Rose Elizabeth Squire, OBE (1861–1938) was an English

factory inspector A factory inspector is someone who checks that factories comply with regulations affecting them. UK Factory Inspectorate The enforcement of UK Factory Acts before that of 1833 had been left to local magistrates, which had meant that any compliance ...

at the Home Office.

Life

Rose Squire was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the daughter of William Squire, a

Harley Street Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, which has, since the 19th century housed a large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. It was named after Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.< ...

surgeon, and his wife Martha Wilkinson. After home education, she needed to earn a livelihood aged 32 and gained a Diploma from the

National Health Society National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

in 1893. She was the first woman to gain a Sanitory Inspector's Certificate in 1894. In 1895 she became a lady inspector of factories, and was appointed senior lady inspector in 1903. In 1906-7 she was a special investigator to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws.Papers of Hilda Squire
at the

Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

From 1908 to 1912 she was based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, a city she enjoyed: "Nothing could exceed the friendliness my sister and I experienced in that atmospherically gloomy but socially bright and attractive city." Returning to London in 1912, she worked as a member of the Health of Munitions Workers Committee in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and was appointed director of the women's welfare department of the

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis of ...

in 1918. In 1920 she became the first woman to hold an administrative post in the Home Office. She retired in 1926, receiving a message of congratulation from Queen Mary.'Obituary: Miss Rose Squire', ''The Manchester Guardian'', 19 April 1938 She died at

Fryerning Fryerning is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning, which is situated approximately north of Ingatestone in Essex, England. The parish church of ''St. Mary the Virgin'', on Blackmore Road, dates ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Works

* (with A. D. Steel-Maitland) ''Report on the relation of industrial and sanitary conditions to pauperism, together with an additional memorandum on certain other points connected with the poor law system and its administration.'' London, Printed for H.M. Stationery Off. by Wyman and Sons, 1909. * (with Edgar Leigh Collis and W. Sydney Smith) ''Report upon the conditions under which bronzing is carried on in factories and workshops'', London: Printed for H.M. Stationery Off., by Darling & Son, 1910. * ''Thirty years in the public service: an industrial retrospect'', London : Nisbet & Co., 1927

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Squire, Rose 1861 births 1938 deaths Factory inspectors Civil servants from London 19th-century English women 19th-century English people 20th-century English women 20th-century English people