Julia Omari discovers the woman behind the blue plaque on Stratford Town Hall

This May marks another opportunity for Newham residents to have our say by casting those all-important votes at the ballot box. The month also marks the birth of West Ham’s first female Mayor, Mrs Daisy Parsons.

Born Marguerite Lena Millo on 21 May 1890 in Tower Hamlets to a father with health issues, an overworked mother, and five younger siblings, the family moved to Canning Town before Marguerite “Daisy” turned one. There, she attended Beckton Road Primary School until having to leave aged 12 to help support the family.

It was during those early work years that Daisy experienced first-hand the difficulties faced by women in the workforce and their limited power to improve their own conditions. However, change was in the air as suffragettes, led by Sylvia Pankhurst, were fighting for women’s right to vote. At work Daisy had witnessed the factory men join together to demand more rights and better working conditions. She knew that women must do the same.

Marriage nor motherhood dented the strength and determination Daisy felt as she pushed forward, joined the East London Suffrage Movement and was later picked as one of six East End females to visit 10 Downing Street and speak with then Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. Daisy was not shy in voicing her concerns and championing mothers’ rights.

She decided a political career was the most effective way to help others. In 1922 she was elected Labour Councillor for Beckton. In 1931 she became deputy mayor – the first female to hold that post, Alderman in 1935 and the first female Mayor of West Ham in 1936.

Daisy worked for the good of all, with a strong focus on women. She opened a Mother & Child Welfare Centre, drove the first West Ham trolley bus, and opened the new Beckton Lido.

In 1949, Daisy was made a Freeman of the Borough, a title given to a “person of distinction and any persons who have rendered eminent services to the borough,” an MBE in 1951, a blue plaque was unveiled at Stratford Town Hall in 2019 and she was commemorated with the Daisy Parsons Memorial Garden in Canning Town at Hermit Park Road.

Former Mayor Daisy Parsons MBE died in Stratford in 1957 but her legacy lives on as she continues to be recognised for her great work.

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