Phoebe Cusden
Particularly notable was that her local campaigning developed into an effort to broaden her own and her fellow citizens' awareness of issues of international peace and progress.
Most significantly she developed a twin-town link enabling aid and practical assistance to the German city of Düsseldorf while it was still recovering from the devastation of World War II bombing.
Beginning work in the Reading Post Office in about 1901, she was an active trade unionist, and became a leading member of the Postal and Telegraph Clerks' Association.
Early influences on Phoebe were John Rabson, a socialist councillor and fellow trade unionist, and Edith Morley of Reading University, the first female professor in the country.
The Reading branch was a pioneer of the Workers' Educational Association, and Phoebe enrolled on Morley's WEA classes in English Literature.
The "Reading Worker" describes Phoebe addressing the crowd: "Miss Blackall tells of the women of her class who have to leave their household duties to stand in queues for hours, only to be turned away unable to buy the necessary food for their families.
As a Poor Law Guardian, Phoebe gained first-hand experience of poverty and the administration of the rudimentary welfare system in the town, including the workhouse provision.
Her principal interest on the Council was education, particularly nursery schools, but she was also involved in housing, town planning, health and related issues.
During the Second World War, Phoebe organised youth camps, served on the Reading Famine Committee, and was involved with evacuees from London.
[6] In 1946, with information, support and assistance from people such as the publisher Victor Gollancz, General Robert Collins of the Royal Berkshire Regiment and the junior government minister Frank Pakenham (later Lord Longford), Phoebe led a local appeal for help for people in Düsseldorf and visited the city to find out the conditions under British occupation.
Victor Gollancz had in November written to the national press saying that people in Düsseldorf were living on between 400 and 1000 calories per day, and that 400 was "half the Belsen rate".
In the year after her mayoralty she invited six Düsseldorf children to stay in Reading for three months, and set up the Reading-Düsseldorf Association to continue the connection.
A nursery school was set up in Aachen, and in July 1949 the entire Reading Youth Orchestra received a rapturous welcome in a concert in Düsseldorf.
The University of Reading gave Phoebe an honorary doctorate in 1976, and in 1977 she made her last visit to Germany, when Düsseldorf awarded her its Verdienstplakette, the city's highest honour.
Phoebe Cusden House provides 11 much-needed supported living flats for residents with disabilities and is owned and managed by Reading Borough Council.
