THE selection of the first ever female chairman of Malvern Hills District Council was front-page news in the Gazette 50 years ago and provoked interest further afield.
Miss A I L Harrison, JP, took office as the first woman chairman of the Urban District Council on Monday.
She nominated her friend, Mrs D E Baker, JP, as chairman's lady. References to Malvern as a town run by women,' were made by several councillors.
"Proposing Miss Harrison's election, Mr C R Lockyer, senior member, said she possessed personality, ability and the experience for the post.
"Women, he added, had long been instrumental in running the town.
"Seconding, Mrs A Ashwell, the first woman to sit on the council as a Labour party nominee and the councillor who during the last 12 months topped the attendance poll, described Miss Harrison as hardworking and sincere."
The move was suppported in an editorial in the Gazette, which said that her election "not only gave pleasure to the town but attracted to it considerable attention from the BBC and from national and provincial newspapers."
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