Florence White devoted life to fighting for women's pension rights

Recently we covered the inspiring story of Julia Varley, Bradford’s first prominent female trade unionist with a national reputation. Nearly one generation later emerged another working-class campaigning heroine - Florence White (1886 -1961). Unlike Julia she wasn’t a lifelong trade unionist, but personal circumstances led her to fight for a single pensions reform, which was to benefit millions of women.

Florence was born in East Bowling, the middle child in a family of three children. Her mother was an illiterate mill worker. Her father left the family home in 1889. Florence attended Bowling Back Lane Board School and left aged 12 to work a 12-hour day at a local mill. Aged 18, after a breakdown, she left the mill. With her sister, she earned a living from piano lessons and dress-making. She became engaged, but her fiance died a year later in World War One. Neither she nor her sister were to marry.

Florence developed a strong interest in politics and joined the Liberal Party, becoming the secretary of the Lidget Green branch. She came into contact with many unmarried women who suffered real hardship, dying before they reached 65. She became increasingly concerned about their lack of financial security. In response she started set up a sub-committee in her Liberal Party branch looking at women’s pensions. Then she decided to start a campaign. In April 1935 she advertised a public meeting at Bradford Mechanics’ Institute. She hoped for 150 attendees, but 600 came. By the end of the evening the National Spinsters’ Pensions Association (NSPA) was formed with the demand that spinsters should receive a pension of 10 shillings per week at 55 years old, not 65.

By the end of 1935 the NSPA had 16 branches and several thousand members. They described themselves as war spinsters who should have been married, except for the accident of war. Their slogan ‘Equity with the Widow’ claimed equality with widows who from 1931 had been able to claim pensions from the age of 55.

During the 1935 general election she sent a pamphlet to candidates for all parties noting that if they were ‘spinster-conscious’ then they could rely on the electoral support of spinsters. She addressed meetings and initiated new branches across the country.

Florence addressing a meeting (Image: Submitted)

On Saturday June 27, 1936 the NSPA held a demonstration at the Kingsway Hall in London, and a thousand members marched to Hyde Park, singing their song to the tune of God Bless the Prince of Wales:

‘Come Spinsters, Call attention, And show that you’re alive, Arise demand your pension, When you are fifty-five. There is no earthly reason, To wait another day, If you will get together, Unitedly and say, We Spinsters call attention, To show that we’re alive. Demand we all our pension, When we are fifty-five...’

The NSPA was an increasingly visible political force which drew up a Spinsters’ Charter. In November Florence stood as a parliamentary candidate in a by-election at Preston North to advance the cause. Although she polled over 3,000 votes, she lost her deposit. In July 1937 the association collected a petition with over a million signatories in support, which they took to London in a decorated wagon from Bradford.

Plaque in tribute to Florence White at Kirkgate in Bradford (Image: Submitted)

That Christmas over 10,000 spinsters sent cards to Sir Kingsley Wood, the Minister of Health. A year later The Spinster, the association’s newsletter, reported a membership of 140,000 with 104 branches. They focused on lobbying MPs. By 1937 they estimated that 120 MPs were ‘spinster-conscious’; this would increase to 240 by the end of 1938. In 1937 they began to push for a Private Members’ Motion to complete an inquiry into the spinsters’ cause, and in February 1938 William Leach, MP for Central Bradford, put the NSPA case to Parliament.

By the end of 1938 Florence had also been featured on cinema screens, and the Picture Post dedicated five pages to a Bradford rally. In April the Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed a Committee on Pensions for Unmarried Women. Florence canvassed public assistance committees for the evidence she then presented for six hours in support of the NSPA case. Some leading women’s organisations and trade unions weren’t supportive, fearing an earlier pension age would encourage discrimination against women, undermine equal pay campaigns, reduce wages and could force women out of employment. Reporting in April 1939, the Government Committee was sympathetic to the issues Florence and the NSPA had raised, but decided that the case was not established.

Florence devoted her life to campaigning for women's pension rights (Image: Submitted)

Then, in January 1940, in a surprise move, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that pensions were to be paid to insured spinsters and wives of pensioners at 60 years age, rather than for 55-year-olds. This partial victory represented the culmination of the steady pressure the NSPA had brought to bear for over five years. Whether widowed or not, a woman might now retire at 60 and claim a pension, providing that she had worked and paid her National Insurance stamps.

The NSPA was the largest women’s campaigning group of the 1930s. It offered not only a voice to the single working-class woman but also a social outlet. These women had been a ‘submerged group in pre-war society’ (Diana Prickett, biographer) and Florence had shown them ‘how to surface’. For a working-class woman from Bradford this achievement was a substantial legacy.

* Martin Greenwood’s book Every Day Bradford, a story for each day of the year about people, places and events from Bradford’s history, is available online and from bookshops including Waterstones and Salts Mill.