Joyce Constance Ina Waley-Cohen, Lady Waley-Cohen (; 20 January 1920 – 30 June 2013) was an English educationist and public servant. She was chair of the

Saint Felix School Saint Felix School is a 2–18 mixed, private, day and boarding school in Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk, England. The school was founded in 1897 as a school for girls but is now co-educational. History The school was founded in 1897 as a girls' s ...

's governing body, the Governing Bodies of Girls' Schools Association, the Independent Schools Joint Council,

Taunton School Taunton School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, now co-educational, in the county town of Taunton in Somerset in South West England. It serves boarding and day-school pupils from the ages of 13 to 18. The current headmaster i ...

and

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: New Zealand * Wellington College, Wellington, New Zealand * Wellington College of Education, now the Faculty of Education of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand * Wellington Girls' College, Wellington, N ...

, chair of the board of both the Westminster Children's Hospital and the Gordon Hospital. Waley-Cohen was married to Sir Bernard Nathaniel Waley-Cohen, 1st Baronet, the

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

, and they had four children.

Background

Waley-Cohen was born on 20 January 1920 at 15 Lansdowne Road,

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London. She was the daughter of the politician and lawyer

Harry Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan Harry Louis Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan, (2 February 1889 – 23 October 1963) was a British Liberal politician who from 1934 onwards represented the Labour Party. He served two London seats non-consecutively and while serving the second seat ...

, who served in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, and his wife Eleanor Joan Clara (Nellie), , a future late 1940s

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

chairperson, and an important person in the Jewish community. Waley-Cohen went to school at

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the North Sea, in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth, Suffolk, River Blyth in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths ...

, and graduated from

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in 1941. She began her working career as an administrator in the

Ministry of Fuel and Power The Ministry of Power was a United Kingdom government ministry dealing with issues concerning energy. The Ministry of Power (then named Ministry of Fuel and Power) was created on 11 June 1942 from functions separated from the Board of Trade. ...

in London. There, Waley-Cohen was led by the principal Bernard Waley-Cohen alongside

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

. The two were married on 21 December 1943 and they had four children: Rosalind,

Stephen Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

Joanna Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from . Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice, Jean, and Jeanne. The earliest recorded occurrence of th ...

and

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

. She took her husband's surname in 1950. Following their marriage, Waley-Cohen supported her husband in his career as she raised their children and maintaining their house in St James's, Piccadilly and their farm estate located close to the edge of

Exmoor Exmoor () is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simons ...

, where they kept sheep and a herd of Devon cattle. She became Lady Mayoress of London when her husband was elected the city's Lord Mayor in 1960, and the family moved to

Mansion House, London The Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London. It is a Grade I listed building. Designed by George Dance in the Palladian style, it was built primarily in the 1740s. The Mansion House is used for some of the City o ...

, the Lord Mayor's 18th-century official residence. Waley-Cohen planned social occasions at the house and toured Australia in 1961 in which London's Lord Mayor made his first official visit to Melbourne.

Educationalist

Waley-Cohen was able to find time for public service, particularly in education. She was an advocate of private and single-sex education and believed that single-sex education was better for girls than it was for boys for which they performed best in a mixed environment. From 1945 to 1983, Waley-Cohen was a member of Saint Felix School's governing body, on which she served as chair between 1970 and 1983. She was a member of the Governing Bodies of Girls' Schools Association from 1964 and she chaired between 1974 and 1979 as well as being the chair of the Independent Schools Joint Council from 1977 to 1980. Between 1978 and 1990, Waley-Cohen was the chair of

and

from 1979 to 1990. She was a member of the council of the advocate and independent sector lobbying Independent Schools Information Service from 1972 to 1980, which she chaired between 1981 and 1985. Waley-Cohen served as chair of the board of the Westminster Children's Hospital between 1952 and 1968 and The Gordon Hospital from 1961 to 1968. For almost four decades, she was a Justice of the peace, serving in Middlesex between 1949 and 1959 and in Somerset from 1959 to 1986. In the late 1980s, Waley-Cohen settled down at Exmoor and took up gardening and started the craft tent at the Exford Show. She was predeceased by her husband in 1991. Waley-Cohen was a feverent supporter of the

Devon and Somerset Staghounds The red deer of Exmoor have been hunted since Norman times, when Exmoor was declared a Royal Forest. Collyns stated the earliest record of a pack of Staghounds on Exmoor was 1598. In 1803, the "North Devon Staghounds" became a subscription pack. ...

, and presented its first meet following its ban by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

in 1997. On 30 June 2013, she died at Honeymead House. Her funeral took place at

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and is one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £136,000 in 2021), ...

on the morning of 4 July and a thanksgiving celebration was held for her at

Simonsbath Simonsbath () is a small village high on Exmoor in the England, English ceremonial county, county of Somerset. It is the principal settlement in the Exmoor civil parish, which is the largest and most sparsely populated civil parish on Exmoo ...

on the afternoon of 16 July. The

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

holds a series of four quarter-plate glass negative photographic portraits of Waley-Cohen and her children in its collection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waley-Cohen, Joyce 1920 births 2013 deaths People from Kensington 20th-century English Jews 21st-century English Jews 20th-century English women 21st-century English women 20th-century educational theorists Civil servants from London Joyce Joyce Daughters of barons English educational theorists English justices of the peace Spouses of British politicians Wives of baronets 20th-century British civil servants 21st-century British civil servants 20th-century British women civil servants Women educational theorists English women civil servants