Dame Alix Hester Marie Kilroy, Lady Meynell, DBE (1903–1999)John Commander. Obituary: Dame Alix "Bay" Meynell, ''The Independent'' (London), 2 September 1999. was one of the first two women to have entered the administrative grade of the Civil Service by examination (in 1925). She was given a desk at the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

, where she ascended to Under-Secretary and where she served for 30 years (aside from a brief spell at the newly formed

Monopolies Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...

). She retired in 1955. She marked her 95th birthday by publishing a new book: ''What Grandmother Said'' (published February 1998), was the last of her writings. Her 1988 autobiography, ''Public Servant, Private Woman'', charted her progress through government.

Early years

"A.K." or "Bay" as she was known to friends, was the daughter of a Surgeon Commander of the Royal Navy, educated at

Malvern Girls' College Malvern St James is an independent school for girls in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, England. Founded in 1893 as Malvern Girls' College, it was renamed Malvern St James following a merger in 2006 with St James's School in West Malvern. It conti ...

and at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, where she read Modern Greats. Her unconventional relationship (without benefit of marriage until 1946) with

Francis Meynell Sir Francis Meredith Wilfrid Meynell (12 May 1891 – 10 July 1975) was a British poet and printer at The Nonesuch Press. Early career He was the son of the journalist and publisher Wilfrid Meynell and the poet Alice Meynell, a suffragist and ...

, a poet, book designer and founder of '' Nonesuch Press'', was childless, although she was devoted to her husband's large family of nephews and nieces. Marriage in 1946 bestowed, as the wife of a "K" (he was knighted that year), the title of "Lady", although this honorific was, technically, to be trumped by the DBE awarded her in 1949. At about the end of the Second World War, the couple acquired "Cobbold's Mill" between Lavenham and

Hadleigh, Suffolk Hadleigh () is an ancient market town and civil parish in South Suffolk, East Anglia, situated, next to the River Brett, between the larger towns of Sudbury and Ipswich. It had a population of 8,253 at the 2011 census. The headquarters of Bab ...

, and there, for more than 20 years, they combined keeping open house to a multitude of friends with, until retirement, pursuit of their respective careers. She and her husband took up small-scale farming there. She was also active in anti-Suez activism and early post-war socialism. Later, she was to become a founder-member of the SDP, and as late as the 1997 election she encouraged her friends to vote Lib-Dem rather than

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

on the grounds that this could end the Conservative stranglehold on Suffolk South; however, it did the opposite.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilroy, Alix 1903 births 1999 deaths People from Babergh District People associated with Malvern, Worcestershire British activists British women activists British writers British women writers Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Wives of knights