Thekla Beere
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Thekla Beere (1901-1991) Irish Public Figure
[edit] Early Years
Her father (Rev. Francis Beere) was a Church of Ireland rector at Kells, County Meath. She attended Alexandra College, Dublin and did a moderatorship in Legal and Political Sciences and an LL.B at Trinity College, Dublin. After graduating she joined the Civil Service and worked initially in the Statistics Branch and then from 1939 in the Department of Industry and Commerce where during World War 2 she worked in the area of supply with the then Minister Sean Lemass. She became Assistant Secretary of that Department in 1953. She was the first woman to achieve the rank of Department Secretary at Transport and Power in 1959. In 1960 she won a Rockefeller scholarship and travelled extensively in the USA. An honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on her by Trinity College in 1960. After her retirement in 1967 she was active in public life, a governor of Alexandra College. She was requested by the Government to chair the Commission on the Status of Women in 1970 and the report was finalised in 1973. She had an extensive interest in the arts in particular the paintings of Cecil King. She had a lifelong interest in the proceedings of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland and was its president. She was a Governor of the Irish Times Trust. She was Chairwoman of the International Labour Office in Geneva
As Dr Beere's great nephew, I can inform you that your information about my great grandfather, Rev. Francis Beere, is incorrect.
He was actually a Church of Ireland rector at Streete, County Westmeath, not Kells, County Meath.
Coincidentally, my grandmother, Thekla's sister, Jocelym Ruth Beere, married Hubert Lowry who was from Kells.
[edit] Founder An Oige
She was a member of the organising committee on the 7th May 1931 which set up An Oige (The Irish Youth Hostelling organisation), and President from 1968 to 1974
[edit] References
- Wyndham Beere, A Slice of Magic, Blackhall Publishing 2004 ISBN 1-84218-085-1
- Terry Trench, Fifty Years Young, An Oige, 1981 ISBN 0-9500292-9-7
