Denman, Gertrude Mary (1884-1954)

English founder of the National Federation of Women's Institutes. Chair of the federation from its formation in 1917 to 1946, she also helped to establish the National Birth Control (later Family Planning) Association, the Cowdray Club for Nurses and Professional Women, and the Women's Land Army.

In 1915 Denman chaired a sub-committee of the Agricultural Organization Society which that year had founded the Women's Institutes. When the institutes were transferred to the Board of Agriculture in 1917, she insisted they should be self-governing, and the National Federation of Women's Institutes was formed. She was later appointed director of the Women's Land Army in 1939, but resigned in 1945 after the government refused to give the Land Army the grants being received by women in the civil defence and armed services.

Denman was born in London and educated privately. Denman College, the Women's Institute residential college in Berkshire, was named in her honour in 1948. The Institute was established to improve the standard of women's lives through increased knowledge and training in ‘citizenship’.