Papers of Lady Mary Gertrude Emmott

The archive consists of Lady Mary Gertrude Emmott papers in connection with various committees on which she sat. These are mainly letters of appointment to official committees.

The folder comprises: press cuttings, 1916; Ministry of Reconstruction Advisory Council, Nov 1917-May 1918; Housing Advisory Council, Apr 1919; Committee for War Refugees from Belgium, May 1919; Local Employment Committee, Great Marlborough Street Employment Exchange, Feb 1920-May 1923; Commission of the Peace, County of London, Jun 1920; Association of London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women, Dec 1920; Committee of Trustees of fund for assistance of elderly educated women who have suffered as a result of the war, Mar 1921; Justices of Juvenile Court, Brixton Court, Apr-Jun 1921; Visiting Committee of Borstal Institution portion of Holloway Prison, Apr 1921-Jan 1924; Committee on Co-operative and Communal Arrangements in Housing Schemes, Jun 1921; Council of the League of Nations Union (appointment as member), Jul 1921; Departmental committee on the export of horses (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries), Feb-Mar 1925.

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

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Lady Mary Gertrude Emmott (1886-1954) was born Mary Lees in Oldham in 1866. She was the daughter of John William Lees and Elizabeth Lees and was educated at Queen's College in London. She married the Liberal MP Lord Alfred Emmott in 1887, with whom she had two daughters. She became the Mayoress of Oldham in 1891, the same year that she became one of the original members of the Board of the Oldham branch of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This social welfare work was to continue through her life, she was the first woman to be elected to the Oldham Board of Guardians in 1898 and went on to represent the Women's Industrial Council on the Council of the National Association of Women's Lodging Houses in 1910. During the First World War she was involved in organising aid to Belgian refugees and in its aftermath she was appointed to the Chair of the Women's Subcommittee Advisory Council by the Ministry of Reconstruction. Her interest in housing was continued by her work as a member of the Housing Advisory Council overseen by the Ministry of Health, membership of the Advisory Council of the Local Government Board on Housing in 1919, membership of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association from 1932-3 and presidency of the Women's Homes Association in the 1930s. Emmott was also active in the area of women's status. She helped establish a branch of the National Council of Women in Oldham in 1897 and became the vice-chair of the Women's National Liberation Foundation. Later she would be successively a member of the Executive committee, president of the London branch and the Chair of the National Council of Women's Parliamentary Legislation Committee before being appointed acting vice-president in 1927 and president from the following year until 1938. She was also closely associated with the London Society for Women's Suffrage, as a member of the Executive Council from the end of the nineteenth century to its transformation into the Fawcett Society in 1951, of which she was elected President months before her death in 1954.