Minnie Pallister memorial, Brynmawr
The purple plaque and mural on the Market Hall were unveiled in 2024 to honour Minnie Pallister (1885-1960), a teacher, feminist, pacifist, politician, journalist and broadcaster.
Minnie was born in Cornwall. Her father’s work as a Wesleyan minister took the family to various places, including Haverfordwest (1899-1902) and Brynmawr (1902-1905).
From 1906 to 1918 Minnie taught in Brynmawr, where she was involved in the chapel, amateur dramatics and operatic society. She conducted and accompanied junior and adult choirs and became joint secretary of Brynmawr Mutual Improvement Society (an educational association).
Around 1909 Minnie became involved in the Independent Labour Party. In 1915 Keir Hardie described her as a new star bursting on the horizon. Her power of oratory made her a peer of suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. Minnie was a Labour election candidate twice before suffering an illness that caused years of infirmity. See the footnotes for more about her Labour involvement.
Minnie was the leading female opponent of the First World War in Wales, at a time when such opposition was extremely unpopular. In 1916 she became the Welsh secretary of the No Conscription Fellowship, looking after the welfare of 900 conscientious objectors and their dependents. She remained a pacifist for the rest of her life.
From 1918 she confronted the domestic drudgery experienced by women in the home in the South Wales valleys. She described this as a form of slavery.
After the war, from her sickbed she trained herself to become a journalist. She wrote for the Daily Mirror and Daily Herald (Britain’s largest newspaper) before broadcasting on the BBC radio programme Woman’s Hour. Her output included five books and 150 radio scripts.
In 1938 and 1939 she was in Nazi Germany, helping to move Jews to Britain up to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Minnie began writing and speaking in favour of a National Health Service long before its creation. She supported many aspects of public health and well-being. She campaigned for family allowances for decades, until they were established by the post-war Labour government.
An exceptional advocate of women’s rights from the 1920s to the 1950s, she was a forerunner of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s. She also inspired comedian Spike Milligan’s Goon Show character Minnie Bannister. She died in Bexhill, Sussex, in 1960. Throughout her life she considered the South Wales valleys as her spiritual home.
With thanks to Alun Burge
Postcode: NP23 4AJ View Location Map
Footnotes: More about Minnie’s Labour involvement
In 1914, while still in her 20s, Minnie Pallister was elected President of the ILP’s Monmouthshire Federation – the first woman in Wales to hold such a post. After the First World War she was the ILP’s full-time organiser for Wales.
She continued to rise up the Labour movement, being the first woman from Wales on Labour’s National Executive Committee. She was also one of the most prominent supporters in Wales of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
In 1920 Minnie became Labour’s agent for Aberavon, when Ramsay MacDonald became its MP. By this point she was also President of the Wales ILP. Minnie was the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth in 1923 and 1924, when women candidates were rare.