Mary Middleton (1870 – 24 April 1911) was a Scottish political activist. Born in

Carnwath Carnwath (Gaelic: ''A' Chathair Nuadh''; English: "New Fort") is a moorland village on the southern edge of the Pentland Hills of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The village lies about south of both Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is bounded by the Nort ...

in Lanarkshire as Mary Muir, her father was a mining overman, and the family moved around various mining villages in the area. She performed strongly at school and hoped to become a teacher, but this did not pay enough for her to contribute to her family's upkeep, so she instead became a

domestic servant A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

.Cathy Hartley, ''A Historical Dictionary of British Women'', p.316 While in Workington, Mary met James Middleton, who was working at his father's paper, the ''Workington Star''. The two soon married, and moved to London, where James found work with the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). By 1905, there had been several suggestions that the group should find a way in which non-working women could assist it and benefit from its political education. In 1906, when the LRC became the Labour Party, Middleton was a leading founder of the

Women's Labour League The Women's Labour League (WLL) was a pressure organisation, founded in London in 1906, to promote the political representation of women in parliament and local bodies. The idea was first suggested by Mary Macpherson, a linguist and journalist wh ...

. She served as its first secretary, working closely with the chair, Margaret MacDonald. Middleton also contributed articles to, and worked on the production of, ''The Woman Worker'' newspaper, which was the official organ of the

National Federation of Women Workers The National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland active in the first part of the 20th century. Instrumental in winning women workers the right to a minimum wage for the first ti ...

. The group developed rapidly over the next few years, but Middleton was diagnosed with cancer in 1909, and died early in 1911.Christine Collette, ''For Labour and for Women: The Women's Labour League, 1906-1918'', p.91 MacDonald started the process of founding a baby clinic in Middleton's memory, but also died later in the year. The clinic was ultimately established as a memorial to both women.

References

Scottish socialist feminists 1870 births 1911 deaths People from South Lanarkshire Labour Party (UK) politicians Scottish women in politics {{Scotland-poli-bio-stub