county council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.
Ireland
The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...
lor, philanthropist and
political activist
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...
from
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, England.
Personal life
Preferring to be called Lois, she was the daughter of Harriet Agnes () and
Arthur Kilpin Bulley
Arthur Kilpin Bulley (10 January 1861 – 3 May 1942) was a British cotton merchant and creator of the Ness Botanic Gardens. He stood for Parliament as a women's suffrage candidate in 1910.
Personal life
Bulley was one of the 14 children of Samu ...
. Her father had become wealthy within his family's cotton brokerage business and later became a keen plant collector and started Bees Ltd seed company.
She was born on 2 December 1901 at Mickwell Brow, a house built for her father near the village of
Ness
Ness or NESS may refer to:
Places Australia
* Ness, Wapengo, a heritage-listed natural coastal area in New South Wales
United Kingdom
* Ness, Cheshire, England, a village
* Ness, Lewis, the most northerly area on Lewis, Scotland, UK
* Cuspate ...
near the market town of
Neston
Neston is a town and civil parish on the Wirral Peninsula, in Cheshire, England. It is part of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The village of Parkgate is located to the north west and the villages of Little Neston and Ness ...
on the
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to t ...
, Cheshire. She had a brother Alfred Whishaw Bulley (born 1905). They were brought up as agnostics, despite the Congregationalist and Anglican backgrounds of their parents.
After initially being educated at home by French and German governesses, she was sent to the co-educational
Bedales School
Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conventio ...
East End of London
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
.
Although she was born into wealth, she became committed to the socialist principles of her parents and devoted much of her life to philanthropy and political activity through local government. She was an advocate for women's participation in
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.
She returned to Ness and became a member of the management committee of Neston and Parkgate Housing Society that aimed to replace slum housing with new, better quality, homes. She was also a member of Wirral Footpaths and Open Spaces Preservation Society. Her father died in 1942.
In 1948, she was appointed to the Liverpool Regional Hospital Board and chaired the mental services committee, and then the board itself until 1972. In the same year she bought her brother's share of the family home and donated it and an endowment of £75,000 to the
University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
which has become
Ness Botanic Gardens
Ness Botanic Gardens are near the cities of Liverpool and Chester on the English-Welsh border in the Wirral Peninsula. They occupy a site of 64 acres overlooking the Dee Estuary. The Ness Botanic Gardens were created by Arthur Kilpin Bulley (1861 ...
. This included provision for her mother to live in the house for the rest of her life, and that the gardens would be open to the public. She herself lived at Birch Hey in Ness Holt, sharing it with Ellen Norman.
In 1954, she became a member of the
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
. In 1956, after her mother's death, she set up a charitable trust (Motormart Charitable Trust) to benefit people in
East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the historical ...
in part because some of her family's wealth originated from Africa, and also because there were several Quaker mission centres in the region. It helped fund schools and colleges, including one that has now become the
Technical University of Kenya
Technical University of Kenya (TU-K) is a public university in Nairobi, Kenya. It was chartered in January 2013 by then-president Mwai Kibaki.
History
Technical University of Kenya grew out of the Kenya Polytechnic. The Kenya Polytechnic was f ...
. It also supported other projects including supporting small businesses. In 1973 she decided that the trust should be wound up. There is still Lois Bulley Scholarship Fund to support Kenyan women to attend university.
She was a life-long teetotaller.
In later life she was able to enjoy the theatres, concerts and galleries and particularly ballet in London where she, and a friend Mrs Nancy Kershaw, warden of the Heswall
Meeting House
A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place.
Terminology
Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a
* church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...
, had a small flat. They also travelled around the UK, France, Spain and Germany in a campervan. After living in Chester they finally moved to
Tarvin
Tarvin is a village in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It had a population of 2,693 people at the 2001 UK census, rising to 2,728 at the 2011 Census, and the ward covers about .
...
in Cheshire where Mrs Kershaw had a bungalow. She died there on 27 December 1995 at the age of 94.
Political career
She joined the Labour Party in 1930.
In 1933, she stood as Little Neston candidate in the Neston Urban District Council Election for the one available seat, and came second.
However, she was elected in 1934 in the
Cheshire County Council
Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities; Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire Eas ...
elections as a Labour councillor for the Ellesmere Port and Neston division. The proposals on which she stood included improved access to health care at the local Clatterbridge Hospital, welfare benefits through employing local men to construct roads and bridges and also disregarding war pensions and free school meals in the Means Test for benefits. She also advocated change in aspects of education, namely increasing the number of free secondary school places and providing milk and school meals. She was also successful in being elected as Little Neston councillor for the Neston Urban District Council in 1934. Although she lost both the district and county council seats in 1937, she returned to Cheshire County Council for the seat of
Bebington
Bebington () is a town and unparished area within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it lies south of Liverpool, close to the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula. Ne ...
, including
New Ferry
New Ferry is an urban area on the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula, with the River Mersey to the east and the town of Bebington to the west. Within the boundaries of the historic count ...
, in 1939. Her council roles included acting as vice-chair and Hon Secretary for the Committee of Chester and District Blind Welfare Society. In 1945 she was co-opted onto the housing committee of Neston Urban District Council. She was elected to the Neston East Ward of Neston Urban Council from 1957 - 1960. Her election allowed the Labour Party to have a majority in the council for the first time.
In 1935 she stood as the Labour candidate for the parliamentary seat of City of Chester, coming
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
behind the Conservative and Liberal candidates. She supported the Labour Party policies of nationalising the coal industry, raising the school leaving age to 15 and paying pensions from the age of 60. She joined the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
in 1936 because the Labour Party and British government had policies of
non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War
During the Spanish Civil War, several countries followed a principle of non-intervention to avoid any potential escalation or possible expansion of the war to other states. That would result in the signing of the Non-Intervention Agreement in Au ...
. In 1945 she stood as the Labour candidate for the parliamentary seat of Wirral but came
second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
.
Legacy
Her family home and gardens, donated to the University of Liverpool as Ness Botanic Gardens continues to be used for public recreation as well as horticultural education and scientific research.