Dame Meriel Lucy Talbot, (16 June 1866 – 15 December 1956) was a British public servant and women's welfare worker. During 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 fig ...

, she organised the Women's Land Army and edited their magazine ''The Landswoman''. Talbot was born in

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, the daughter of the politician John Gilbert Talbot and his wife, Meriel Sarah, daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton. She was educated at Kensington High School. During the 1880s and 1890s Meriel Talbot participated in the

settlement movement The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and ...

. She was secretary, jointly with Idina Brassey, of the Bethnal Green Ladies' Committee in 1889, chaired by her mother. In 1891 she combined work at the Women's University Settlement (WUS) for the Children's Country Holiday Fund, the post of secretary to the Ladies' Branch of Oxford House (again chaired by her mother), and social work training at the WUS relating to the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants. She also took on some of the house management work that had fallen to Margaret Sewell, the incoming Warden of WUS. In 1897, again with Idina Brassey, she was joint secretary in the newly formed West End Association. From 1901 to 1916 she served as secretary to the Victoria League, and in this capacity travelled widely throughout the

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. In 1915, she served on the official advisory committee for repatriating

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s. The following year she was appointed the first woman inspector with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and in 1917 she became director of the Women's Branch of the Board, in charge of the recruitment and co-ordination of the Women's Land Army. The Land Army had 23,000 recruits by the end of the war and there was a monthly magazine named ''The Landswoman'' which Talbot edited. Talbot stayed at the new

Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

after the

and was named adviser on women's employment in 1920. She retired in 1921, but continued to perform public work, serving as intelligence officer for the

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and on a number of official committees, including the

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in 1929. In the 1930s she became chairman of the BBC Central Appeals Advisory Committee. From 1935 to 1951 she was chairman of the

London Council for the Welfare of Women and Girls London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

. For her work with the Board of Agriculture she was appointed

Officer 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 ...

(OBE) in the first list of the Order in 1917, and promoted to Commander (CBE) in 1918 and Dame Commander (DBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Talbot, Meriel 1866 births 1956 deaths Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire People from Westminster British social welfare officials British humanitarians Meriel Place of death missing British women in World War I