co-operative Party and Labour Party and by November 1919 had won a seat on Battersea Borough Council where she served until 1925. Thereby, extending Margaret Llewelyn Davies call to women to become involved in the public sphere and to influence politics through persuasion and peaceful campaigns into being a women involved in the formal structures of politics. She quickly established herself as Chair of the Health Committee, and was instrumental in setting up a well-equipped maternity home that opened in Battersea in 1921 thereby, fulfilling an aim of the Women’s Co-operative Guild National Care of Maternity programme to provide specialised homes for maternity care. During these years she became one of the first women magistrates in London, served as a London County Councillor and as a member of the London County Education Committee.
By the 1930s, Ganley was determined to take advantage of her right to stand for Parliament and unsuccessfully contested Paddington North in 1935. At the 1945 General Election, Ganley was elected as Member of Parliament for Battersea South. She narrowly held the seat in 1950 but was defeated by Conservative Ernest Partridge in 1951. Whilst in Parliament, she campaigned vigorously for national health care and made her maiden speech on the subject. Ganley was appointed CBE in 1953, and in the same year was re-elected to Battersea Borough Council where she continued to serve until 1965. She was therefore recognised for her achievement as a female in politics.
Ganley was also one of the most active women in the co-operative movement and was elected director of the West London Society in 1918. Women had been allowed to be members of co-operative societies since, at least, the 1820s but it was still relatively rare for them to be on the board and rarer still for them to be director. The West London Society merged with the London Co-operative Society in 1921 and in 1942 she became the first woman president of the London Co-operative Society, at the time the largest retail society in the country with 792,000 members in that year and therefore a staggering achievement for a women. Furthermore, she belonged to the Lavender Hill branch of the Women's Co-operative Guild and held a number of official positions in the guild's national committee structure including a place on the south-eastern sectional council. She was an experienced and respected guildswoman, knowledgeable on such diverse subjects as tariffs and the consumer, married women's nationality rights, and the supply of milk to schoolchildren all themes close to the Guild’s campaigning heart since Margaret Llewelyn Davies. Ganley’s knowledge earned her the place as the only woman to represent England on the Cost of Living Inquiry Committee of 1936. In June 1943 she was honoured by the guild as one of the speakers at its diamond jubilee demonstration at the Royal Albert Hall.
Mrs Ganley when she, died in London on 31 August 1966, aged eighty-six, had achieved a remarkable amount for the cause of women by fighting for and taking advantage of opportunities and rights that previously had been denied women.
The Bishopsgate Institute holds:
- Typescript unpublished autobiography of Caroline Selena Ganley, c1955
- Miscellaneous papers concerning her career and work, including desk diary and miscellaneous papers and correspondence, 1916-1966
