Kathleen Dayus - Birmingham and Black Country Lives

(1903-2003) Back-to-back poverty to business woman and author

Professor Carl Chinn, Chair of Birmingham Community History at the University of Birmingham, describes the often tragic but inspiring life of Kathleen Dayus. Born into an impoverished family in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, Kathleen eventually built a successful enamelling business and in her later years became a well-known author who told her story in Hockley: growing up in working class Birmingham.

Read the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry

KEYWORDS: Kathleen Dayus, Carl Chinn, Back-to-Backs, Jewellery Quarter, Poverty, Women, Birmingham, Oxford Dictionary of Biography

In Black Country, Birmingham,

Featuring:

Professor Carl Chinn

Thanks to:

The family of Kathleen Dayus, Doug Timmis, Maris Haddleton, Birmingham Lives Archive, Virago Publishers, Keith Berry, Toye & Co, Film Birmingham