Dame Elsie Myrtle Abbot, ( Tostevin; 3 September 1907 – 26 May 1983) was a senior British

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. She joined the administrative section of the

Home Civil Service His Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as His Majesty's Civil Service, the Home Civil Service, or colloquially as the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, whic ...

in 1930, and originally worked in the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

. In 1947, she moved to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

where she spent the rest of her career. She rose to become Third Secretary between 1958 and 1967. She was amongst the first female civil servant who was allowed to continue in her job after marrying.

Early life and education

Elsie Myrtle Tostevin was born on 3 September 1907 in

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

, London, England. She was educated at Clapham County Secondary School, an all-girls state school in Clapham, London. She attended

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accepte ...

, graduating with first class honours in modern history in 1929 and first class honours in philosophy, politics and economics in 1930, thereby achieving a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

Career

On 17 October 1930, following "open competition", she entered the civil service in the junior grade of the administrative class and was assigned to the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

. In 1938, she married E. A. Arnott, and was one of the first women, if not the first, to be allowed to keep her civil service job after marriage. Together they had a son and a daughter. In 1947, following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she was transferred to

Her Majesty's Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

where she went on to become a deputy permanent secretary specialising in management. Also in 1947, she married for a second time to Derry Abbot, a fellow civil servant. She served as Third Secretary of HM Treasury, the third most senior civil servant in the department, from 1958 until her retirement in 1967.

Honours

In the 1957 Queen's Birthday Honours, Abbot was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(DBE) for her work as an under-secretary at HM Treasury. In the

1966 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1966 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the ''Lond ...

, she was promoted to

Dame Commander Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mil ...

of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her work as Third Secretary of HM Treasury, and thereafter referred to as Dame Elsie Abbot.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abbot, Elsie 1907 births 1983 deaths Civil servants in HM Treasury Civil servants in the General Post Office People from Streatham Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire