Wales’ 18th Purple Plaque will be unveiled in Brynmawr tomorrow (Wednesday) to celebrate the fearless rebel, Minnie Pallister.

Minnie Pallister was an outstanding feminist whose exceptional advocacy of women’s rights from the 1920s to the 1950s made her a forerunner of the Women’s Liberation Movement. 

Minnie, who was born in Cornwall, travelled throughout Britain with her family as her dad was a Methodist Minister. They settled in Brynmawr where she gained a teaching qualification at University in Cardiff and taught at Brynmawr County Primary Infant School known as the board school from 1906 to 1918.

Minnie’s role went largely unremembered until the meticulous research of Alun Burge for his biography Minnie Pallister: Voice of a Rebel published by Parthian Books to coincide with the plaque unveiling. It’s thanks to this - and the nomination by the former First Minister Mark Drakeford - that the 18th Purple Plaque is set to become a reality.

Sue Essex, Chair of Purple Plaques Wales, said: “Thanks to Alun’s book we can at last rediscover and shine a light on this remarkable woman. A dedicated feminist, Minnie was always completely courageous and committed and in her day she clearly had enormous influence. Thanks to Blaenau Gwent CBC and Brynmawr Museum and Historical Society Minnie Pallister will be remembered with a Purple Plaque.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language, Mark Drakeford, who nominated Minnie and will be unveiling the plaque at the ceremony in Brynmawr, said: “On every page of this fine new book I found myself asking, “Why didn’t I know that already?” A remarkable life, a formative influence on the labour movement, and the pivotal role of women within it-all just waiting to be discovered. Marking Millie Pallister’s life with a Purple Plaque is just the start of that journey.”

A Brynmawr school teacher, Minnie was the leading woman opponent of the First World War in Wales when such opposition was highly unpopular. As Welsh secretary of the No Conscription Fellowship, she looked after the welfare of 900 conscientious objectors and their dependents. Twice accused of sedition, she remained a prominent, lifelong pacifist.

Minnie’s intellect, personality and platform presence took her to the high echelons of the Labour movement, in which she was considered the best woman orator in Britain. She was the first full time woman labour organiser in Wales, agent to Ramsay MacDonald, Wales President of the Independent Labour Party and Parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth when such positions were very rare for a woman - and all when she was still in her thirties. In 1926, when catastrophic ill-health forced her to stand down from her national labour roles, she was replaced by Ellen Wilkinson and Oswald Mosely respectively.

During years of infirmity and near-destitution, often bedridden, lying flat on her back and without the strength in her fingers to be able to type, to survive economically Minnie wrote newspaper articles in longhand. After her health returned, her journalistic career blossomed and she became a successful journalist with the Daily Herald and the Daily Mirror, writing 600 articles, five books, including an autobiographical account and a clutch of pamphlets. 

In 1938-9, she twice travelled to Nazi Germany and helped rescue Jewish people, which she continued to do up to the outbreak of the Second World War.   

By the 1950s, her career as a formidable broadcaster, which had begun in 1938, saw Minnie bring a cutting edge to Woman’s Hour’s where she was made guest editor and saw her life story serialised on radio.  For good measure she provided the inspiration for Spike Milligan’s Goon Show character Minnie Bannister.

Alun Burge’s biography of Minnie Pallister, Minnie Pallister: Voice of a Rebel, is launched by Parthian to coincide with the unveiling of the purple plaque.