Ethel Sykes or Ethel Rosalie Sykes (30 October 1864 – 8 March 1945) was a British teacher and writer. She managed the thousands of women who worked at
Lloyds Bank during the first world war. She was retained when many of them were laid off as the soldiers returned.
Life
Sykes was born in
Stoke. Her parents were Army chaplain Rev. William Sykes (born 1829)
[Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G.: An Historical Account of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701-1900, Based on a Digest of the Society's Records, vol. I, Charles Frederick Pascoe, 1901, p. 929] and his wife Mary, daughter of Captain Anthony Oliver Molesworth, of the
Royal Artillery, descended from
Robert Molesworth
Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth PC (Ire) (7 September 1656 – 22 May 1725) was an Anglo-Irish politician and writer.
Molesworth came from an old Northamptonshire family. He married Hon. Letitia Coote, daughter of Richard Coote, 1st ...
, 1st
Viscount Molesworth. Her father was honorary chaplain to Queen Victoria. Her sister
Ella Sykes was a traveller and writer, and their only brother
Percy Sykes became a brigadier, diplomat and writer. Her father, William was the second son of Richard Sykes, of Edgeley House,
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
, owner of the
Sykes Bleaching Company The Sykes Bleaching Company was a cotton bleaching business established in Edgeley, near Stockport in 1792 which grew to become one of the largest bleaching enterprises in the United Kingdom.
Origins
The bleaching business was established in 1792 ...
; Percy Sykes was thus the nephew of
Richard Sykes the
rugby player who founded towns in America, and cousin of
Sir Alan Sykes, 1st Baronet
Sir Alan John Sykes, 1st Baronet (11 April 1868 – 21 May 1950) was an English businessman in the bleaching industry and Conservative politician in Cheshire.
Biography
Sykes was born at Cringle House Cheadle, the second son of Thomas Hardca ...
who was MP for
Knutsford,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
.
She was educated at
Plymouth High School and then the boarding school
Royal School for Daughters of Officers of the Army in Bath. She then joined the recently opened Oxford college for women
Lady Margaret Hall
Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...
in 1881 and left in 1884. Her sister who had a nearly identical education left in 1883.
She had enough money that she did not need to work, but in 1910 she got a job teaching for
Mary Western at the recently renamed
Queen Mary College in
Lahore. She would be there until 1912.
[
In 1915 she published ''Readings from Indian History for Boys and Girls'' in two volumes.][ She did charity work at what was ]St Mary Abbots Hospital
St Mary Abbots Hospital was a hospital that operated from 1871 to 1992 at a site on Marloes Road in Kensington, London.
History
The hospital building, which was designed by Alfred Williams as a workhouse infirmary and built by John T. Chappell, ...
and she represented Lady Margaret Hall on the University Women's Club in London - where women could have a "gentleman's club".[
Sykes died in a nursing home in Hurstpierpoint and she left a substantial legacy to the sisterhood at Oxford Mission Church in what is now Bangladesh.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sykes, Ethel
British women educators
British educators
British women writers
1864 births
1945 deaths
Writers from Plymouth, Devon