Oxford has two new blue plaques in the city

The Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board unveiled the plaques to Grace Hadow and Violet Butler on October 29.

Hadow’s blue plaque was placed 7 Fyfield Road at 2.30pm while Butler was honoured at 14 Norham Gardens at 3.15pm.

Hadow was an educationist and pioneer of community services. She was a dedicated suffragist she sought to promote the role of women in society, playing a key part in founding the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and serving as Vice Chairman for the rest of her life.

In 1920 she became Secretary of Barnett House, the Oxford town and gown hub of burgeoning social studies and social work, where she was acclaimed for her work in setting up the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council and fostering adult education initiatives and libraries.

Ann Jones, Chair of the NFWI and Teresa Smith, Associate Fellow of Barnett House unveiling the plaque

Between 1929 and 1940, she was Principal of the Society of Oxford Home-Students, now St Anne’s College, at that time it was non-residential and it was during her time that the college got its first foothold on the site it now occupies, with the building of Hartland House as a library.

She was dedicated to educational causes, serving on numerous committees such as the university’s extra-mural delegacy and the advisory council of the BBC. In her final years undertaking a lecture tour of twenty-two colleges in the USA.

Teresa Smith, Associate Fellow of Barnett House, described Hadow as a ‘very important figure’ who was ‘absolutely pioneering at the time’.

She said: “A really key feature was that she lived a life of particular public service at a time when women did not have the vote.

“She worked tirelessly in adult education, particularly adult women.”

Butler was a social reformer, researcher and social work trainer. She was born into an old Oxford academic family imbued with a tradition of helping the less fortunate in society through charitable work.

After gaining a First in Modern History at the Society of Oxford Home-Students, and adding diplomas in economics, political science and teaching, she directed her activism to housing reform, the promotion of skilled job opportunities for young people and greater prospects for women.

Sir David Butler and the rest of the family

Her research produced ground-breaking and influential books Social Conditions in Oxford (1912) and Domestic Service (1916).

From 1919 to 1946 she served as a volunteer at Barnett House, pioneering and directing social work training. During these years she was also employed as Tutor in Economics by her alma mater, the Society of Home-Students.