March 2023: Susanna (Greenwood) Taylor contacted us to say that her mother painted the plaques for Julian Huxley and Maggie's Corner. "She was Huxley's cousin and her name was Jill (Gillian) Greenwood later Lady Greenwood, wife of Tony Greenwood, Labour MP then Peer." We thank Susanna for giving us this information which enabled us to create this page.
Artist, illustrator and designer, co-creator of The Ministry of Information's 'Make Do and Mend' pamphlet series and an important early member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
Born Gillian Crawshay-Williams in London. Her maternal great-grandfather was Thomas Huxley. In 1931, after art school, she joined the Jaeger fashion brand. She devised the Regent Street decorations for the Festival of Britain in 1951, and in 1954 was the designer of Regent Street's first Christmas lights. In 1959 she arranged the decoration of Oxford Street's lampposts between Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch for the first Christmas display. Eventually she was put in charge of Jaeger's window displays across the country, before retiring in 1960.
1940 she married British Labour Party politician Tony Greenwood (1911-82). They were prominent in CND and the Aldermaston marches. They had 2 daughters.
This photo shows her in 1946.
