Hepburn, Miss Olive, Dunmore, Bradninch
Olive Sara Hepburn (1887 – 1957)[1]was born on 22 April 1887, daughter of Henry and Josephine Hepburn. Henry was described as a papermaker. The family had only recently moved from Broadclyst where Olive’s older siblings John, Alice, Helen and Maurice where born, to Bradninch where Olive was born and where they were living in 1891. One further brother, Roger, was born to the family.
The Hepburns owned the nearby Hele Paper Mill which employed over 400 staff in the 1900s by which time Henry had become the sole proprietor. Eldest son John joined the family business and sister Alice married John Horsburgh, one of the mill managers. Henry and Josephine were involved in community life in Bradninch where Henry was deacon and treasurer to the Baptist Chapel, although the family also supported church events. Olive also became involved with organisations and events such as the Bradninch Literary and Debating Society and the preparations for the 1911 coronation[2] and represented Bradninch on the Devonshire Nursing Association.[3]
Henry and Josephine were both committed Liberals. Henry was elected a Liberal county councillor when Devon County Council was formed in 1888 and later became a County Alderman and finally, in 1916, Devon County Council Chairman. Josephine was a Vice-President of the Devonshire Women’s Liberal Association (WLA), and regularly presided at the Cullompton WLA meetings.[4] In 1912 Henry Hepburn was awarded a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List.
Olive also became involved in Liberal Party activities. By 1910 she was the joint honorary secretary to the Devonshire Women’s Liberal Association, involved in the organisation of meetings, conferences and fund-raising events[5] and she too spoke at local Liberal meetings such as those in Topsham and Cruwys Morchard.[6] There is also a reference to her being a member of the Devon County National Insurance Committee which was formed in 1912.[7]
Both Josephine and Olive Hepburn were interested in the women’s suffrage movement. They went to the At Home in the Small Barnfield Hall in February 1909 when it was agreed to form an Exeter branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, which was to include members from the villages around the city.[8] Jessie Montgomery (q.v.) had invited essays on the topic of the political enfranchisement of women at an early At Home meeting, and Olive won second prize for hers.[9] She was elected to the Executive Committee of the branch in 1912 and re-elected in 1913.[10] She is named as assisting at events such as the Provincial Council conference, the visit of Mrs Creighton, and at fund-raising events.[11] She does not, however, seem to have taken an active part in speaking or in the outreach events organised by the branch.
When war broke out Hepburn became involved in community activities in Bradninch such as the reception of Belgian refugees, and the working party preparing clothing, household linen and other supplies for the Red Cross hospitals.[12] She assisted with the Exeter NUWSS initiative to provide employment for women by establishing a Toy Factory.[13] The University Extension department at the Royal Albert Memorial College had decided to continue lectures during the war and Hepburn’s name was amongst those receiving a certificate for work on ‘British Political Ideals and Institutions’.[14] Sir Henry took on the additional responsibility of chairing the County Council in 1916, but became ill that autumn and died in February 1917.
Hepburn was invited to join the county’s Devon Women’s War Service Association, which later became the Women’s War Agricultural Committee.[15] Here she worked as organising secretary from March 1917, and as a member of the Instruction and Depot Committee.[16] From an office in North Street, Exeter, she dealt with applications from women to train and from farmers for women farm workers. She also addressed local meetings about the schemes for women’s employment in agriculture, such as those in Totnes and Topsham.[17] In April 1918, however, she resigned ‘for personal reasons’ and seems to have spent more time at home, organising events such as the YMCA Hut Week and the Cheese School in Bradninch.[18]
After the war Olive and her sister Helen mounted a challenge to the Registrar’s failure to include their names as well as that of their mother on the Voters’ Lists. With the support of the Liberal agent, their names were allowed to be placed on the list.[19]
In September 1918 Olive was asked to become a co-opted member of Devon Education Committee. Perhaps this led to the development of an interest in education more generally, as in 1939 she was listed on the Household Register as Vice Principal and Teacher, living with the principal and other staff at Benfleet Hall, an independent girls’ school. She evidently came back to Devon in later life, however, though not to Dunmore which was sold after her mother’s death in 1941. When she died on 17 September 1957 in Torbay Hospital her address was given as ‘of Easton Court Hotel, Chagford’.
Entry created by Julia Neville, November 2018
[1] Family and census information from www.ancestry.co.uk
[2] DEG, 21 Apr 1909; 8 Mar 1911; 7 Feb 1912.
[3] DEG, 23 Jul 1909.
[4] DEG, 13 Oct 1910; WT, 23 Feb & 28 Jul 1912.
[5] DEG, 13 Oct 1910; WT, 11 Apr 1913; 23 Jan & 24 Apr 1914.
[6] E&E, 10 Jan 1910; WT, 29 Oct 1912.
[7] DEG, 4 Sep 1914.
[8] DEG, 16 Feb 1909
[9] WT 20 Apr 1909.
[10] WT, 22 Mar 1912; 19 Feb 1913.
[11] WT, 27 May 1913; DEG, 24 Oct 1913; WT, 29 Nov 1913; DEG, 10 Jul 1914.
[12] WT, 19 Oct 1914; DEG, 18 Oct 1916.
[13] WT, 28 Nov 1914.
[14] WT, 28 Sep 1915.
[15] DEG, 18 Nov 1916.
[16] WT, 17 Mar & 21 Apr 1917.
[17] WT, 28 Apr & 20 Dec 1917.
[18] DEG, 20 Apr 1918; WT, 29 Apr & 2 Jul 1918
[19] WT, 8 Apr 1918. There were many initial difficulties over recognising the right of women over 30 who were not heads of households to vote, especially where, as family members, they could not demonstrate the payment of rent.