Madeline Linford: founder and first editor of the Manchester Guardian’s Woman Page
Madeline Linford 1895–1975 has been called one of the most remarkable newspaperwomen of her time. She was the founder and first editor of the Manchester Guardian’s Women’s Page, launched in 1922. Her successful career as an editor helped to pave the way for today’s women journalists
She began work at the Manchester Guardian in 1913 as an assistant in the advertising department before moving on to become a secretary for William Crozier, a news editor. It was Crozier who nurtured her journalistic potential. She began by writing theatre reviews for the newspaper but her lucky break happened in 1919 when reported on how the money the Manchester Guardian had raised for the Society of Friends Mission was being spent in France, Austria and Poland. This involved long and dangerous railway journeys across war torn Europe. CP Scott was so impressed with her writing that he sent her on a second journey to Europe (still on a secretarial wage) before promoting her to the editorial team.
In the centenary photographic album presented to CP Scott in May 1921, to mark his 50th year as editor, Madeline is the only woman in the photograph of the editorial team.
In 1922 she was asked By CP Scott to set up and edit a new section of the paper to be called “Mainly for women”. She later recalled her brief for this new Women’s page was to be ‘readable, varied, and always aimed at the intelligent woman’.
Linford’s Manchester home
We know from staff address and telephone lists that are held in the Guardian archive that Madeline lived in a prosperous part of Manchester. The house she occupied, 95 Claude Road, Chorltonville, is still standing.
Linford the author
In addition to her journalism Linford was also a successful novelist who penned four books. She also wrote a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), who is widely regarded as the pioneer of women’s political rights. In her biography she described how Wollstonecraft ‘laid the first stones of that rough and painful road that has led to the enfranchisement of women’. There is a copy of this book at the John Rylands Library.
She remained in charge of pictures and also back page features until she retired in 1953. She continued to write occasional articles. Madeline Linford died in June 1975 aged 80.
Additional Resources
To get a flavour of the types of material held in the Guardian Archive take a look at our online exhibition: Manchester’s Guardian: 200 years of the Guardian newspaper.
Students at the University of Manchester can access the digitised back editions of the Guardian via Proquest. This resource includes all the published content of the Guardian newspaper and you can read Linford’s Woman’s Page there. You can also read her obituary published in the Guardian 18 June 1975. Do note that her early pieces in the Guardian have only her initials at the end.
Her early theatre and film reviews were published, as was the tradition of the time, with just her initials at the end (M.A.L.).
The University of Manchester Special Collections also holds the Guardian (formerly Manchester Guardian) Archive. Please read this related resource below if you want advice on using the Guardian Archive in your dissertations and other coursework.
To mark International Women’s Day in 2021 Dr Janette Martin created a short video about Madeline Linford and her trail blazing Women’s Page.
Digitised Manchester Guardian materials
In 2021, to coincide the bicentenary of the Guardian, the Library digitised some highlights from the collection including correspondence relating to Nancy Cunard (1896–1965) writer, publisher and political activist; Don Davies ( 1892–1958) Manchester Guardian Sports correspondent who perished in the Munich Air Disaster of 1958 and Morgan Philips Price, (1941–1964) Russian correspondent for the Guardian alongside materials surrounding the 100th anniversary of the Manchester Guardian. You will also find 2 editions of ‘San Serriffe’ (1977 and 1978) The Guardian’s long-running April Fools joke centred on a floating island. The digitised Manchester Guardian collection is found here
Please note — Post 1970s material created by the Guardian newspaper are held in London at The Guardian News and Media Archive. They have a reading room and welcome enquiries.
Discussion Points
What were the barriers that women faced when developing a career in journalism? Do those same barriers exist today?
Images reproduced with the permission of The John Rylands University Librarian and Director of the University of Manchester Library. All images used on this page are licenced via CC-BY-NC-SA, for further information about each image, please follow the link in the caption description.
