Cecily Mary Cook OBE née Graves (1889/90–1962) was an English left-wing political activist. She worked for the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and the Co-operative Women's Guild.
Career
editLittle is known of Cecily Graves' early life, since she came from a poor background in London.[1][2] Before World War I, she was involved with the suffragette movement.[3] In 1920, she joined the Co-operative Women's Guild's Earlsfield branch in London. She worked for the Independent Labour Party (ILP), compiling political notes for speakers and MPs. She also supported Clement Attlee as chief woman worker when he stood for Parliament in 1922 and 1923, later standing herself as a council of London member in Wandsworth in 1925, representing the Co-operative Women's Guild.[1] After the ILP split away from the Labour Party in 1932, Cook left the party.[3]
Between 1933 and 1938 she worked at the Co-operative Women's Guild's head office.[1] She later held the post of General Secretary from 1940 until she retired in 1953 and she became President of the International Women's Guild.[4][3] She attended the International Council of Women in London in 1952.[3] In 1948, Cook received the Order of the British Empire.[5]
Personal life
editCook married Herbert G. N. Cook in 1909. They had a son together, who died at the age of 19. After her husband died, Cook cohabited with Arthur Thomas Hagg, an artist.[1] She died at the Whittington Hospital in north London on 28 June 1962 and was cremated at Golders Green crematorium on 3 July 1962.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e "Cook [née Graves], Cecily Mary". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53630. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Darling, Elizabeth; Whitworth, Lesley (2 March 2017). Women and the Making of Built Space in England, 1870–1950. Routledge. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-351-87220-1.
- ^ a b c d "COOK Cecily Mary [née GRAVES] - Maitron". Le Maitron. 12 December 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
- ^ Scott, Gillian (11 August 2005). Feminism, Femininity and the Politics of Working Women: The Women's Co-Operative Guild, 1880s to the Second World War. Routledge. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-135-36031-3.
- ^ "Supplement to the London Gazette 1 January 1948". The London Gazette. No. 38161. 30 December 1947. Retrieved 24 October 2020.