Gwladys Thoday Papers

Scope and Content

Collection consists of correspondence, minutes, pamphlets, periodicals and press cuttings for the period 1926-1943, mainly concerning disarmament and the peace movements. The main organisations involved are the North Wales Women's Peace Council (NWWPC), the Women's International League (WIL) and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). As well as domestic affairs, the collection includes material on the Spanish Civil War, the Sino-Japanese War, the Italian-Abyssinian War, and the situation of women in South Africa, Japan and India etc. Special topics which feature prominently in the collection include: the North Wales Peace Pilgrimage, 1926, the campaigns run by the NWWPC and the WIL to secure the passage of resolutions and organisation concerning and on behalf of the International Disarmament Declaration of 1930-1931, the British Draft Disarmament Convention of 1933, etc, the position of pacifists in Germany, 1933 and the Arms Commission, 1936; etc.

Comprises: 

  • NWWPC: agenda, minutes, correspondence, duplicated material and press cuttings. Includes pamphlets Year's Work, 1928-1943.
  • WIL: minutes etc, of annual general meetings of the Executive Council, duplicated material sent to members and branches (of which the NWWPC was one), correspondence between Mrs Thoday and Dr K.D. Courtney, the President of WIL, including the latter's personal accounts of the World Disarmament Conference at Geneva, 1932-1933.
  • WILPF: minutes, papers relating to the 7th and 9th International Conferences (1932 and 1937). Mrs Thoday was a delegate at the latter conference.
  • Council for Action for Peace and Reconstruction: papers relating to the Council, 1936, 1938-39.
  • World Disarmament Conference at Geneva, 1932-33; press cuttings, reports of committees, speeches, the Journal of the Conference.
  • Scrapbook commemorating the Peacemaker's Pilgrimage of May and June 1926. Consists mainly of newspaper reports of and comments on the pilgrimage; also a few photographs and postcards, leaflets, newsletters, a list of speakers at the Hyde Park rally, a copy of the monthly sheet Women's International League, July 1926 and a balance sheet of the North Wales Peace Committee. Enclosed also are letters to Gwladys Thoday from a variety of people including Sir Austen Chamberlain, David Lloyd George, Mackenzie King, the League of Nations Union etc.

Administrative / Biographical History

Gwladys Thoday was Honorary Secretary of the North Wales Women's Peace Council and member of the Executive of the Women's International League, which later became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was the wife of David Thoday, Professor of Botany at the University College of North Wales, 1923-1949.

Arrangement

Material is arranged chronologically in the original files and incorporated into the General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts .

Access Information

Open to all users

Note

Description compiled by Anne Lenaghan, April 2002.

Other Finding Aids

Item level word-processed list is available at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor. Reference numbers: General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts: 26138-26185, 37223

Conditions Governing Use

Usual copyright conditions apply. Reprographics are made at the discretion of the Archivist.

Related Material

Also held at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor are the Professor David Thoday Papers and the Papers of the Bangor and North Wales Association of University Women . Collection level descriptions are available on the HE Archives Hub .

Bibliography

The collection contains a copy of the monthly publication Women's International League, July 1926.