Who put together this website?
In February 2021 the five of us got together (via Zoom) to try and come up with ways we could help establish Margaret Llewelyn Davies in her proper place in history and give her the recognition she deserves.
Ruth Cohen's biography had been published the previous year and, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the planned book launch events had not taken place. We decided that as Women's History Month was just approaching it would be a good time to make a start. So we set up a Twitter account, @LlewelynDaviesM, and started to develop this website.
Margaret was my great aunt and - though I was only 11 when she died - she was an important part of our family during those years. She and Lilian were our closest neighbours in Dorking and I often used to pop in to visit her. We shared a love of poetry.
It was not until many years later that I came to realise the astonishing extent of her contribution to women's welfare through the co-operative movement.
Ruth Cohen
I discovered Margaret and the Guild years ago while studying social history, and ever since have been fascinated by both. Much later, I was lucky enough to have the time to research and write her biography.
It has been a real joy to explore this exceptional woman’s life and work - and, I hope, to make her story better known.
Emma Dogliani
I am one of Margaret’s great great nieces. I was very pleased to be able to attend when my mother unveiled a plaque in Kirby Lonsdale as well as giving a concert in the church where her father was vicar for many years while she ran the Women’s Cooperative guild from the vicarage. The more I have heard about Margaret both from my mother Jane Wynne Willson and the new biography by Ruth Cohen, the more proud I have become of being a descendent. She has inspired me in my recent involvement in Criminal Justice. I am very keen that her work receives more recognition and have also applied for a blue plaque in her honour at her London address.
Ruth Wilson
I am Jane Wynne Willson's elder daughter, and Emma's sister, which makes me another one of Margaret's great great nieces. I have often heard Jane talk about Aunt Margaret and Lilian, particularly about the 14-month period when they lived together during the second world war.
At that time the family were up in the Lake District where they had a house called Broad How in Patterdale. They were a family of women: Jane's mother, Theodora Calvert, her aunt Mary (Min) Llewelyn Davies, her sisters Mary and Judith, Aunt Margaret and Lilian. You can read more about this period in Margaret's life in the history section of the Broad How website.
Judith Nesbit
My involvement with the Margaret Llewellyn Davies project stems from the fact that Ruth Cohen, the author, is my sister, and I applauded from the side-lines over years as she wrote her gripping and impeccably-researched book.
As plans for the website began to take shape, I came to be involved in an editorial role, lending an eye to some points of punctuation and structure, and participating in meetings with the two Ruths, Jane and Emma, who have been involved throughout.
