Ethelreda Baxter
Submitted by Rose on 12 April 2011 - 11:15am
Revised: 19 November 2014 - 2:45pm — admin
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.