The Lord Mayor of Leeds (until 1897 known as the Mayor of Leeds) is a ceremonial post held by a member of

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of l ...

, elected annually by the council. By charter from King Charles I in 1626, the leader of the governing body of the borough of Leeds was an alderman, the first holder being Sir John Savile.Leeds Civic Trust
Leeds Coat of Arms A second charter, in 1661 from King Charles II, granted the title Mayor to Thomas Danby, after whom

Thomas Danby College Leeds Thomas Danby (formerly Thomas Danby College) was a further education college in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England offering courses for 16- to 18-year-olds and adults. The college was named after the first Mayor of Leeds, Captain Thomas Danby ...

was named. In 1893 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 t ...

was granted

city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, city status ...

, and in 1897

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

conferred the title of Lord Mayor on

James Kitson James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale (22 September 1835 16 March 1911), Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC, Doctor of Science, DSc, was an industrialist, locomotive builder, Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician and a Member of Parliam ...

. The first woman to have the post was Jessie Beatrice Kitson in 1942: she was elected following the death of Arthur Clarke shortly after his election.Leeds' first woman Lord Mayor
/ref>Margaret Drinkall (2013) ''The Leeds Book Of Days'': November 17th, 1942 (The History Press) In 2019, the council elected Leeds' first ever black Lord Mayor, Eileen Taylor. After serving as a Labour member of council since 2008, she was elected unanimously by fellow councillors at the authority's annual general meeting. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Taylor's term was extended for another municipal year until May 2021, the first time a Lord Mayor has served for two municipal years since George Brett's original term of office (1947–48) was extended for a municipal year until 1949. Under the

Representation of the People Act 1948 The Representation of the People Act 1948 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered the law relating to parliamentary and local elections. It is noteworthy for abolishing plural voting for parliamentary elections, including ...

, his term was extended until the first meeting held after the May 1949 council election. Notable former Mayors include

Benjamin Gott Benjamin Gott (24 June 1762 – 14 February 1840) was one of the leading figures in the industrial revolution, in the field of textiles. His factory at Armley Mills, Armley, Leeds, was once the largest factory in the world and is now home to the ...

(1799), Sir George Goodman (1836), several of the

Lupton family 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 ...

Henry Rowland Marsden Henry Rowland Marsden (20 July 1823 – 19 January 1876) was a philanthropist and (Liberal (UK), Liberal) Mayor of Leeds for 1873 to 1875, said to be the most popular Victorian Leeds#Lord Mayor of Leeds, mayor of Leeds. Early life Henry Mar ...

(1873) and

Alf Cooke The Alf Cooke printworks is a grade II listed former industrial building by Thomas Ambler, now the Printworks Campus of Leeds City College in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was built in 1881 and rebuilt after a fire in 1894. Alf Cooke Alf C ...

of the famous printworks (1890).

List of Lord Mayors

Source:

Notes

References

External links

* General information about current Lord Mayor * {{Lists of mayors in the United Kingdom

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

* * Ceremonial officers in the United Kingdom