The Anglesey, Wales village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (Llanfairpwll for short) is world famous for having Britain’s longest place name. Less well know is that it’s where the first Women’s Institute (WI) in Britain was founded. The movement started in Canada in 1897. In 1913, Mrs. Alfred Watt, who had worked at the WI headquarters in Canada came to London and tried, without success, to start WI’s in the south of England. Two years later, when Britain was looking to boost food preservation during WW I, she received the enthusiastic support of Colonel Stapleton Cotton from Llanfairpwll and the first official British WI was founded there in September 1915. Read a fictionalized account of the origins of WI’s in the story “Jamming” (see STORIES) and discover more interesting history in BEHIND THE STORY.
