Ethel Froud

Ethel Elizabeth Froud (11 April 1880 – 21 May 1941) was a British trade unionist and feminist. She helped create the National Union of Women Teachers as a British feminist autonomous union.

Early life She was the daughter of George Christopher Froud (a butcher) and Frances Danells, his wife. Although nothing is known of her early education, she became a teacher in the West Ham borough of east London. She was the first General Secretary of the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) from 1917-1940.

Death and legacy Froud never married and was quoted as saying 'we can't have it said that we celibates are only some fraction of a human being'. She died on 21 May 1941 at her new house "Rhondhurst" in Saltdean in Sussex. She had named the house after Lady Rhondda and Emily Pankhurst the year before. In 1990 Froud was chosen with three others, Agnes Dawson, Emily Phipps and headteacher Theodora Bonwick, to be featured in Hilda Kean's book, 'Deeds Not Words: The Lives of Suffragette Teachers'. Her belief system was summarized by a stained glass inscription in her office at NUWT headquarters that read, 'The dreams of those that labour are the only ones that ever come true.'