About Us
LGU HISTORY
The Women Golfers' Museum web site
The WGM have their own web site www.womengolfersmuseum.com. Currently in its early stages, the web site aims to provide a comprehensive list of all historical and research materials pertaining to womens' Golf and where to find them. Not only will it list WGM material, it will also list items in private collections.
If you are reading this, and own something pertaining to womens' golf which you think would be appreciated by a researcher and should be recorded on the web site, or indeed, own an item which would be better housed in a museum, then please get in touch with the WGM Secretary, John Pearson or the Chairman of the Trustees, Gillian Kirkwood
The Women Golfers' Museum (WGM) has been in existence since 1938, when a group of golfers at the Veteran Ladies Golf Association dinner suggested that it would be a good idea to establish a museum for collecting and exhibiting objects relating to the origin and growth of women's golf.
Issette Miller (nee Pearson), the founder and first secretary of the LGU, was appointed President, and her deputy, Mabel Stringer, the founder of the VLGA, was Chairman, with several famous lady golfers of the time, including Doris Chambers and Cecil Leitch on the committee. Many golfers donated items for display, and the museum built up a sizeable collection of clubs, balls, costumes, trophies, prizes, medals, books, photographs, pictures, albums and scrapbooks.
The original museum was housed in the Lady Golfers' Club in London, and survived the war intact. London Clubs were not so popular in the fifties and sixties and several closed down including the Lady Golfers' Club. The collection moved from place to place, and after a brief sojourn in the offices of Colgate-Palmolive, it eventually ended up in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh in the early 1980's. Those who visited will remember the costumes, and in particular the outfit worn by Gloria Minoprio who shocked the golfing world by wearing trousers.
Since then the Women Golfers' Museum has remained in Scotland but the collection has been split with the clubs, balls, trophies, medals and costumes housed at the British Golf Museum (BGM) at St Andrews whilst the books, photographs and other paper artefacts are in the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) in Chambers Street, Edinburgh.
There are now six Trustees who look after the interests of the Museum. Bridget Jackson MBE, and Liz Pook (nee Chadwick) have recently been appointed.
The trustees are keen to raise awareness of the Museum, and to make the collection more accessible to the public. The BGM currently displays a special Ladies' case but unfortunately they do not have room in St Andrews to display the costumes and larger items and they are in storage. The balls and clubs, are out on general display, but are lost amongst the many other items, although attributed to the WGM.
The WGM books and photographs in the NMS provide a fascinating history of the Ladies' game, and make an excellent resource for anyone wanting to research the sport.
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