Phyllis Digby Morton

Phyllis May Digby Morton, born Phyllis May Panting, (1901[1] – 28 April 1984[2]) was a British fashion journalist who was the innovative editor of Woman and Beauty. During the Second World War she survived an attack by a German U-boat on a ship on which she and her husband were travelling.

Phyllis Digby Morton as she appeared in Woman's Own, 1956.

Early life

Phyllis Panting was the daughter of James Harwood Panting, a writer of school stories for boys, and Bertha Emily Panting. She was born in Brixton, London, in 1901 where she lived at the family home of 47 Beechdale, Brixton Hill with her parents, her sister Ruth and her brothers Ray and Arnold.[3] Panting was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, and her early career was in the BBC drama department where she wrote scripts and acted.[2] She was a member of the London Radio Repertory Players in the 1920s.[4] By the late 1920s Panting was in journalism and editor of the children's paper My Favourite.[5]

Marriage

In 1917, a Phyllis M. Panting married a Noel E. Herberte in the Kensington district of London.[6]

In 1936, Phyllis Panting married the fashion designer Digby Morton, taking his first name as one of her last names. The author H.G. Wells was the best man at their wedding.[2] Their overlapping interests allowed plenty of scope for co-operation and Phyllis helped run Digby's business and compered fashion shows.[7]

Woman and Beauty

Digby Morton's editorship of Woman and Beauty was noted for breaking new ground in the women's magazine market, not always to the comfort of the board of Fleetway Publications, the owners. Previously dominated by subjects such as needlework and cookery, Digby Morton introduced "virginity, frigidity, fertility and infidelity". She later recalled, "We tackled all the 'ity' subjects and what a fuss they caused with all those gentlemen on the Fleetway board". Her husband, Digby Morton, thought that Phyllis really rather liked controversy, saying "Her idea of bliss is to sit between Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere and argue madly about the woman's point of view."[2] Digby Morton was one of the first people to write a modern advice column, for which she used the pen name Anne Seymour.[2]

World War Two

In 1940, the Digby Mortons were travelling to a fashion trade show in New York for the Board of Trade on the S.S. City of Benares, along with 90 children being evacuated from Britain. The ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat and began to sink. With the last lifeboat already gone, the couple were forced with others to dive into the Atlantic and swim for the nearest boat they could find.[8] They were rescued, but 260 others died as a result of the attack.

Back in England, Phyllis advised the Ministry of Labour and the Board of Trade regarding the employment of women in the work force[2] while continuing to edit Woman and Beauty.[9]

Later career

Digby Morton was later beauty editor of Woman's Own and consultant editor of that magazine.[10] Away from magazines, Digby Morton worked as a consultant for cosmetics companies and the high street chemists Boots. She was a regular on Woman's Hour.[2]

gollark: I split up my 568 tabs into 4 windows for easier organization.
gollark: Right now I have 568 tabs open. Firefox is smart and doesn't actually have the tabs run unless I actually open them, so it's not too network/CPU-intensive.
gollark: Hmm, it seems to be down again.
gollark: It seems to be dead.
gollark: And copper's cost is barely below silver.

References
  1. England & Wales births 1837-2006 Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 19 November 2014. (subscription required)
  2. "Mrs Phyllis Digby Morton". A correspondent.The Times, 9 May 1984, p. 16.
  3. 1911 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 19 November 2014. (subscription required)
  4. Loyalty. Genome BETA Radio Times 1923 - 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  5. Tinkler, Penny. (1995). Constructing Girlhood: Popular Magazines For Girls Growing Up In England, 1920-1950. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-135-34454-2.
  6. England & Wales marriages 1837-2008 Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  7. Waddell, Gavin. (2004). How Fashion Works: Couture, Ready-to-Wear and Mass Production. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-118-81499-4.
  8. Nagorski, Tom. (2006) Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack. New York: Hyperion pp. 101-102. ISBN 9781401308711
  9. Robins, Denise. (2014). Stranger than Fiction: an autobiography. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-4447-8178-6.
  10. Sabet, Rosemary. (2012). From Trafalgar to Tahrir. Milton Keynes: Author House. pp. 88–. ISBN 978-1-4678-9033-5.
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