It’s fair to say that Derbyshire has had its fair share of inspirational women who made their mark on the world and the impact they made and their legacies are still very much here today. We celebrate some of these truly remarkable women on International Women’s Day:

Florence Nightingale: (1820-1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and of course founder of modern nursing.

Florence spent part of her childhood at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire, a former farmhouse renovated by her father, William Nightingale. The family also had a home at Embley Park in Hampshire, while Lea Hurst became their summer home.

Her experiences as a nurse during the Crimean War informed her views about sanitation. In 1860, she established the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital, which had been founded centuries earlier. Her reforms influenced healthcare in the 19th and 20th centuries.

During the American Civil War, she advised the US Sanitary Commission on the care of soldiers. She also worked for improvements in sanitation in India, despite never visiting the country.

In 1907, Nightingale became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit. In May 1910, she received a congratulatory message from King George on her 90th birthday.

Dame Vivienne Westwood (1941–2022): Fashion designer

Westwood was born near Hollingworth, Cheshire, and grew up in Tintwistle. She became an influential British fashion designer and helped bring punk and new wave styles into the mainstream through her work with Malcolm McLaren, including at their King’s Road shop SEX in the 1970s.

As a teenager, her family moved to Harrow, Middlesex. Westwood studied jewellery and silversmithing at Harrow Art School, now part of the University of Westminster, but left after one term. She later trained as a teacher and sold jewellery before turning to fashion.

Westwood brought bondage trousers, safety pins and chains into mainstream fashion. Her designs also drew on 17th- and 18th-century tailoring techniques.

Vera Brittain (1893 – 1970): An English Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, writer, feminist, socialist, and pacifist. 

Vera and her family moved from Macclesfield to Buxton in 1905, when she was 11. They lived at High Leigh on Manchester Road before moving in 1907 to Melrose on Park Road. A blue plaque was later placed at Melrose.

In 1915, Vera returned to Buxton to begin nursing wounded soldiers at the Devonshire Hospital. More than 5,000 soldiers were treated in Buxton during the war. Her best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth recounted her wartime experiences and the beginnings of her journey towards pacifism. Her pacifism became less popular during the Second World War. The book reached new readers when Virago reprinted it in 1978 and the BBC adapted it for television in 1979.

Bess of Hardwick (died 1608): Elizabethan builder of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire

Bess of Hardwick is known for her four marriages and ambitious building projects. Her birth date is disputed: the National Trust estimates around 1527, while Derbyshire Victoria County History places it between 1521 and 1522. Born into a Derbyshire gentry family, she first married Robert Barlow, who died a few months after their marriage.

Bess was a tireless and ambitious builder, whose houses symbolised her rise to wealth and power.

In 1547 she married her second husband Sir William Cavendish, a wealthy widower. They bought Chatsworth manor for £600 in 1549 and began building a house there in 1552. The Hunting Tower, built in the 1580s, still stands on the hill above Chatsworth.

After Sir William died in 1557, Bess married Sir William St Loe, who died in 1565, and, in 1567, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.

Bess of Hardwick famously built her masterpiece Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire – one of the greatest houses of the Elizabethan age, which today is run by the National Trust. She died in 1608 and was buried in Derby Cathedral.

Olave Baden-Powell (1889–1977): Britain’s first Chief Guide and later World Chief Guide.

Born Olave Soames in Chesterfield, she became Britain’s Chief Guide in 1918.

The Girl Guide Association was established in the UK in 1910, with Agnes Baden-Powell, Robert’s sister, taking a leading role. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts was formed in 1928, replacing an international council created in 1919. Olave became World Chief Guide in 1930 and continued to lead the movement after Robert’s death in 1941.

Her work took her around the world to visit Guide and Scout organisations.

In 1932, Olave was awarded the Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE) by King George V in recognition of her volunteer work.

In the south aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey in London, against the screen of St George’s chapel, is a memorial stone to Lord and Lady Baden-Powell. Both are buried in Kenya and each had a memorial service held at the Abbey.

Dame Ellen MacArthur: Retired English sailor

Dame Ellen MacArthur is a retired sailor who grew up in Whatstandwell, near Matlock in Derbyshire.

After finishing second in the solo, non-stop Vendée Globe in 2001, MacArthur set a solo round-the-world sailing record in 2005. She first sailed on a boat belonging to her aunt Thea and has described saving some of her school dinner money to buy a boat. In 2010 she established the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which works to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

Discover Buxton shares stories of the town and its people. Its former tram-style tour ended in 2023. The operator has described a Vera Brittain experience; contact Discover Buxton to check availability.

Happy International Women’s Day!