User:Malcolmxl5/Edna Annie Crichton

Edna Annie Crichton (née Sturge) was born on 8 May 1876 at Barton St Mary, Gloucestershire, a member of a family of Quakers that included her great-uncle Joseph Sturge, her great-aunt Sophia Sturge, her aunt Eliza Sturge and her elder sister Mary Sturge Gretton. Her father was Joseph Marshall Sturge, a merchant in the corn trade, and her mother was Anne (Annie) Burke from a Montserrat family. She was one of four children.

Crichton was educated at Sidcot School, a Quaker School in Somerset, and, after leaving school, worked at the Passmore Edwards settlement (now the Mary Ward Centre) in Bloomsbury, London. She married David Sprunt Crichton on 22 August 1901 at Charlbury, Oxfordshire, and the couple moved to York where David Crichton had joined the welfare staff at Rowntree confectionery manufacturers. They had two children, a daughter, Vida, born in 1903 and a son, David, born in 1906.

In the 1910s, she took on roles in public life in York, serving on the health insurance committee for six years and on the board of Poor Law guardians. She was a prominent member of the non-partisan York Women Citizens' Association, which promoted the election of women to local office, and, in 1919, she stood and was elected for York City Council on a non-party basis with her interests being housing reform and improvements in health and education.

In 1921, her husband, David, died. Despite her bereavement, Edna Crichton continued with her Council work, sitting on committees for health, housing - which she chaired for twenty years - and education, while running a boarding house at her home. As chair of the housing committee, she oversaw the clearing of slums and the building of 5,000 homes in York in the inter-war years. In 1936, she was appointed a justice of the peace,

On 10 November 1941, she became Lord Mayor of York, the first woman hold that position, and served as Lord Mayor between 1941 and 1942. In the early hours of 29 April 1942, York was bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Baedeker raids suffering heavy damage and many casualties. As Lord Mayor, she led the city through the aftermath, visiting hospitals and many of the bombed houses.

In 1942 she was elected York’s first woman alderman, serving a further thirteen years.

When she retired from the city council in 1955 she was awarded the honorary freedom of the city.

Edna Crichton died at Clifton, York, on 5 March 1970.

Possible sources

 * Lewis, Stephen. "York's blue plaques: Edna Annie Crichton." Press [York, England], 3 Mar. 2018. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A529599153/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=1a5eed55. Accessed 18 Sept. 2021.
 * Bean, Dan. "Honour for first female Lord Mayor of York." Press [York, England], 23 June 2017. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A548349044/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=2ea5c738. Accessed 18 Sept. 2021.