Who Was ‘Mrs Smith Clough’, Author of ‘Rational Typewriting’?

Using a Yōst

It’s rare when a post on Instagram offers a hint of typewriter history, but last week Ian Jerams, of the Typewriter Cellar in Sheffield, England, drew attention to a 1925 book called Rational Typewriting, written by a “Mrs Smith Clough”. It didn’t take long to find out that “Mrs Smith Clough” was Edith Rosie Smith Clough (née Illenden) of Folkestone in Kent and that she was the author of numerous books relating to typewriter use. These were published over a period of more than 50 years and included at least 24 editions of Rational Typewriting as well as A Typewriting Catechism (1912), The Happy Typist (1913), Typewriters and How to Use Them (1914, available to read online), A New Course in Typewriting (1915, later editions published as Short Course in Typewriting), The Typists' Vade-mecum (1920, co-authored with four times world speed typing champion, American Margaret Benedict Owen), and The New Rational Typewriting, which was revised by Irene Burgess and last put out in 1970.

Edith Illenden was born in Folkestone on November 24, 1879. By the turn of the century she had worked as a private secretary in Paris and was offering her services in shorthand, typewriting, book-keeping and French from Welbeck House on Mortimer Street in London. She was also the head typewriting teacher at Clark’s College, established on Chancery Lane in London by George Ernest Clark in September 1880. At the end of 1901 Edith returned to Folkestone and, as well her typing services, she had taken on the agency for the Smith Premier typewriter. This was at a time when the Smith Premier was still a “blind” writer and it is interesting to read in 1914’s Typewriters and How to Use Them about how Edith struggled to switch from “visual” to “touch” typing. Edith’s photograph appeared in a 1904 edition of Smith Premier’s Premier Magazine. She also taught typing at evening classes in Folkestone.

It was in 1904 that Edith won the Society of Arts typewriting examination, but as outlined in Typewriters and How to Use Them she typed at nothing like the speed of the Underwood team in New York, formed in that period. With touch typing she advanced from 20 words a minute to 30 words but with visual typing she could achieve 45 words a minute, less than half the speed of the US experts.  

In the summer of 1911 Edith married John Smith Clough (1884-1968), a Yorkshire commercial teacher 4½ years her junior. The two combined their skills and their backing of the Gregg shorthand system (though they also taught Pitman) to start the Folkestone Business College and Typewriting Office on Guildhall Street in Folkestone. As well as his involvement in the typewriter business, John was an advocate for Esperanto, and in 1920 attended an international congress in The Hague. By 1923 Edith had switched her allegiance to the Royal typewriter, and the same year the college became Clough’s Commercial College, a limited listed company which set up branches in Southampton, Eastbourne and Canterbury. Finally, in 1929, the Cloughs embraced the British-made Imperial.

The Smith Cloughs had three sons, Arthur Hubert Clough (1920-42), killed while serving in World War II, Ewart James Clough (1922-), who became a farmer and forester, and Alan Emerson Clough (left, 1924-2011), who at the end of World War II joined the commercial college company and eventually took charge of it. Edith died at Ashford Hospital, Kent, on September 19, 1966. John Smith Clough died in Folkestone on January 1, 1968, leaving an estate of almost £16,000.

Cough's Commercial College in Southampton, 1971.