Old records mostly wrote about men: kings, lords and priests. That doesn't mean women weren't here! These are women connected to Hillingdon that we know about. Can you find out about more?
E
Elizabeth I
Visited here
In October 1602 she was entertained by George Carey, Lord of West Drayton Manor, at West Drayton Manor House.
EB
Eva Elizabeth De Burgh
Lived here
The last of the De Burgh family at Drayton Hall in West Drayton. She owned it alone when she died in 1939, aged 87, ending 152 years of the family's link with West Drayton.
AI
Annie Isherwood
1862–1906
Born here
An Anglican nun, born in Uxbridge, who founded the Community of the Resurrection in Grahamstown, Southern Africa.
PE
Peggy Eileen Whistler (Margiad Evans)
1909–1958
Born here
A poet, novelist and illustrator, born in Uxbridge, who wrote as Margiad Evans.
ML
Mabel Lethbridge
1900–1968
Worked here
A writer who, in the First World War, worked at a munitions factory in Hayes. She was then the youngest person to receive the British Empire Medal, and wrote about her time there in her first book, Fortune Grass (1934).
GF
Gracie Fields
Visited here
An entertainer who visited the Gramophone factory in Hayes in 1933, pressed her four millionth record there, and sang the song from her 1932 film Looking on the Bright Side.
SR
Sylvia Rayman
Premiered a play here
Her 'all-women play' Women of Twilight (1951) was first performed at the Regent Theatre in Hayes.
E
Queen Elizabeth II
Opened Heathrow's first terminal
In 1953 she laid the first slab of a new runway at Heathrow, and in 1955 she opened its first permanent passenger terminal.