PIONEER GIRL TYPIST

Southland Times, Issue 20527, 2 July 1928, Page 11

PIONEER GIRL TYPIST

FIRST WOMAN IN COMMONS. MR. GLADSTONE’S INNOVATION. Details were issued in London lately of the will of Mrs. Mary Howard Jewill-Rod-gers, the doyen of woman typists. She left £18,464. She was one of the pioneers of shorthand and typing offices. As Miss Ashworth she was the first ordinary business allowed to use offices in the House of Commons, permission for this being given her in 1895 by Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Gladstone, in the year mentioned, informed the House that he had set aside a room at St. Stephen’s Hall lor a staff of typists under the control of Miss Ashworth, for the convenience of members, a privilege which has been held by the firm of Ashworth and Company ever since. The business, which was founded in 1888, was entirely worked up by its founder, who was actively concerned in it up to her death last February at the age of 65. It was started in quite a small way by Miss Ashworth, and the firm now occupies a suite of rooms at St. Stephen’s. Some of the staff have been with the firm between 25 and 30 years. Among the bequests of this pioneer of typists were amounts for every woman in the employ of her firm who had been there five years.