Pearl Marguerite Hyde (1904-1963, née Bigby) was an English local politician and the first female Lord Mayor of Coventry.

Personal life

She was born in North London to Harman and Ellen Bigby, in 1904. Her father was landlord of the Vine Inn in Waltham Cross at the time of his death in a motor accident when she was 13: her mother had died five years earlier. She moved to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

to live with a married older brother and an uncle, and then in 1920 moved to

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

, to the White Lion Inn at 50-51 Smithford Street run by a family friend J Haines, where she learned the licensed trade. She married Walter Eric Hyde in 1923 and they had one son, Eric. She died on 15 April 1963 while on holiday in Scotland when a car she was driving collided with a lorry.

Political career

Hyde joined the Labour party in 1931, and was elected to Coventry Council for the Walsgrave ward in 1937, after standing for election unsuccessfully three times in the Westwood ward. She became an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

in 1952 and the city's first female lord mayor in 1957, with her daughter-in-law Elizabeth Hyde as her lady mayoress.

Voluntary work

Hyde was leader of Coventry's Women's Voluntary Services based at Drapers Hall on Bailey Lane during

World War II 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 opposing ...

, and afterwards until 1958. Her work mostly involved providing sustenance through mobile canteens or restaurants, but other tasks such as distributing clothing and

Red Cross parcel Red Cross parcel refers to packages containing mostly food, tobacco and personal hygiene items sent by the International Association of the Red Cross to prisoners of war during the First and Second World Wars, as well as at other times. It ...

s. She was appointed a

Member 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 ...

(MBE) for her services during the

Coventry Blitz The Coventry Blitz ( blitz: from the German word ''Blitzkrieg'' meaning "lightning war" ) or Coventration of the city was a series of bombing raids that took place on the British city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Sec ...

of 1940 and received a diploma from Charles De Gaulle in 1949 for her war work. She appears in Humphrey Jennings' 1941 documentary '' The Heart of Britain'', saying "You know you feel such fools standing there in a crater with a mug of tea … until a man says 'it washed the blood and dust from my mouth' and you know you really have done something useful".

Other work

From 1943 to 1959 Hyde worked as welfare officer at Lea Francis Cars, and from 1960 as a public relations executive with ATV.

Legacy

Hyde is remembered in the name of Pearl Hyde Primary School in Coventry. In 2015 the '' Coventry Telegraph'' named Hyde as one of "50 heroes of Coventry and Warwickshire" alongside

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Lady Godiva Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly re ...

and

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...

. A portrait of her by William Dring is in the collection of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry. ''Includes image of portrait'' A 48-minute archive film of Hyde's mayoral year is catalogued at the

Media Archive for Central England Media Archive for Central England (MACE) is the public sector regional film archive that collects, preserves and provides access to film, television and other moving image materials that relate to the governmental regions of the East Midlands and We ...

: although the video is unavailable , the listing of contents indicates the breadth of Hyde's activities that year.

Personal life

Political career

Voluntary work

Other work

Legacy

References

Further reading