Ellen Bell

Ellen Bell lived in a red-brick tenement house on Bede’s Terrace. While her husband spent his days fixing fractured bones and broken hearts as a surgeon at the local hospital, Ellen gave her life to fighting the inequality she saw around her.

In 1919, she became the first female councillor in Sunderland’s history, when she was chosen to represent Hendon. During her 23 years of service, she knitted tiny hats, warmed bottles of milk and taught women to test bath water for their babies at the first welfare centre for mothers and children. She improved cleanliness and care in the maternity home on Mowbray Road, giving newborn babies a safe, warm space to grow.

She sat on the committee of district nurses, helping them to visit the sick in their homes with cool, clean hands and starched white uniforms. She taught a bible class for girls at St. George’s Church where she rustled the pages of psalms and revelations and ran a youth group in the East End, teaching young women to sew dresses and bake sponge cakes to help keep them off the streets.

She championed artists, giving them spaces to paint, sculpt, glue and draw, planning exhibitions and hanging their pictures in neat rows in the town hall.

Ellen’s life was proudly political, and she worked for the Sunderland Ministry of Labour, helping to improve employment opportunities and working conditions for local women. She was secretary of the Women’s Conservative Association and represented the North at national meetings, holding her own with groups of men in polished and carpeted meeting rooms.

In 1939, she travelled to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen pinned a shiny medal to her smartest jacket, as she received an MBE for her lifelong dedication to the people of Sunderland.