Mary Bridges-Adams

Mary Jane Bridges-Adams (née Daltry; 19 October 1854 – 14 January 1939) was a British educationalist, socialist, and activist. She campaigned for free, compulsory, secular education for all and for free school meals. Early life and education Bridges-Adams was born at Maesycwmmer, Bedwas, Monmouthshire, south Wales, the daughter of a Welsh engine-fitter William and his wife Margaret. The family later moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and after working at schools in Newcastle, Bridges-Adams studied at the University of London and in 1882 was awarded a distinction at Bedford College, London, in Greek and Maths. She married Walter Bridges-Adams on 22 October 1887. Career Bridges-Adams's early career was as a teacher in schools in Birmingham and in London, and she was also the headmistress of a board school (a type of free elementary school established by the Elementary Education Act 1870). In 1894 she stood for election to the London School Board, representing the Greenwich division, supported by the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, trade unions (the Gas Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers) and the London Nonconformist Council. She failed to be elected, but was successful three years later, and was re-elected in 1900 as the sole Independent Labour Party candidate, with an increased majority, remaining a member of the board until its abolition. The school boards were then one of the few elected bodies of the United Kingdom on which women could serve. In 1900, she was involved in the opening of a Fröbel-influenced free "kindergarten" in Woolwich, London; this was the first such educational establishment in England. With the closing of the school boards, she became secretary to Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, and with her continued campaigning. In 1905, the two led a motor tour of the country to promote the concept of free school meals. Bridges-Adams founded the first 'Open Air School for Recovery' (which aimed to show the "therapeutic effects of open air and regular meals on debilitated children") in Bostall Woods, London in 1907 and another on Shooter's Hill, London, the following year.