Valerie Hunter Gordon

Valerie Hunter Gordon (née Valerie Ziani de Ferranti; 7 December 1921 – 16 October 2016) was the British inventor of PADDI, a sustainable nappy system considered to be the world's first disposable nappy, and Nikini, an early sanitary towel system.

Development of the modern nappy In 1947, after having her third baby, Valerie Hunter Gordon started developing a product that could prevent the hours of drudgery and wasted resources spent on washing, drying and ironing the traditional towelling nappy. "I just didn't want to wash them," she explained. "It was awful labour." Valerie created her nappies, being a two-part system, consisting of a biodegradable disposable pad (made of cellulose wadding covered with cotton wool) worn inside an adjustable waterproof garment (the PADDI) with press-studs that was not thrown out.

Initially, she used old military parachutes for the garment where some lettering from the parachutes was visible on early versions. She experienced great demand for her invention from friends, particularly other army mothers. Initially, the big manufacturers were unable to see the commercial possibilities of disposable nappies though, and Valerie made over 400 PADDIs herself using her sewing machine at the kitchen table. She sold these for 5 shillings each.

In 1950, Boots agreed to sell PADDI across their branches on a nationwide basis.

Nikini sanitary towel system

Following the success of the PADDI, Valerie went on to have three more children and relocate to Beauly when her Scottish husband Patrick Hunter Gordon joined his father Samuel Hunter Gordon in running the family engineering business AI Welders in Inverness. From there, she travelled back and forth to the Robinsons headquarters, where she developed the PADDI design and designed other products. She also created the Nikini sanitary towel system for women, the pad for which may be considered the world's first modern sanitary towel. The name Nikini was a combination of Knicker and Bikini, describing the mini knicker style of the product. Rather to her surprise Nikini earned more royalties overall than Paddi, though as she reflected, "there are probably more menstruating women in the world than incontinent babies."

Personal life Valerie Hunter Gordon was the granddaughter of domestic electrical pioneer and inventor Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti and Gertrude de Ferranti, the founder of British electrical engineering firm Ferranti, great-great-granddaughter of Italian classical guitarist and composer Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti and the sister of Basil de Ferranti. Her maternal great-grandmother, Juliana Scott, was a concert pianist and author.

She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart school, in Roehampton.

In 1940, Valerie married the decorated Royal Engineer, Major Patrick Hunter Gordon. Patrick and Valerie's father were involved in the retreat from Dunkirk and her father led a group of soldiers home to safety riding discarded motorbikes through the Spanish border, managing to arriving home just in time for the wedding.

She died on 16 October 2016 at the age of 94 and was survived by six children, 19 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.