Elizabeth Andrews OBE (1882–1960) was the first woman organiser of the Labour Party in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Andrews, née Smith, was born into a mining family at Hirwaun in the

Cynon Valley Cynon Valley () is a former coal mining valley in Wales. Cynon Valley lies between Rhondda and the Merthyr Valley and takes its name from the River Cynon. Aberdare is located in the north of the valley and Mountain Ash is in the south of th ...

, one of eleven children (two of whom died during childhood). She lived in Station Road, Hirwaun, and was obliged to leave school at the age of twelve, in order to help at home. Ten years later, a letter she wrote to the press in support of Evan Roberts gained her some attention, and she joined the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to 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 grant women the right to vot ...

movement at about the same time. She was one of three women who gave evidence before the Sankey Commission in 1918, speaking before the House of Lords, along with two miners' wives. As soon as women received the vote, the Labour Party appointed four female organisers, of whom Andrews was one. She campaigned tirelessly for health and education services. One of her great successes was the opening of the first

nursery school A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary schoo ...

in Wales in the Rhondda in 1938. She was awarded the OBE in 1948 for her services as a JP in

Ystrad Rhondda Ystrad (also known as Ystrad Rhondda or Ystrad-Rhondda) is a village and community (and electoral ward) in the Rhondda Fawr valley, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Description As a community and ward Ystrad contains the neighbouring district of Gelli ...

. In 2004, she came 100th in the on-line poll to find

100 Welsh Heroes 100 Welsh Heroes was an opinion poll run in Wales as a response to the BBC's ''100 Greatest Britons'' poll of 2002. It was carried out mainly on the internet, starting on 8 September 2003 and finishing on 23 February 2004. The results were announ ...

with a total of 37 votes. In 2006 her book ''A Woman's Work is Never Done'', originally printed in 1952, was reprinted following a revival in her work by

Glenys Kinnock Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (''née'' Parry; born 7 July 1944), is a British politician and former teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the ...

.100 Welsh Heroes - Elizabeth Andrews
/ref> Andrews was one of five women shortlisted in 2018 for the first statue of a woman to be erected in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

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100 Welsh Heroes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Elizabeth 1882 births 1960 deaths 19th-century Welsh people 20th-century Welsh politicians 20th-century Welsh writers 19th-century Welsh women 20th-century Welsh women politicians 20th-century Welsh women writers People from Hirwaun Welsh Labour politicians Welsh suffragists Officers of the Order of the British Empire Edwardian era