Meaningful names: five pioneering women
The five women behind the names of the housing development on Wimborne Street and Buckland Street, Hoxton.
In 2020, a review into place names and memorials discovered that few women had been recognised across Hackney’s public realm. Those that were featured represented entertainers, writers or local politicians; a narrow reflection of local achievements.
The development of five new housing blocks in Hoxton provided an opportunity to add women’s stories into Hackney’s public realm. These feature women pioneers who lived, worked, and studied in Hackney. Their selection was based on the theme of science, maths and medicine. As pioneers in these fields, each is an inspiration to all, achieving what was thought impossible, not only for themselves but for the benefit of others and the women that followed.
Each of the women featured here were re-discovered and researched by volunteers at the Hackney Society, and their publication: Women from Hackney’s History (now part of a series) and available to purchase.
Margaretta Beaufoy (1763-1800)
A talented mathematician, making significant contributions to the experiments of her husband, Mark Beaufoy, an astronomer and physicist.
1789 pastel portrait of Margaretta Beaufoy, only child of Benjamin and Sarah Beaufoy of Homerton. Copyright Gildings Auctioneers.
Living at a time when women could not publish their own research papers, Margaretta’s mathematics helped her husband, Mark Beaufoy (1764-1827), with his research which enabled him to be the first Englishman to climb Europe’s highest peak Mont Blanc, having successfully calculated the latitude. She lived and died in Hackney Wick and is buried in St. John's church yard, in Hackney Central.
Margaretta died aged just 36 leaving seven children.
Margaretta’s tomb in St. John’s Churchyard, Hackney.
Elsie Hooper (1879-1969)
A pioneering pharmacist, active suffragist, businesswoman and lecturer.
Elise Seville Hooper was born at 174 Amhurst Road, Hackney. Image from The Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum collections.
Elsie was educated at Pond House, Clapton and the North London Collegiate School. She enrolled at the University of London in January 1899 becoming a student at the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (PSGB) School of Pharmacy in Bloomsbury Square, London. In 1901 she was a registered chemist and druggist. She passed the PSGB Major examination and registered as a pharmaceutical chemist on 16 April 1902; her address on registration was 52 Clapton Common, London.
In 1902 Hooper was awarded the Pharmaceutical Society’s Redwood Research Scholarship, the first woman to achieve this since its foundation in 1888. She became one of the first women to qualify as a pharmacist in 1904.
From 1920 to 1942 Elsie Hooper worked at the Gordon Hall School of Pharmacy, Gordon Square, London, first as a lecturer and then as proprietor.
She owned two pharmacies in London, providing women with essential work experience and apprenticeships. She represented her profession in a significant suffragette march, campaigning for women's suffrage.
You can access Elise’s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for free using your Hackney Library membership number (noted on your library card).
Verena Holmes (1889-1964)
A brilliant engineer and inventor, Holmes dedicated much of her time to encouraging the development of other women engineers.
Verena Holmes co-founded an engineering company that only employed women in 1946, photographed here in 1956. Copyright: John Drysdale, licensed by Getty Images
Whilst building wooden propellers during World War I (1914-1918), she was studying at evening classes at the progressive Shoreditch Technical Institute on Pitfield Street, Hoxton. By 1919 she has secured a position as an apprentice draughtsman, producing technical drawings.
She continued her education, graduating from Loughborough Engineering College with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1922. In 1924 Holmes became the first woman to be elected a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, marking a significant moment for the institution. Holmes was an advocate for women in engineering and in 1955 compiled the ‘Training and Opportunities for Women in Engineering’ booklets for the Women's Engineering Society.
Throughout her career, Verena Holmes patented a number of inventions from medical treatments to steam locomotives. When she died aged 74 her legacy continued with the Verena Holmes annual lectures. A prestige award in her name has been issued by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers since 2015.
Dr Helen Mackay (1891-1965)
An eminent and influential paediatrician, working in Hackney.
Image courtesy of the Royal College of Physicians.
Scottish born, Mackay spent her childhood in Burma as result of her fathers military career and was educated at home. She entered Cheltenham Ladies’ College at 15 and went on to study at the London School of Medicine for Women (later the Royal Free Hospital), qualifying in 1914. It was very difficult at that time for women to pursue a career in a medical speciality but there were some opportunities in paediatrics and she managed to obtain an appointment as house physician and surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children on Hackney Road.
She held various house appointments and was then awarded a Beit memorial fellowship by the Lister Institute in 1920. In 1919/20 Mackay became the first female house physician and surgeon at the Queens Hospital for Children in Hackney. In 1922 Mackay joined a research team to investigate the rise of rickets in children in the aftermath of the First World War (1914-1918) in Vienna. The study provided important evidence of the role of omega 3 and sunlight to aid Vitamin D for prevention and cure of childhood rickets. Mackay also observed that anaemia was even more common and that anaemic infants improved with iron therapy.
On her return to London she continued this research.
In 1926 Mackay was appointed as the first honorary paediatrician to the Mothers’ Hospital, Lower Clapton Road (Hackney Archives, P10156)
She served the Mothers’ hospital until her retirement from the National Health Service in 1958. Whilst there, she prepared an iron sulphate preparation, which the staff dubbed “Mist Helen Mackay”. It was given to all children suspected of iron deficiency anaemia.
More than 70 years after her studies were conducted, EU legislation dictates that all manufacturers of infant formula milk must add supplementary iron to their products.
Mackay never married but lived with Loral Goodfellow with whom she wrote one of her first papers on anemia, and who became her lifelong companion.
Barbara Burford (1944-2010)
A pioneer in learning and social change as a researcher for the NHS and civil service, a lifelong diversity activist, playwright and poet.
Barbara Yvonne Veronica Burford was born in Jamaica in 1944 and moved to the UK aged 10. She attended Dalston County Grammar School, Hackney.
Image from the Papers of Barbara Burford, Glasgow Womens Library (copyright unknown - please contact culture@hackney.gov.uk for take down).
Burford had a long career in the health and medical profession, first entering the NHS in 1964 as a specialist in electron microscopy. Later she joined the Institute of child health at Great Ormond street Hospital, London.
In 1980 she contributed to the first Black British women's anthology of poetry, A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets. The anthology was described in the academic journal Hecate as "a gift" and a "testimony to the depth of Black feeling and the complex power inherent in Black love". Burford's writing was included in the anthology Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby, 1992).
Burford's 1984 play Patterns was commissioned by Changing Women's Theatre. The play focused on women's labour and was performed at the Oval Theatre, London.
Burford moved from medical research to support equality and diversity in the health profession. Between 1999-2002 she was Director of Equality at the Department of Health. In 2001 Burford was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford in recognition of her contributions to equality and diversity. In 2005 she was appointed Deputy Director of the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity at the School of Health Studies, Bradford University. After her death in 2010 the University established an annual legacy lecture in memory of Burford given as part of the International Making Diversity Interventions Count annual conference.
Barbara entered into a civil partnership in 2007 and remained with her partner until her death in 2010. In 2017 Gay Times included her in the Gay Times honours list, set up to recognise LGBT individuals. Barbara Burford's personal papers are cared for at the Lesbian Archive and open for research at the Glasgow Women's Library.