Ada Salter

Ada Salter

Ada Salter, née Brown (1866 – 5 December 1942) was an English socialist and pacifist. She was the first woman councillor in London and the first Labour woman mayor in the British Isles.[1]

Life

Born in Raunds, Ada Brown joined the West London Mission to work among the London poor. In 1897 transferred to the Bermondsey Settlement. There she met the future Labour politician Alfred Salter, then a student at Guy's Hospital. He converted her to socialism and she encouraged him to become a Christian. They joined the Peckham branch of the Society of Friends together, and were married on 22 August 1900.

Alfred Salter set up a low-cost medical practice in Bermondsey, which soon was under pressure to expand. Though Ada initially joined the Liberal Party, she and her husband left to join the Independent Labour Party in 1908. In November 1909 Ada was elected to the borough council, becoming the first woman councillor in London.[2] Personal tragedy struck when the couple's daughter Joyce – then eight years old – died of scarlet fever.[3] Ada was defeated in the elections of 1912.

During the First World War she and Alfred worked for the Non-Conscription Fellowship. She was also active in the Women's Labour League.[4] At the end of the war she was amongst the British delegation to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom conventions in Zürich and Vienna.

Re-elected to Bermondsey Council in 1919, she was appointed Mayor of Bermondsey by the Labour majority in 1922, making her the first female Labour Mayor in the British Isles.[2] Concerned with public health in the 1920s, she was elected to the London County Council in 1925. She became Chair of the Parks Committee in 1934, and worked on behalf of the introduction of a Green Belt.

Memorials

Ada Salter Rose Garden

A rose garden, opened in 1936 within the Old Surrey Docks area (near Southwark Park),[5] was spontaneously referred to as the 'Ada Salter Garden' from the start, and in June 1943 the name was formally recognised by the LCC.[6] Today, after a statue of Alfred Salter was stolen in November 2011, there are plans to replace the statue with statues of both Alfred and Ada.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Oldfield, Sybil. "Salter , Ada (1866–1942)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29986. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Brockway, p. 85
  3. ↑ Brockway, p. 34
  4. ↑ Christine Collette (1989). For Labour and for Women: The Women's Labour League, 1906–1918. Manchester University Press ND. ISBN 978-0-7190-2591-4.
  5. ↑ "Rotherhithe Circular Walk (5½ miles)". Inner London Ramblers. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  6. ↑ Brockway, p. 235
  7. ↑ Campaign to be launched for new Alfred & Ada Salter statues, Nayler, 5 March 2012

Bibliography

External links