Gawthorpe Mary Eleanor 1881-1973

Mary Eleanor Gawthorpe (1881-1973) was born in Leeds, England, on January 12, 1881, to John and Annie Eliza (Mountain) Gawthorpe. She had four siblings, but only one sister, Annie Gatenby, and a brother, James Arthur, survived to adulthood. Her father was a leather worker, and her mother worked occasionally as a textile worker and laundress to help support the family. Gawthorpe became a pupil-teacher at age thirteen in a local church school. Following her certification, she served as a schoolteacher in Leeds until 1906.

While she was studying and teaching, Gawthorpe became involved in socialist and labor politics in Leeds through her friend Tom Garrs. She was active in the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and the Women's Labour League, and she coordinated a women's page in the local Labour News. Through this work she began to speak in public, and the first two speeches she prepared were entitled "The Child under Socialism" and "The Modern Pariah, a plea against the making of criminals." She was also a leading figure of the Leeds branch of the National Union of Teachers, served on the Lord Mayor of Leeds Committee for the Feeding of School Children, and was active in A.R. Orage's Leeds Arts Club.

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