‘Queer(y)ing History’- LGBTQ+ history and Egham Museum
Article researched and written by Maria Petts.
In recent years there has been an overdue revival in how we look and talk about history. Marginalised voices and figures that have been obscured from traditional historical narratives are being uncovered and explored like never before. At Egham Museum we have taken on this important mission of diversifying our collection, combing through our archives and collection in hope of finding LGBTQ+ stories that have been left untold.
Seemingly a common way of discovering LGBTQ+ stories at Egham Museum was through word of mouth, or having snippets of information as a basis for further research. Roberta Cowell was one of the first names to be mentioned in relation to queer stories, having been the first woman in the UK to have undergone male-to-female gender reassignment through surgery. Upon further digging, it was discovered that she had lived and worked in and around Egham. By 1947, Cowell had moved to Englefield Green, and was believed to have bought Leacroft Forge Sheet Metal Works Ltd, with business partner Gordon Waston. They possibly formed Leacroft of Egham in the same year with offices based on the corner of Queens Road, Egham. Here it is likely that they were busy with motor racing preparation and bodybuilding, including work on a powerful Lagonda V12, one of the two which had raced at Le Mans in 1939, and which had been bought by Cowell, probably in late 1946. (The full story of Roberta Cowell can be found here.)
In April 2020, our curator Amy stumbled upon a potential LGBTQ+ story. Upon talking to some friends at the National Trust about collaborating on a project surrounding the 1934 Runnymede Pageant, the name Gwen Lally was mentioned.
The information we had was that Lally had dressed in masculine clothes and lived with fellow performer Mabel Gibson from at least 1924 until Lally’s death in 1963. Gwen Lally (1882-1963) was the Pageant Master of the 1934 Runnymede Pageant as well as many other pageants in the country. (The full story of Gwen Lally can be found here.)
Our first port of call was to go through our collection which has a copious amount of photos and memorabilia of the Runnymede Pageant. We discovered numerous items related to Gwen Lally, such as photos of her dressed in suits, directing the pageant and two original autographs. The items related to Gwen Lally name were not referenced in our collection under the name ‘Gwen Lally’, instead it fell under the general collection of ‘1934 Pageant of Runnymede’. It is often the case with LGBTQ+ stories that they are hidden amongst collections rather than directly referenced. We are currently in the process of updating our index systems so that Gwen Lally can be easily found within our collection.
We have also been exploring our vast newspaper collection which dates back to 1880, looking for any mention of more queer figures or events in Egham’s past. So far we have found nothing in our newspaper collection on possible LGBTQ+ stories that could be explored. Queer people have always existed throughout history. Though we have been unable to find any other stories so far, we thought that this fact was very interesting. No mention of queer people within local newspapers raises the question whether discussions or information surrounding queer people was actively avoided, ignored or overlooked. At Egham Museum, we are actively looking for more stories that can diversify our collection and explore important areas of history that have often been forgotten.
If you have any information that may assist us in this endeavour please do not hesitate to contact us via our email curator@eghammuseum.org. or via our Instagram and Twitter.