When we think of Lighthouse Keepers, we tend to think of men. It’s International Women’s Day on the 8th of March. So let me introduce… some of the women lighthouse keepers in Britain.
The Guinness Book of Records also says that Elizabeth Wilding became the first principal lighthouse keeper in Britain in 1797 when she took over Bidstone light in Merseyside after her husband died. – Guinness Book of Records, It also says that an American woman Hannah Thomas, was the first woman to be a Principal Lighthouse Keeper; taking over a Massachusetts lighthouse when her husband died in 1776.
The Liverpool Dock Committee paid Elizabeth Wilding £50 per year, on the condition that:
“she shall continue to behave properly … and shall not attempt to employ or use the said Building called the Bidston Lighthouse or any of its Appendages as a Publick House”. – Bidstonlighthouse.org
I would love a pub next door to our Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage!
Oh well.
There is a bit of a mystery though. The Bidston Lighthouse website mentions a Mrs Cormes who, they say,
“was doing a good job for the Chester trustees at Point of Ayr Lighthouse at Talacre following her appointment in 1791”.
Bidstonelighthouse.org
There are no more details about Mrs Cormes online, or in the book “The Lighthouses of Liverpool Bay“. Finding out more would be a great archival project.
Elizabeth Wilding was assisted by her son-in-law William Urmston, who took the light over from her in 1800. In due course, he was assisted in turn by his three daughters, Ann, Jane and Catherine.
A visitor described them in 1835:
“[the duties are] performed, almost exclusively, by young women, daughters of the veteran in charge. The old man, who is thus ably supported in the winter of life, is fourscore years old, and has held the office upward of forty years.”
William’s youngest daughter Catherine Urmston
“[attended] the light, consisting of eleven…. lamps…. Every four hours during the night the lamps are trimmed; these, the stove, copper, oil jars, and paved floor, are preserved in a state of cleanliness not to be exceeded; while no doubt, many a mariner, on a wintry and stormy night, both knows and feels that his life and safety are thus well confided to the never-failing care of — woman”.
There was a signal station there, as well as a lighthouse, and the married daughter Jane Urmston was skilled at multi-tasking. The visitor said:
[is] perfect in the whole code of signals, [and] performs the responsible part of the duty. This couple [ie, Jane and her husband] were both at work together at the time I arrived, the young woman keeping the lookout, and calling the numbers, while the man, merely at her bidding, pulled the ropes. She not only kept him employed, but managed meanwhile to iron a shirt into the bargain.
Ann Urmston served as Principal Keeper at Bidston between 1835 and 1869.
Bidston Lighthouse: Elizabeth Wilding | Bidston Lighthouse: Women | Bidston Lighthouse: Women in the Workplace.
Grace was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper in Northumberland, and has been an English national heroine since 1838.
In 1838, when Grace was 22, she and her father set out into a storm to rescue people from a shipwreck – knowing they needed to find at least one survivor to help them row back to shore. They rescued four men and one woman. Heart-breakingly, the woman was clinging to the bodies of her two dead babies. Once near the rocks, Grace had the tricky task of rowing backwards and forwards to keep their boat off the reef.
Back at the lighthouse, Grace and her mother looked after the rescued woman, while her father and three of the men went back out and rescued four more. Grace’s brother was in the lifeboat which then set out from nearby Seahouses, to find bodies but no more survivors. The boat the Darlings used is in the Grace Darling museum in Bamburgh.
RNLI: The story of Grace Darling | Northern Soul: Grace Darling the Reluctant Heroine | Bamburgh.org: Grace Darling
Trinity House in England, and the Northern Lighthouse Board in Scotland did not employ women keepers. They both ran a national service. They moved male keepers and their families from light to light, as the men became more experienced and as families grew.
However, there were Local Light Authorities in England and they had fewer lights. These lights were often cared for by several generations of the same family. We have seen how the care of Bidstone light passed from Elizabeth Wilding to her son-in-law, and then to her grand-daughter. The Lancaster Port Commission took much the same approach.
Three generations of the Raby family looked after two lighthouses at Plover Scar and Cockersand, on the mouth of the Lune in Morcambe Bay.
Francis Raby was appointed in 1847, and his grand-daughter Janet was lighthouse keeper there almost a century later, until 1945. Janet was assisted by her brother Dick. They divided their work between them, caring for the lighthouses, and fishing in the Bay. – Lancaster Civic Society | Rcording Morcambe Bay
The Rabys were succeeded by the Parkinsons.
Officially, Beatrice’s husband, Thomas was appointed keeper at Cockersand in 1945, but he was a fisherman and she took over keeping the light.
Their son Bob explained:
‘Me father used to sell all t’fish and he’d to knock off to do t’light’ouse so me mother said, “If I can do it – I‘ll go and see if I can get up that light,” and that’s when it started yer see, “If I can get up there,” she says, “I’ll do it for you so as you [can carry on.]”’ – Lancaster Civic Society.
Pathé News took a different view:
“She is one housewife whose domestic work must always take second place, she has to let the piano wait, and put all the brilliance into the special light reflectors”
Walney Islands is across the bay from Cockersand. By 1993, Peg Braithwaite, who we met painting the lighthouse every two years between the 1940s and 60s, was Britain’s only female Lighthouse Keeper. She was Principal Keeper at Walney Island in Cumbria, though she tells of her father keeping the Light during the War, and her sister became Assistant Keeper.
She was interviewed in 1993, and says
“I don’t find it remote, as long as I have a telephone or a motorcar…. You can be fare more lonely in the city, where nobody wants to speak to you”.
She talks of the birds of Walney Island, gardening, using seaweed as fertiliser, and and the way the lamp attracts the moths!
The service is changing, and when the lights were automated, resident Lighthouse Keepers, were replaced by Retained Lighthouse Keepers (RLKs) who look after several lights.
The first RLK in Scotland was here in Caithness, where Isobel Sutherland was appointed RLK for the lighthouses here in 2003. In the Highlands, most people have several jobs, and she was also a nurse – keeping people safe on land as well as at sea. As RLK, she visited each lighthouse every month, doing physical checks – these buildings really take a battering. She said
“I really like it. I love the locations, the remoteness and ruggedness. I’m enjoying getting to know the lights. They have similarities and also lots of differences.” – Lighthouse Digest – October 2004
Let’s leave the last word to Scotland’s newest woman Lighthouse Keeper, Pamela Cornwallis, in Aberdeenshire. Last spring she said:
“I have really appreciated the warm welcome from everyone I’ve met… The focus on safety has come through very strongly from everyone. I’m excited for the year ahead, learning more and settling in to the job.” – NLB – International Women’s Day, 2024
My related blogs
More rabbit holes
I am not a lighthouse keeper! My name is Ben, and I live next to Noss Head lighthouse, and welcome guests to The Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage here.
A treat for me every International Women’s day is researching these stories of the women and the lights. The links will take you down fascinating rabbit holes to stories I had no room for here. I am awestruck by the daily resilience and physical bravery of the women – and the men – who kept mariners safe by keeping the lights.
These words are mine, and this post was not written by AI.
