Margarette "Peggy" Golding (born Margarette Owen; November 1881 – 1939) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

born nurse and businessperson who was the founder of the " Inner Wheel" club in Manchester that has grown to be an international organisation - originally open to the wives of members of the

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...

only, but now open to all.

Life

Golding was born in

Blaenau Ffestiniog Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town in Gwynedd, Wales. Once a slate mining centre in historic Merionethshire, it now relies much on tourists, drawn for instance to the Ffestiniog Railway and Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It reached a population of 12,000 ...

in 1881 and her family then moved to

Hay on Wye Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the to ...

. Golding trained as a nurse. She married Oliver Golding. Women had been involved informally in the Rotary Club's work but discrimination prevented then from becoming members in their own right. Margarette Golding persuaded 26 other wives to meet her at a room she had reserved at Herriott's Turkish Baths in

Deansgate Deansgate is a main road (part of the A56) through Manchester City Centre, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mile ...

in Manchester. They met on 15 November 1923 where it was agreed to create a partner organisation to the Rotary Club which would assist the club in their role and provide a social benefit to its members. The first official meeting was on 10 January 1924 at their regular meeting place of the Social Club in Lower Mosley Street, Manchester. Golding founded and named the Inner Wheel organisation for the wives of members of the

. There were other similar groups in Britain, but it was Golding who organised them into a national organisation under the name of the Inner Wheel.

Legacy

Golding has a plaque in Hay on Wye where she grew up. It was thought at one time that she had been born there. In 2008, Inner Wheel had nearly 100,000 members in 102 countries and was one of the largest women's organisations with consultative status at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golding, Margarette Peggy 1881 births 1939 deaths People from Blaenau Ffestiniog Welsh nurses 20th-century Welsh businesspeople