Muriel Duncombe, Viscountess Helmsley (1859–1925) was a prominent figure in the Garden City movement in the UK at the turn of the 20th century, and was the first Secretary of the

Garden City Association The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is an independent research and campaigning charity founded and based in the United Kingdom. It works to enable homes, places and communities in which everyone can thrive. Through its research, tr ...

's Women's League.

Early life

She was born in 1859 as Lady Muriel Frances Louisa Chetwynd-Talbot, the daughter of

Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 19th Earl of Shrewsbury Charles John Chetwynd-Talbot, 19th Earl of Shrewsbury, 19th Earl of Waterford, 4th Earl Talbot, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC (13 April 1830 – 11 May 1877), styled Viscount of Ingestre between 1849 and 1868, was a British Con ...

, and Anna Theresa Cockerell. At the age of seventeen, in 1876, she married

William Duncombe, Viscount Helmsley William Reginald Duncombe, Viscount Helmsley (1 August 1852 – 24 December 1881), was a British Conservative Party politician. Helmsley was the son of William Duncombe, 1st Earl of Feversham, and his wife Mabel Violet (née Graham), daughter ...

, and they had a son and a daughter. Lord Helmsley died in 1881, and in 1885 she married Hugh Darby Annesley Owen.

Involvement in the Garden City movement

Viscountess Helmsley was one of the leading female figures in the early Garden City movement, which developed during a period of intense social change and the consolidation of the

women's suffrage movement Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...

. The

(GCA), the forerunner of the Town and Country Planning Association, was created in 1899 to promulgate the movement's aims, and by 1903 a Women's League had formed, which sought specifically to provide a forum to consider the needs of a home from the viewpoint of 'wives and mothers'. Viscountess Helmsley was the leader and first Secretary of this league, and encouraged other women to further the cause by talking to friends, circulating leaflets, seeking to arrange meetings and lectures, speaking to other groups, and encouraging people to buy shares in the First Garden City Ltd company, the developer and owner of Letchworth Garden City. She published articles highlighting the work of the Women's League and argued that ‘if the women clearly understood the benefits of living in an atmosphere such as Garden City will afford, they would demand a change from the slums, and would influence their mankind and children to go and live where homes – real homes, not barracks – can be procured for less rent in a wholesome area, thus helping the children to grow up stronger and healthier in mind and body’. In June 1907 a meeting her home in Chelsea, London, concluded with the election of six Women’s League officers and herself as President, {{Cite journal , last=Helmsley , first=Viscountess , date=July 1907 , title=Women's League , journal=The Garden City , volume=2 , issue=18 , pages=372 and it was decided to raise money to finance the building of two cottages at Letchworth.

Other activities

Viscountess Helmsley was an active Conservative politician in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, London, chaired the National Society of Day Nurseries and was Honorary Secretary of the Women’s Institute Training College Branch for Nursing. She died in 1925.

Sources

1859 births 1925 deaths