Annie
Gulvin (1876-1972) was the first woman Gardener at Kew in 1896.Queer Places:
The Cottage, Burstall, Ipswich IP8 3DS, UK
Annie
Gulvin (1876-1972) was the first woman Gardener at Kew in 1896.
Born Mary Ann Gulvin to modest origins in 1876, it was the serendipitous suggestion of a doctor that a bright but often sick Annie forget about school and her dreams of being a teacher, and instead focus on an outdoor life. This led to her winning a place at the prestigious Swanley Horticultural College, where she became one of the first female students at this previously all-male school.
At the age of 17, Annie went to study at Swanley from her home town of Maidstone, joining the college in February, 1894. Just two months later, along with 16 other Swanley students, she sat the RHS’s Examination in Horticulture. The exam was taken by a total of 126 candidates across the country, and unsurprisingly, Annie only achieved a third class pass, just two points above failure. One year later, 196 candidates sit the exam, 29 of them from Swanley, and this time, Annie obtained a first class pass, with 260 marks out of a possible 300. Nationally, this was the highest mark achieved, and Annie was awarded the Society’s silver-gilt medal. This was only the third time that the Royal Horticultural Society had set these exams, and Annie was the first woman to win the medal.
Eleanor Morland, Gertude Cope and Alice Hutchings, Kew gardeners, pictured
in 1898, at RBG Kew. By 1902 all the women gardeners had left to take up
horticultural posts elsewhere and it was not until World War I that female
gardeners were employed at Kew again. Female gardeners wore brown bloomers,
woollen stockings, waistcoats and caps, to discourage “sweethearting” with
male colleagues.
Women gardeners were employed for the first time at Kew, and on equal pay, decades before women gained the vote. Made to wear the same garb as male gardeners so as not to distract their colleagues, their brown woollen bloomers soon made the news. As the satirical magazine, Punch, put it, "They gardened in bloomers the newspapers said. So to Kew without waiting all Londoners sped."
Annie proved to be an exceptional talent, and her short career is filled with firsts. In January 1896, two years after joining the college, and still only 19, Annie and a fellow student, Alice Hutchings, presented themselves at the gates of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to begin their first day at work. Neither had achieved the age of majority, which at the time was 21, neither had five years previous work experience, and, most significantly, neither of them were male, the three stipulated criteria for employment. Nevertheless, a direct application from the head of Swanley College outlining the two women’s outstanding credentials persuaded the director of Kew, W T Thiselton-Dyer to employ them. They were the first and only women on the gardening staff.
Annie Gulvin, Alice Hutchings, Gertrude Cope and Eleanor Morland, who trained together at Swanley Horticultural College, became the first female gardeners at Kew. Their days were long, digging in the dirt from 6am to 6pm in the summer months. They were expected to spend their evenings attending lectures or studying in the library.
By 1898, Alice Hutchins had been promoted to sub-foreman, Annie Gulvin had left, and a small number of other women had joined the gardens. After 1902, there were no more female gardeners at Kew until the First World War came along, and women were needed to replace the men who had gone to fight. Women were recruited once again during the Second World War, but it was only in the 1970s when their number increased to become equal with male students.
After a year at Kew, Annie set another first when she moved to the mansion of Iscoed in Carmarthenshire. The Journal of the Kew Guild noted: “Miss Gulvin has the distinction of being the first woman to take sole charge of a garden on exactly the same terms as a man.” However, despite turning around the fortunes of a somewhat neglected five-acre garden, Annie only stayed a year. Iscoed suffered a high staff turnover in general. The lady of the manor was notoriously fiery, apparently she had a spy hole, and used to spy into the servants’ quarters.
Annie moved to become head gardener in a grand house known as The Cottage in Burstall, Suffolk, in 1899, at which point her pioneering enterprise was clearly having an influence, with more female gardeners being employed at Kew and elsewhere. Anne’s own time as a gardener came to an end when marriage derailed her career. At just 23 she fell in love with a wealthy solicitor who was nearly 20 years her senior. When they married in 1900 she made a giant leap up the social ladder, and left the struggle for horticultural equality behind.
Annie Gulvin continued to enjoy gardening and growing vegetables for her grandchildren until her death in 1972, aged 96.
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