The UK’s first Supermodel was a Saddleworth girl
Reporter – Jude Gidney
Never mind Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Elle McPherson – the small village of Delph in Saddleworth is known to be the birthplace of the UK’s first Supermodel known as Gloria.
She was born May Kenworthy, the daughter of a joiner, in Delph in Saddleworth on February 8th 1905. When she was six her parents separated and she went to live with her Grandparents. At the age of 13 she left school to become a winder at the local mill. After a few months she ran away to Manchester to be with her mother soon to join a pantomime company as a chorus girl at the age of 14.
She wrote in the News of the World ; “Chorus girls – or at least a certain type of chorus girl – are pretty hard boiled, and life in all its crudity was opened up to me. I heard things which made me shudder. I saw things which revolted me, and above all, I learned that a pretty girl must walk warily…”
She became aware of her looks by a love-struck Parson and wrote ; “I am grateful to him to this day, for it was he that caused me to look more intently at my reflection in the mirror. Without any sacrifice of modesty, I knew I wa
s beautiful.”
From then on she sought work as a model, calling herself Gloria, and she was inundated with offers. Her big break came when she was engaged for a huge advertising display at London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre. She was approached by a Selfridges employee and asked to model at what was arguably the world’s most famous and progressive department store at the time.
Her life and achievements were quite extraordinary given the age she grew up and worked in. Only when she was a teenager, 17yrs old, did women get the vote and then only ladies over 30. She was not only a model but an large influence on the increasing emancipation of women.
Gloria’s autobiography was published by the News of the World whilst she was still working at Selfridges, but to later leave in 1936 to setup her own mannequin school. In an attempt to find happiness, she married 3 times but bore no children, she was thought to have suffered with depression and eventually died from an overdose of barbiturates in 1941.
In her time as a model she was believed to have modelled for the likeness of the maid in the Ovaltine advert and was thought to have been photographed tens of thousands of times in her career. She apparently received thousands of proposals of marriage, and it is commonly thought that a motor car – Triumph Gloria- was named after her although there is possible evidence to the contrary.
Gloria, a young and energetic woman with a drive for better things pulled herself up from what were meagre beginnings in Saddleworth into the limelight and
whirling social circles in the city. Sadly she struggled to find happiness but she must have encouraged women to follow in her footsteps, dress well and come out from behind their cooking stoves and washing tubs to make a better world for themselves.
Sponsored by Jude Gidney Photograph
Researched from
The People Detective: Discovering your family Roots – Tom McGregor
Oldham Evening Chronicle 20th June 2002
Mail on Sunday – ‘Weekend Magazine’ 7th April 2001
Many thanks also to Peter Fox, curator of the Saddleworth Museum and the Archives Section, Oldham Library.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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