Mary Whitmore (née Fletcher) (17 September 1884 – 19 July 1974) was an English social activist who was the first woman to be Mayor of Ipswich, in 1946–47.
Early life Whitmore was born Mary Fletcher in 1884 in Whitton, Suffolk, to Isaac Fletcher and his wife Rosetta (née Elliott).Ipswich Registry Office, December 1884 quarter, Vol 4a, page 770. She won a scholarship to Ipswich Higher Grade School in 1895. By 1901 she was a pupil teacher at a board school. She later trained as a teacher at Whitelands College.
Career Whitmore was a suffragette, and was a founder member of the Ipswich branch of the Women's Social and Political Union. She was a founder member of the Ipswich Workers' Educational Association, and was its secretary from 1929 to 1939.
She was elected a Labour Councillor in 1930. She was Mayor of Ipswich in 1946–47, and was the first woman to hold the post.
For many years she taught at Nacton Road Mixed School.
She was awarded MBE in the 1951 Birthday Honours for her contribution to public service.
An Ipswich Society blue plaque was installed on Ipswich Town Hall in 2016.
Personal life Whitmore married James Offer William Whitmore (1882-1944) in 1922.Samford Registry Office, December 1922 quarter, Vol 4a, page 2302a. He had previously been married to Eva Martha Pryke (1883-1920).Ipswich Registry Office, September 1909 quarter, Vol 4a, page 2052. Mary and James had one daughter, Enid (1923-2016),Ipswich Registry Office, December 1923 quarter, Vol 4a, page 1676. who married a clergyman, Trevor Howard.Colchester Registry Office, September 1943 quarter, Vol 4a, page 1955.
Whitmore died in 1974, aged 89, at the Rectory at Belchamp Otten, in Essex;National Probate Calendar, 1974, p 9652. her son-in-law, Canon Trevor Howard, was Rector of St Ethelbert & All Saints, Belchamp Otten, 1959–93.
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