Mary Ellen Pritchard. Hidden Histories: Women’s Peace Stories
Items in this story:
As communities and volunteers have been transcribing the 390,296 signatories from the 1923 Welsh Women’s Peace Petition to America, many have been identifying and uncovering the stories behind this generation of women who stood against war. Who were they – and what messages might they have for us 100 years later.
‘Hidden Histories’ project led by the WCIA invited people across Wales to uncover and share ‘peace stories’ behind the 390,296 women who signed the Peace Petition – not just ‘the great and the good’, but the thousands of ordinary women across Wales moved in the aftermath of World War One to petition for peace.
This story and supporting material were contributed by Catrin Stevens.
--
Mary Ellen Pritchard
To facilitate the gathering of names on the 1923-24 Peace Petition, the Welsh League of Nations Union appointed two regional organisers: Mrs Hugh/Huw (Mary Ellen) Pritchard in the north and Ceredigion and Ethel Elizabeth Poole to serve the south and Monmouthshire. They were paid an honorarium of £100 each. It appears that Mary Ellen was interviewed by Gwilym Davies and others before she was appointed. She was also one of the organizers of the town of Pwllheli. She threw herself into the work with dedication and conviction. By the end of October 1923, she remarked at a meeting in Holywell that she had received an enthusiastic welcome at 25 similar local meetings. When asked why women should sign, she replied that it was ‘a call from God’. She believed that they were opening a new chapter in the history of the world, and that when they looked back on it, they would all be proud of it. With such conviction it is little wonder that she was praised, in an article in February 1924, for her patience, persistence, and persuasion - together with her infectious enthusiasm and magical optimism in promoting the women’s peace petition.
Mary Ellen was born in 1876, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Jones of the Eifl Temperance Hotel, Pwllheli. She made a name for herself as Salem Chapel organist and singer; a temperance woman, a Calvinist Methodist and a member of the Women's Liberal Association. In 1906 she married the lawyer Hugh Pritchard, and lived in Mount Pleasant in the town, where their daughter Menna was born.
During World War One she worked tirelessly for the Seamen's and Soldiers' Association, the Pensions Committee and the region's Village Hall Union association, and as a result she was awarded the M.B.E. in 1918. But Hugh Pritchard died aged 41 in 1920. Four years later, Mary Ellen remarried Reverend John Lloyd Jones, a Presbyterian minister who lived in
Criccieth and Caernarfon.
There, she acted the part of Queen Victoria in a pageant in the Moreia Chapel, Caernarfon in 1958-59. Her commitment to peace continued throughout the years. She was a key figure in the great Peace Pilgrimage March 'Hedd nid Cledd' of 1926, as one of the official Speakers of the Pilgrimage - speaking eloquently (in Welsh) at meetings in Caernarfon, Conwy (where she gave an 'inspiring speech ... which made a deep impression') and Colwyn Bay. She travelled with the pilgrims to London and carried the North Wales flag in the procession to Hyde Park. There she addressed the crowds - in Welsh - alongside Mary Silyn Roberts. She served on the Women's Advisory Committee of the League of Nations Union in the thirties.
We remember her conviction and dedication.