Surprisingly she didn't come from a retail background but had received a firm grounding in trade unionism with the Amalgamated Society of Telephone Employees. Working as a telephone operator in Manchester she had, at a very early age, become a branch secretary and then Executive Councillor.
She learned about the NAUSAW&C when she heard John Turner speak at the TUC and followed the Union's work through the pages of The Shop Assistant.
Her buoyant temperament and great sense of humour attracted many other women to the movement.
The Amalgamated Society of Telephone Employees was formed in 1909 by the merger of the National Society of Telephone Employees with the National Association of Telephone Operators. In 1915 it merged with the Post Office Engineering and Stores Association to form the Post Office Amalgamated Engineering and Stores Association, the forerunner of the Post Office Engineering Union.
