Winifred Griffiths

Winifred Griffiths born Winifred Ritley (21 May 1895 – 10 September 1982) was a British and Welsh politician. She published her autobiography "One Woman's Story" in 1979. She wrote about the life of a clever girl who went into domestic service. Inspired by socialism she became an activist. Her husband became a minister but "she was clearly proud of her own" achievements.

Life Griffiths was born in Overton in Hampshire and she did exceptionally well at school leading the whole school in her results when she was fourteen. Her mother Rose (née Treacher) and her father William George Rutley had four children and her father was a paper mill worker and Methodist lay-preacher. Her earned thirty shillings a week so lack of funds, and as she later found out good advice, led to her leaving school. She tried to become a teacher by correspondence but she could not afford the text books. Her work was not intellectual, she worked at a gabardine factory and then in tailoring. She worked happily for four years in domestic service, but a chance view of a magazine changed her life. The article was by an economist and she became politically aware. Her biographer, Carol Jenkins, notes that she was proud of the "important part she played in her ... her husband's achievements, [but] she was clearly proud of her own."

She died in hospital in Teddington, having outlived her husband.

Private life She and Jim had four children, the last, Arthur, was born in 1931.