Anne Godwin

Born in July 1897 in Farncombe, Surrey, Godwin's father was a draper. She attended school in Godalming until age 15, in 1912, when she left to start working as a counting house clerk in London's West End. In 1916, she joined the Army Pay Office as a civilian clerk, earning 16 shillings a week. Other women working at the office organised to unsuccessfully request a higher salary from the Army Paymaster.[http://www.wcml.org.uk/contents/trade-unions/clerks-unions/dame-anne-godwin/ Anne Godwin bio at WCML website] She joined the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries (AWCS) after moving to an engineer's office in 1920.

By 1928, she was a trade union organiser. Women civil servants belonged to two different classes of unions, back then. Temporaries joined the AWCS, and after being made permanent they joined the NAWCS (National Association of Women Civil Servants).{{Cite web |title=Dame Anne Godwin |url=https://www.wcml.org.uk/our-collections/working-lives/clerks-and-secretaries/dame-anne-godwin/ |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=WCML |language=en}}

In 1940, a majority of AWCS members voted in favour of amalgamation. The two unions joined and became known as the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union. Anne Godwin was Assistant General Secretary, and edited the union's journal, entitled The Clerk. From 1961 to 1962, she served as one of the first women to become President of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Britain's main organisation of trades unions, following Margaret Bondfield, Anne Loughlin and Florence Hancock.{{Cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49654|title=Oxford DNB article: Godwin, Dame Beatrice Annie [Anne] (1897-1992)|access-date=2016-05-15|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/49654|year=2004|last1=Grenier|first1=Janet E.}}

Appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1962, Dame Anne Godwin was the guest speaker at the 1980 Conference when the union celebrated its 90th anniversary.

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101049654/ Oxford Biography Index (subscription required)]

• Middleton, L. (1977). [https://www.worldcat.org/title/women-in-the-labour-movement-the-british-experience/oclc/2984901#relatedsubjects Women in the labour movement: The British experience]. Early years in the trade unions / Anne Godwin. London: Croom Helm.

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{{succession box|title=General Secretary of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries|years=1931 – 1941|before=Dorothy Evans|after=Position abolished}}

{{succession box | title=President of the National Federation of Professional Workers | years=1948 – 1956 | before=George Walker Thomson | after=Jim Bradley}}

{{succession box|title=Women Workers member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress|years=1949 – 1963|with=Florence Hancock (1949 – 1958)
Ellen McCullough (1958 – 1963)|before=Florence Hancock and Anne Loughlin|after=Winifred Baddeley and Marie Patterson}}

{{succession box|title=General Secretary of the National Union of Clerks and Administrative Workers|years=1956–1963|before=Fred Woods|after=Henry Chapman}}

{{succession box | title = President of the Trades Union Congress | years = 1962 | before = Ted Hill | after = Frederick Hayday}}

{{succession box|title=Trades Union Congress representative to the AFL-CIO|years=1963|with=Harry Douglass|before=Claude Bartlett and Bill Webber|after=William Carron and George Lowthian}}

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Category:1897 births

Category:1992 deaths

Category:British activists

Category:British women trade unionists

Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:General secretaries of the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff

Category:Trade unionists from Surrey

Category:Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress

Category:Presidents of the Trades Union Congress

Category:English women trade unionists