ENGLAND'S WOMEN MAYORS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 265, 18 March 1911, Page 10

ENGLAND'S WOMEN MAYORS.

The year 1010 proved a remarkable one for women in England. Among its not find it safe or convenient most important occurrences the election of two women mayor--; is certainly an event of much significance. Mrs. Lees, of Oldham, has become the chief citizen of a town of over 137,000 inhabitants, and is the second woman to be made mayor in England, Mrs. Garrett Anderson, M.D., Mayor of Aldeburgh, hiving been the first. Miss Morgan, Mayor of Brecon, is the first woman mayor in Wales. Mrs. Lees has long been known for the work she has done in local government, and for the help, both iu personal labor and money, which she has devoted to the town of Oldham. The borough not long ago recognised her public services, by bestowing the freedom of Oldham upon hei'. She is the first person whom Oldham has honored in this manner. She is the youngest daughter of the late Mr. John Bucklev, and was born in 1842 at Can- Hill, Mossley. In 1874 she married the late Mr. Charles E. Lees, of Oldham.

Besides doing much towards beautifying the town, she has taken a leading part in all public works of charity at Oldham. She helped to provide a school, for defective children. She supported the local infirmary, the Nurses' Home, and the Nursing Association. She is president of the Oldham branch of the National Union of Women, governor of the Hulme Grammar School, a member of the Oldham Education Committee, member of the Council of the Royal College of Music in Manchester, and a member of the Court of the Victoria University, Manchester. Mrs. fjces successfully contested a ward as the Liberal candidate in a municipal by-clectiou in 1(107, and the following year was returned to the council without opposition, being nominated by both parties. Mrs. Lees has two daughters, both of whom take an active part in public philanthropic work. The elder is the wife of the Rev. Charles Prortgers, vicar of Elvaston, Derbyshire, and the younger, Miss Marjory Lees, now holds the position of mayoress, and was invested with the chain'at the same time that her mother donned the mayoral robes. At Hrccon there were great doings and much speech-making when Miss fiwenilian E. I<\ Morgan became the town's mayor on November !). Everyone spoke in the highest terms of Miss 'Morgan, including a councillor, who felt himself obliged to say that, in his opinion, "the advancement of women to such positions was not to the advantage of the community or to the advantage of womanhood itself."