A friend recently requested that I research the early life of this woman, who, she informed me, was a pioneering female journalist with a distinguished career at the Manchester Guardian.
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| Madeline |
Worse, after spending some time researching her, some of the relevant records began to appear familiar.
It was then that I realised I had mentioned her in a previous story on this Blog on 10th September 2021.
It was a story about 1, St. Clement’s Road and its occupants before it became the presbytery of Our Lady and St. John’s Roman Catholic Church. Madeline was only briefly referred to as the daughter of the family who resided there between cc 1905-1909.
In my defence, I would point to the final sentence of that story “There are further stories to tell concerning the four children, but these will have to wait for another time”.
Perhaps I sensed there was an important story to tell about Madeline, but it has been overlooked. Time to put the record straight.
Other than to state that Madeline Alberta Linford was born on 16th January 1895 in Kilmalcom, Renfrewshire, Scotland I will say nothing about her family background as it is well-covered in the story written in 2021.
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| 1, St. Clements Road |
By her own account Madeline did not have a very happy childhood and found solace initially in reading and, from the age of 10, writing.
When she was 12 years old, Madeline was sent to a private boarding school, St. Catherine’s in Bramley, Surrey.
She stayed there for five years despite her father, Albert Wallace Linford, having a mental breakdown and being committed to a private asylum Haydock Lodge, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire from 1908 until his death on 9th June 1913.
Her father’s illness imposed a substantial burden on the family with the loss of his income compounded by the expense of his care in the asylum. Her mother moved with her two oldest children to much smaller accommodation, 13, Oak Avenue, also in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. It was only with the aid of family that Madeline and her younger brother were able to remain at their respective boarding schools. Her brother, Vivian Haldane Bruce was at Aylwin College in Arnside, Westmorland.
Her father’s committal, she never saw him again, with its attendant financial distress, coupled with a couple of childhood illness, made Madeline’s first year at St. Catherine’s a miserable one. She later settled into the routine of life in the Church of England single-sex boarding school excelling, as would be expected, in English.
The family’s financial situation gradually improved after their move to a smaller property and the two older children started working; Elsie Dorothy as a music teacher in a private school at 3, York Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Arthur Forbes as a clerk in a fire insurance office.
Matters further improved, monetarily, following her father’s death, on 9th June 1913, and after such a long-drawn out illness there may also have been a sense of closure if not relief.
Of course, just over a year later the First World War began and with two young men of, or approaching, military age in the family fresh worries enveloped the Linford household.
In the event both Madeline’s brothers emerged from the conflict relatively unscathed. Arthur Forbes did see some service in France, with the Durham Light Infantry, but due to recuring skin problems was invalided home and saw out the remainder of the war as a Corporal (and unpaid acting Lance Sergeant) in the Army Pay Corps in Nottingham.
Vivian Haldane Bruce did not reach eighteen until March 1918 and was enlisted the following month on 26th April 1918. Initially he joined the Inns of Court Officer cadets but again due to frequent bouts of sickness (bronchitis) he was transferred to the London Regiment 14th (1st London Scottish) battalion. After being with the colours for 11 months to the day he was discharged with a (temporary) ill-health pension on 26th March 1919.
The family had another member involved in war work; Arthur Forbes married Miss Nellie Locke of 40, Reynard Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, at Christ Church, West Didsbury, Manchester on 15th June 1918. She had worked at the Red Cross Hospital in the Baptist School building on Wilbraham Road, from April 1917 until April 1918 engaged in kitchen and later nursing duties.
The inter-war period were good years for Madeline both professionally and domestically. Her relationship with her mother became much closer especially when the family moved from the house in Oak Avenue with all its associated sad memories to 95, Claude Road, Chorltonville a “gay little house in a garden suburb” as Madeline described it.
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| 95, Claude Road |
She returned in early 1921, this time with a chaperone! This is an example of the powerful reporting she sent back as copy:
"Dateline: Vienna 6 December 1919
The child welfare work of the Mission naturally includes the expectant mothers. They are perhaps the saddest people in Vienna.
After long years of privation and hopelessness and the sight of the diseased and wretched children already in the world there is no joy or pride in motherhood here". Manchester Guardian, 12 December 1919
On the back of these successful trips, she was a natural choice to be the editor of the newly launched “Women’s page” of the paper. It was to be aimed at the “intelligent woman” and soon attracted contributions from all the prominent female writers of the day. Madeline remained at its helm until it was discontinued on the outbreak of war in 1939.
In this period also, were published A biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and a series of five novels: “Broken Bridges”, “Roadside Fire”, “A Home and Children”, “Bread and Honey”, and “Out of the Window”. (2)
The last of these novels was published in 1930 and although she did have several short stories published subsequently, she never returned to lengthier ones. This seems a pity as the review of her third novel in the Illustrated London News of 20th March 1926 closed with the lines, “Miss Linford has stepped into the sure ranks of novelists who count”.
Madeline hinted in her own writing at a reason for the lack of more novels, following the death of her mother in 1935 she lost the habit of “daydreaming”. She also moved out of the house on Claude Road to Flat 2 in this large house at 552, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.
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| 552, Wilbraham Road |
Less than a mile away, at 30, Cromwell Road, Stretford, lived Mr. & Mrs. George Frederick and Elsie Dorothy Holgate, Madeline’s sister and brother-in-law whose wedding took place at Manchester Cathedral on 2nd October 1926.
Arthur Forbes Linford, her older brother, had moved on promotion to Wembley, North London in the 1920s. (3)
During the Second World War, Madeline continued her journalism as the Manchester Guardian’s picture editor and combined this with working for the Women’s Voluntary Service (W.V.S.) the note on her entry in the 1939 Register indicates that this involved A.R.P. reports in some way.
Post World War 2, Madeline continued as the paper’s picture editor for a time until she took early retirement in November 1953 and moved to Windermere in the Lake district from where she still occasionally submitted articles to the Manchester Guardian, the last in 1965. She found a house close to where her sister and brother-in-law had moved to: - Burnside Cottage, Kendal Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, Westmorland.
Madeline died, the last of the four Linford siblings to do so, on 16th June 1975 at The Bay View Nursing Home, Windermere Road, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria. Her estate was valued for probate purposes at £14,968. (Equivalent to £111,000 today).
Her home address at the time of her death was Oak Hill, Lake Road, Windermere.
Pictures: - Portrait of Madeline is a small extract from the Guardian’s photograph of its 1921 editorial staff. Others from the collection of Tony Goulding.
Notes: -
1) Manchester’s poor rate books show this was Madeline’s address from 14th October 1921.
2) “Out of the Window” first published in 1930 by Ernest Benn Limited, has just been reprinted and published in paperback by Persephone Books.
3) Arthur Forbes Linford died on Monday 20th May 1963. He lived at “Arnellan”, 146, Slough Lane, Kingsbury, North-West London, a branch inspector for an insurance company and latterly the manager of its Hendon Branch, he was also for 37 years acted as secretary to the trustees of the Kingsbury Charities. (Wembley News 24th May and 7th June 1963.
Acknowledgements: - First and foremost, I have made extensive use of Michael Herbert’s Blog about Madeline "M.A.L: the writing and journalism of Madeline Linford, 1916 to …at https//:madelinelinford.wordpress.com especially the extracts of her writings. Otherwise just the usual sources found on Find my Past most helpfully the Newspaper Archive and the Red Cross Archive at https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/our-history/museum-and-archives
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