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First prize to Gladys Smeathers
Published: Friday, 26 May 2023
Silver first prize boot and shoe medal presented to Gladys Smeathers in 1953 in the collection of Northampton Museums and Art Gallery.
Find out about one of the latest donations to the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery shoe collection celebrating a significant Northamptonshire woman..
Gladys Mary Smeathers was born in 1925 in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire. After leaving school she went into the shoe industry, working at John Shortland’s, Express Shoes factory, Church Street, Irthlingborough where her father also worked. In 1953 Gladys became the first woman to be awarded a silver medal, the first prize in the Boot and Shoe Advanced Stage in Technical Education, by Northamptonshire County Council Education Committee.She was later employed by Grenson's Shoe Factory, Queen Street and Cromwell Road, Rushden, Northamptonshire, where she became a Senior Forewoman.
Her nephew very generously donated her medal to the shoe collection as a fitting memory of her life in the local shoe industry.
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