Charity Taylor

Charity Taylor (16 September 1914 – 4 January 1998) was a medical doctor and prison administrator who became the first woman prison governor in the United Kingdom.

Taylor was born May Doris Charity Clifford in 1914 in Woking and studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital. She was appointed assistant medical officer at Holloway Prison in 1942, later becoming medical officer, before becoming governor in 1945. In 1955 she was governor during the imprisonment and hanging of Ruth Ellis.

Personal life
In 1938 she married the physician/politician Stephen Taylor, who later became the Labour/SDP life peer Baron Taylor of Harlow.