Jessie Beatrice Kitson (1876–1965) was the first woman to be Lord Mayor of Leeds,

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, England. She was Lord Mayor from 1942 to 1943.

Life

Kitson came from the well-known Leeds family and was the fourth member of the family to serve as lord mayor. Her parents were John Hawthorn Kitson, brother of

James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale (22 September 1835 16 March 1911), PC, DSc, was an industrialist, locomotive builder, Liberal Party politician and a Member of Parliament for the Holme Valley. He was known as Sir James Kitson from 1886, unti ...

(1835–1911), engineer and MP, and Jessie, Ollershaw. Her grandfather was James Kitson senior (1807–1885), the founder of

Kitson and Company Kitson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Early history The company was started in 1835 by James Kitson at the Airedale Foundry, off Pearson Street, Hunslet, with Charles Todd as a part ...

. Her brother was the artist

Robert Hawthorn Kitson Robert Hawthorn Kitson (3 July 1873 — 17 September 1947) was a British painter. As a gay man, he chose to leave England, where the Labouchere Amendment made life difficult. He settled in Sicily, where he built a villa in Taormina, Casa Cuseni, ...

(1873–1947). She attended Halliwick School.'THE KITSONS AND THE ARTS: A LEEDING FAMILY IN SICILY AND THE WEST RIDING'
David Boswell (D Phil. Thesis, 1994) She became close friends with Princess Mary who lived nearby at

Harewood House Harewood House ( , ) is a country house in Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam, it was built, between 1759 and 1771, for Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy West Indian plantation ...

. She was also a correspondent of

Mary Kingsley Mary Henrietta Kingsley (13 October 1862 – 3 June 1900) was an English ethnographer, scientific writer, and explorer whose travels throughout West Africa and resulting work helped shape European perceptions of both African cultures and ...

, who she stayed in contact with after she spoke in Leeds. Kitson had several close female friendships throughout her lifetime, including Miss E M Woodgate, to whose home she retired to in 1945. A close friend in Leeds was Ethel Mallinson.

Career

Public service was central to Kitson's work: in 1913 she was elected to the Leeds Board of Guardians. However, although she was a member of the Otley Women's Liberal Association 1914-15, she tried to stay apart from party politics. She spoke publicly against women's suffrage. She did stand to be an independent councillor after the First World War, but was not elected. Kitson was elected Lord Mayor of the

County Borough of Leeds The County Borough of Leeds, and its predecessor, the Municipal Borough of Leeds, was a local government district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, from 1835 to 1974. Its origin was the ancient borough of Leeds, which was reformed by ...

on 18 November 1942 due to her work in public life in Leeds. The previous Lord Mayor, Arthur Clark, died on 9 November, shortly after being elected to the position. With her appointment she became the first woman to be Lord Mayor of Leeds. Kitson's friend

Elinor Gertrude Lupton The Lupton family in Yorkshire achieved prominence in ecclesiastical and academic circles in England in the Tudor era through the fame of Roger Lupton, provost of Eton College and chaplain to Henry VII and Henry VIII. By the Georgian era, the ...

(1886–1979) served as her Lady Mayoress. ''Image of Kitson and Lupton'' Lupton described herself and Kitson as "the two worst dressed ladies in Leeds". The two women were related; Lupton's second cousin, Lady Airedale née Florence von Schunck (d.1942), had married Kitson's first cousin -

Albert Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale Albert Ernest Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale (7 October 1863 – 11 March 1944) was a British peer. He was ''inter alia'' a director of Midland Bank. Family Kitson was the son of James Kitson, an iron and steel manufacturer in Leeds. He was educa ...

(d.1944) - in Leeds in 1890. Jessie Beatrice Kitson's portrait was painted in oils by A. R. Middleton Todd. It is held in

Leeds Civic Hall Leeds Civic Hall is a municipal building located in the civic quarter of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It replaced Leeds Town Hall as the administrative centre in 1933. The Civic Hall houses Leeds City Council offices, council chamber and a b ...

. ''Includes image of portrait'' At her death in 1965, she was described as "of "Elmet", Brimpton, near

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

" and left an estate of £38,281.

Honours

In 1944, the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

conferred on Kitson the

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

LL.D. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

References

External links

* ''Family history website which includes text of Kitson's "autobiography" written for a meeting of "The Little Owls" ladies' group'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitson, Jessie Beatrice 1876 births 1965 deaths Women mayors of places in England Lord Mayors of Leeds