Ethelreda Baxter

Other names: 
née Adam, known as Ethel
Dates: 
born 22 October 1883, died 16 August 1963

Ethel Baxter was the daughter of a ploughman, Andrew Adam, and his wife Elizabeth Farquar. Born in Roseisle, Moray, Ethel left the family farm to train as a nurse and, in 1914, married William Baxter, one of her patients. William’s parents, George and Margaret Baxter, owned a grocery shop in Fochabers though which they sold Margaret’s jams and marmalades. Seeing an opportunity to expand this business, Ethel persuaded her husband to open a factory in 1916 and while William travelled as a salesman for the business, Ethel managed the factory. She created new products, including soups and canned and bottled fruits, which she and William eventually sold to leading London stores, and eventually to America and throughout the British Empire.

Sources
The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women
Entry on Ethelreda Baxter by Flora Johnston