“Birdy” Bondfield

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 21

“Birdy” Bondfield

HOW THE FIRST WOMAN CABINET MINISTER TOOK UP SOCIAL WORK

REMINISCENCES A resident of Chard, in Somerset, v.ho has known Miss Margaret Bondfield and her family for many years, in a recent interview described the tiny country cottage in which she and hei; ten brothers and sisters were brought up. The name of the Bondfield family, one of the oldest in Somerset, was originally, he said, de Bonville. When Miss Bondfield left home and took her first job as assistant in a draper’s shop she used to be nicknamed “Birdy,” and many of her old acquaintances still call her by this name. It was the harsh treatment meted out to herself and her fellow employees in this draper’s shop which first induced her to try to better the lot of the shop girl, and as a reward for her services she was given the post of junior secretary to the Shop Assistants’ Union with a salary of £2 a week. Now she has £5,000 a year it is unlikely that she will change her simple mode of living. She likes the country, and there is nothing which gives her more pleasure than a walk along country lanes.