Catherine Webb

Catherine Webb (4 May 1859 – 29 July 1947) was an influential activist in the early cooperative movement, writer and educator. She was general secretary of the Women's Industrial Council (WIC), general secretary of the Co-operative Women's Guild and vice-president of Morley College.

Early life Webb was born on 4 May 1859 in Battersea, London, and she had a brother, Arthur Webb. Her mother was Catherine Webb (née Young). Her father worked his way up from poverty through the cooperative movement, allowing his children to be raised as middle-class. Webb's comfortable upbringing raised questions in the class, which she later referred herself as “a working woman.”

Career Webb joined the Women's Co-operative Guild in 1883 and became one of the most visible women of the movement, along with Rosalind Nash and Margaret Llewelyn Davies. Webb was elected WIC's general secretary from 1895 to 1902 and was also elected to the Southern Section of the Central Board of the Cooperative Union in 1895. During the 1890s, she attended university extension courses at Morley College. Webb also edited the Guild's “Notes” feature in the “Women’s Corner” of the Co-operative News, writing about women workers and their unions and organizations, such as the Women's Industrial Council and Lady Emilia Dilke's Women's Trade Union League. From 1905 to 1930, she served as secretary of the Guild's Convalescent Fund, which had been established in 1895 to support members in need or recuperating.

From 1915, Webb served on the council of her former college, Morley, retaining her position until she became vice-president of the college in 1946. The following year, she wrote a history of the institution, titled History of Morley College for Working Men and Women in Lambeth, London. She was cremated and buried at Streatham Vale Cemetery in Streatham Vale, London, on 1 August 1947.

Publications

Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket (1927) Manchester: Co-operative Wholesale Society Print Works. Webb, Catherine. History of Morley College for Working Men and Women in Lambeth, London.