14 Facts About Margaret Partridge

Margaret Mary Partridge was an electrical engineer, contractor and founder member of the Women's Engineering Society and the Electrical Association for Women.

Margaret Partridge's business worked with WES to identify and employ female apprentices, including Beatrice Shilling.

Margaret Partridge was born in Nymet Rowland, Devon on 8 April 1891, elder daughter of independently wealthy landowner John Leonard James Partridge and Eleanor Parkhouse, nee Joyce.

Margaret Partridge was educated at Bedford High School, Bedford, and obtained the Arnott and Jane Benson scholarship to study mathematics at Bedford College, London from 1911, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1914.

Margaret Partridge received a great deal of practical support and financial advice from Dr John Archibald Purves MIEE, an electrical engineer who would later advise on the electricity supply scheme for the whole of the west of England.

Purves encouraged Margaret Partridge to set up electrical lighting companies for Cheriton Fitzpaine, Thorverton and Bampton where she brought electricity to the homes of the inhabitants for the first time.

Margaret Partridge was a delegate at the first meeting to develop the Electrical Association for Women, held on 12 November 1924 at 1 Upper Brook Street, home of Lady Katharine Parsons.

Margaret Partridge presented a paper entitled Producing and Distributing Electricity at the International Conference of Women in Science, Industry and Commerce organised by Caroline Haslett and the Women's Engineering Society at the British Empire Exhibition on 16 July 1925, speaking alongside the American engineer Ethel H Bailey and physical chemist Isabel Hadfield.

Margaret Partridge decided to help young women who were interested in engineering as a career by offering apprenticeships specifically for young women leaving school.

Margaret Partridge wrote to Caroline Haslett asking for recommendations and was successful in appointing Beatrice Shilling who was an immediate success.

Partridge and her partner, Margaret Rowbotham, encouraged Shilling to study at Manchester University and Shilling became a pioneering aeronautical engineer.

Margaret Partridge died at her home, Harpitt, in Willand, Devon, on 27 October 1967.

Margaret Partridge became Vice-President in 1942, and President in 1943.

Margaret Partridge succeeded Gertrude Entwistle in the role and was succeeded by Dr Winifred Hackett in 1946.