Mary Gray (11 January 1854 – 1941) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

socialist activist. Born near

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...

as Mary Rogers, she fell into poverty when she was fifteen. She found work as a domestic servant, and in 1876 married Willie Gray, a stonemason and trade unionist. Because of his trade union activity, Willie was often unable to find work, and the couple lived in hardship for some time. In 1887, Gray joined the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

(SDF). During the London dock strike of 1892, she ran a

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...

, and this contact with the children of the workers led her to found one of the first

Socialist Sunday School Socialist Sunday Schools (SSS) were set up to replace or augment Christian Sunday Schools in the United Kingdom, and later the United States. They arose in response to the perceived inadequacy of orthodox Sunday schools as a training ground fo ...

s, intending that they would provide a general education, in addition to informing them about socialism. The first session consisted of her own two children and one other, but the movement grew rapidly, and twenty years later there were 120 schools around the country. During the 1890s,

Edith Lanchester Edith 'Biddy' Lanchester (28 July 1871 – 26 March 1966) was an English socialist, feminist and suffragette. She became well known in 1895 when her family had her incarcerated in an asylum for planning to live with her lover, who was an Irish, ...

lodged with Gray. Gray was elected to the Battersea

Board of Guardians Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930. England and Wales Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the poor ...

in 1895, serving until 1901, and from 1896 until 1903, she was a member of the SDF's executive. She appears to have drifted away from the SDF soon after 1903, but remained in Battersea until the late 1930s, when she moved to Hampshire, and then Wiltshire, where she died in 1941.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Mary 1854 births 1941 deaths English socialists People from Wokingham Social Democratic Federation members