Norah Fry

Norah Fry

Blue Plaque in Brislington.
Born 1871
Bristol
Died 1960

Norah Lillian Fry (1871–1960) was a member of a Bristol Quaker Fry family of the J. S. Fry & Sons company. She became an advocate and campaigner for disabled children and those with learning difficulties and in 1918 became the first female councillor in Somerset.[1][2]

Norah Fry was born and educated in Clifton, Bristol, one of the daughters of Francis James Fry and relative of Joseph Storrs Fry. She later became Norah Lillian Cooke-Hurle after her marriage to Joseph Cooke-Hurle in 1915. She was an advocate for better services for people with learning difficulties. She was very concerned about the lack of proper schools for disabled children and the shortage of housing for people with learning difficulties.[3]

She served as the chair of the statutory mental deficiency committee and a key member of the Somerset Association for Mental Welfare (SAMW).[4]

The Norah Fry research centre of the University of Bristol is named after her. As was a hospital in Shepton Mallet.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Local Government Records". Somerset County Council. http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives/LOCGOV.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-30. 
  2. ^ a b "Norah Fry, Shepton Mallet". Midas Homes. Archived from the original on 2007-06-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20070622004904/http://www.midashomes.co.uk/developments/overview.asp?dev_id=17. Retrieved 2007-06-30. 
  3. ^ "Who was Norah Fry?". University of Bristol. Archived from the original on 2007-05-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20070516121246/http://www.bris.ac.uk/norahfry/about.html. Retrieved 2007-06-30. 
  4. ^ Chester, Graham; Pamela Dale (1 January 2007). "Institutional Care for the Mentally Defective, 1914–1948: Diversity as a Response to Individual Needs and an Indication of Lack of Policy Coherence". Med Hist. 51 (1): 59–78. PMC 1712355. PMID 17200697. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1712355. 

Further reading