Mary Gladys Thoday (nee Sykes) MA. (1884-1943)
During the recent alumni reunion weekend, a double portrait commemorating the pioneering botanists Professor David Thoday and Gladys Thoday was unveiled in the Council Chamber. This portrait, painted by Welsh artist Meinir Mathias, was made possible thanks to a generous donation through the David T Jones Welsh and Celtic Fine Arts Fund, facilitated by the Development and Alumni Office. The unveiling was attended by the Thoday’s grandchildren.
Professor David Thoday, originally from Devon, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1902, where he focused on botany. His notable achievements included winning the Frank Smart Scholarship and the Mackinnon Studentship of the Royal Society. He also served as University Demonstrator in Botany and as president of the Marshall Ward Society.
Gladys Thoday, née Sykes, was born in Chester and excelled academically at Cambridge, earning first-class honours in the Natural Science Tripos. She continued her research in botany as a Bathurst student and later as a research fellow at Newnham College. In 1910, David and Gladys were married, marking the beginning of their collaborative academic journey.
Dr Dinah B. M. Evans from the School of History, Law and Social Sciences has researched the life and work of Mary Gladys Thoday extensively. Here is a discussion by Dr Evans:
I first came across Gladys Thoday some three years or so ago when Shan Robinson (of Special Collections) and I were preparing a Heritage Walk (for Women’s Archive Wales) through Upper Bangor identifying the homes and histories of some of the amazing women who had lived there since the university was established.
I started my research at the University Archive with the papers of The North Wales Women’s Peace Council and it was there I met Gladys Thoday. Until then, the name Thoday was known to me only as the name of the science building named in honour of Professor David Thoday, Gladys’ husband.
Having by now read enough of the Peace Council papers to realise that Gladys was a high achieving woman, to then discover that she appeared to have faded completely from popular consciousness rankled with me. No-one seemed to know who she was, indeed the presumption appeared to be that she was simply a ‘university wife.’ and even her death certificate described her as the ‘wife’ of Professor David Thoday. I had to know more, especially when I discovered that after she died in 1943 her papers had been deposited in the Archive here.
I was not to be disappointed. Gladys’ papers are a testament to an academic woman who, at all stages of her life, challenged society from a very scholarly perspective. Born in Chester in 1884 to a well-to-do cotton broker, John Thorley Sykes, her career spanned years in academia and scientific research, the suffrage movement and the politics of South Africa, not to mention the politics of peace in 1930s Britain.
Gladys had gone up to Girton College, Cambridge when she was 18, She was a botanist and excelled in her studies there before undertaking postgraduate research at Newnham College, Cambridge and gaining an MA. She was a prolific writer of scientific papers in peer reviewed journals written when she was up at Cambridge, at the University of London’s Royal Holloway as well as at Manchester University where she and David Thoday were based after their marriage in 1911. When David Thoday had taken up the post as a lecturer in plant physiology at Manchester University, the university also appointed Gladys as an Honorary Research Fellow where she worked with Professor Weiss for nearly eight years, contributing to the research programme of the department as well as to the teaching.
It is clear from my research that Gladys held her academic achievements in high regard. Her marriage certificate in 1910 showed her occupation as ’Fellow of Newnham College Cambridge’ and the following year, when she was both a wife and a new mother, the 1911 Census reported Gladys’ occupation as ‘Fellow and Lecturer in Botany’ at Newnham College, Cambridge. Indeed, throughout her life, all of Gladys’ correspondence was signed, ‘M.G. Thoday MA’.
In addition to her academic work and having babies, Gladys was also actively involved in the cause of women’s suffrage in Manchester, as a member of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. So, when David Thoday accepted the Harry Bolus Chair of Botany in Cape Town, South Africa, Gladys and her three sons joined him there. Gladys continued the fight for female suffrage in South Africa and was one of a group of women who met and directly challenged the Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, on the issue. Political interests apart, during her years in South Africa Gladys continued her own botanical research, travelling extensively in and around South Africa and also completed, at Prof. Seward of Cambridge University’s request, the unfinished work on Gnetales of the late Prof. H.H.W. Pearson. For the rest of her life Gladys remained engaged with the issues that she had been committed to while in Africa, the question of female emancipation in South Africa, as well as the plight and education of the native population. She was also greatly concerned over the practice of female genital mutilation in Africa.
In 1923, having accepted the chair of Botany at Bangor, David moved his family to north Wales where they lived in the nearby village of Llanfairfechan. Still an avid scientific researcher Gladys was appointed an honorary lecturer at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. However, these inter war years were also the time when there was increasing concern over peace in Europe and Gladys became deeply involved with the cause for peace. In 1926 the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom organised a peace pilgrimage. Women from various parts of Britain journeyed down to meet up at a rally in Hyde Park in London. Gladys was one of the leaders of the north Wales contingent and she also addressed the rally. Her membership of pacifist and anti-war organisations was impressive. Over the years she travelled widely both at home and across Europe attending peace conferences, desperately trying to convince governments, at home and abroad, to keep pushing for disarmament.
As the outbreak of war edged ever nearer the Thodays moved from their home in Llanfairfechan, to live in Bangor city itself and welcomed refugees from Nazi Europe to live in their Llanfairfechan house, which they did for many years. Gladys died in Haulfre, her home in Bangor, on the 9 August 1943. She was 59 years of age.
As I discovered more and more about Gladys and her achievements, and knowing of Prof. Oliver Turnbull’s interest in raising the profile of past women academics at the University, I approached him and put forward the case for Gladys Thoday to be recognised by the University, initially by siting a photograph of her in the Thoday building, alongside one of her husband. However, Prof. Turnbull put Gladys’ case before the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Burke, and it was decided to commission a painting of Gladys and her husband, David. The painting was recently unveiled and at present hangs in the University’s Council Chamber.
For more details of Gladys Thoday (nee Sykes) please see my paper on the Women’s Archive Wales website and also Gladys’ entry in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
Dinah B. M. Evans
