Nancy Broadfield Parkinson
Nancy Broadfield Parkinson was a British civil servant, and controller of the British Council during the Second World War.
During the war, Parkinson assisted refugees and organised 365 centres to arrange accommodation and education for them. Following the war, she supported international students and foreign visitors to the United Kingdom. She worked in the cause of international relations, and towards the establishment of UNESCO. She was also instrumental in promoting international cooperation in education via the conferences of the allied ministers of education. In recognition of this work, she was said to have been "the first woman other than the Queen to achieve distinction of Dame Commander of the Order of Michael and St George".
Background
Parkinson was born into a Northern England manufacturing and mercantile family which was mainly of non-conformist faith during her childhood. One of Parkinson's maternal great-grandfathers was Thomas Noton, who was a bookkeeper, and later the manager of a cotton mill in Oldham, Greater Manchester. He married Ann Buckley, daughter of John and Betty Buckley. They baptised their first child William in a Wesleyan chapel in Oldham. Parkinson's maternal grandfather was Robert Barclay, a cloth merchant trading with Argentina. who married Mary Anne Noton. Mary Anne Noton was baptised in the Anglican parish church in Oldham on 5 November 1837.One of Parkinson's paternal great grandfathers was labourer John Parkinson of Back Kirkham Street, Preston, Lancashire. His wife was Ellen Parkinson née Garstang. They baptised their son Thomas in an Anglican church. Parkinson's paternal grandfather was Thomas Parkinson, a merchant and draper employing 650 hands in Moss Side, Lancashire. He married Frances Broadfield, daughter of the Manchester grocer John Broadfield. Parkinson's father was towel manufacturer Frank Parkinson of Prestwich, Greater Manchester, and her mother was Anita "Annie" Buckley Parkinson née Barclay, who was born in Buenos Aires. Her parents were married in a nonconformist chapel.
Parkinson was born in her paternal grandfather's thirteen-room villa."Green Mount", Prestwich, and baptised at Higher Broughton and Singleton Mission Hall. She had two siblings: Mary Barclay Parkinson who died of measles, aged 7 years, and Harold Barclay Parkinson. She attended Harrogate Ladies' College between September 1916 and February 1923, when the school was under the headship of the Wesleyan educational pioneer Elizabeth Wilhelmina Jones. The 1921 census finds her, an orphan aged 17, boarding at the college. She matriculated at Bedford College for Women at the University of London in 1923, graduating with a BSc degree in pure mathematics, zoology and botany.
Parkinson's last address was 6 Hanover Terrace, in London, where she had lived since at least 1948. She died on 10 December 1974, and left £41,725.
Career
The 1939 electoral roll finds Parkinson living at 87 Sherwood Court, Seymour Place, London. In the same year, the 1939 Register reveals Parkinson visiting her alma mater Bedford College for Women, "organising secrets". She was controller of the British Council during the Second World War. This division was organised to assist refugees during the conflict. She oversaw the organisation of regional centres within the United Kingdom, which could arrange accommodation for refugees, and provide English language courses, other education, and cultural exchange. 365 centres were set up across 59 urban areas by 1943. Following the war, Parkinson remained in office to give support to international students and other visitors from abroad.According to the British Council, Parkinson was "a tireless worker, fiercely loyal to her department, and equally willing to negotiate with government ministers and undertake more practical tasks... Her work with our Home Division was outstanding". For example, when a choir of sixty singers from Hungary needed an escort across London at midnight, Parkinson ensured their safe arrival. Much of her work was done in the cause of international relations, on the understanding that if visitors to her country were treated and entertained well, then international "connections, understanding and trust" would be enhanced. The British Council also called her, "the driving force behind the establishment of UNESCO". During the regular conferences of the allied ministers of education, progress was "largely steered by Nancy and her determination to promote international cooperation in education". In 1947, Broadfield was a UNESCO delegate to Mexico. At the 1959 Commonwealth Education conference at Oxford, 100 international delegates attended. Of those, the only female delegates were four women of the United Kingdom delegation, which included Parkinson who was at that time controller of the British Council Home Division.