Home front heroine is elected to town council

The reputation of one of Stirling’s `homefront heroines’ continued to grow in November 1919.

Miss Grace Tasker, awarded an MBE for her work during World War One, was elected to represent King Street ward in the Stirling Town Council and Parish Council elections.

She polled 293 votes and filled one of two vacancies for councillors in the ward. During WWI, Miss Tasker headed an army of female volunteers who ran Stirlingshire Work Department in Clarendon Place.

They collected and packaged donations of food and clothing parcels and sent them to soldiers from the area who were prisoners or serving on the frontline.

Many returning Pows said the food supplies kept them alive during their captivity.

The work department continued to operate after the Armistice, dispatching clothing for French men, women and children of all ages whose homes and properties had been destroyed in war.

Miss Tasker was the daughter of Capt Tasker of the Board of Trade, Glasgow, and in a glowing tribute following her election, the Observer said: “There is no lady whose name is so well known in public work in Stirling – and particularly during the war.

“Her great record in connection with the Stirlingshire Work Depot and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Prisoners Fund is a household word.”

Before the war, she had organised an industrial work exhibition, associated with Stirling Cattle Show, and she was also an officer in the Girl Guides.