Radio broadcaster, actress, radio station programmer
Years active
1930s–1970s
Sheila Borrett (born Margaret Sheila Graham; 20 June 1905 – 30 April 1986) was a British radio presenter, the first female announcer on the BBC’s National Service.[1] At the time of her work as a BBC announcer she was referred to as Mrs Giles Borrett,[2] but she generally used the stage nameSheila Stewart, or during a later marriage Sheila Wasey.
She was born in Harrow, Middlesex, England. She was a theatrical actress known as Sheila Stewart when she first appeared in plays broadcast by the BBC,[3] and married Giles Borrett in 1930. She had ambitions of becoming an announcer, and was employed by the BBC in a well-publicised initiative in July 1933,[2] to become the first ever female announcer on the station.[4] She later said that she was hired for her strong, low-pitched voice, adding: "In those days, radio was so bad technically that a woman's high-pitched voice was very displeasing to the ear."[3] After just three months, she was removed from the position in November 1933[5] after the BBC received thousands of complaints from listeners who were uncomfortable with hearing a woman announcer.[6][7]
After she and her husband opened a cleaning business in 1934,[3] she continued to work occasionally as an actress at the BBC, especially in reading novels aloud for broadcast.[8] She and Borrett divorced; she then married Ian Cox, a former BBC colleague, in March 1940. They divorced in July 1945. She continued to broadcast for the BBC, as an announcer, during and after the Second World War.[2][3] She married an American, Gager Wasey, and moved to the United States in 1952,[7] becoming a naturalized citizen in 1961.[9] In 1967, as Sheila Wasey, she was working as Programme Director at WQXM (FM) in Clearwater, Florida.[10] After her husband's death in 1970, she moved to Dunedin, and from the 1970s, again using the name Sheila Stewart, she hosted programmes at WUSF (FM)inTampa.[11]
The University of South Florida created a memorial fund to commemorate her broadcasting career.[11] She was featured in the book Behind the Wireless: An Early History of Women at the BBCbyKate Murphy[12] and The Untold Story of the Talking Book by Matthew Rubery.[13]
