Mary (‘May’) Hughes (1860-1941)

Mary Hughes was born at Park Street, Mayfair, London on 29th February 1860. She was the youngest daughter of Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), author of ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays. Educated at home she then moved to Longcot, Berkshire in 1883 to keep house for her uncle, John Hughes, who was a local parson. At Longcot she became a poor law guardian and district councilor and this is where her social conscience was awakened. She was also influenced by her father and aunt, Jane Elizabeth Senior (nee Hughes), (1828–1877), a workhouse and school inspector and philanthropist.

In 1896 she moved to the East End of London and joined her sister, Lillian who was married to the vicar (Henry Carter) of St Jude’s Commercial Road, Whitechapel. Tragically in 1912 both her sister Lily and her husband-in-law died in the sinking of the titanic. Mary became a voluntary parish worker. This work took her into slums, workhouses, doss houses and infirmaries (including ones for people with venereal disease, known as lock wards), in order to try and better the state of these places and share the troubles of the lower classes. From her letters one can see that she often became personally involved in cases. Mary increasingly lived as one of the poor, keeping her diet simple (bread, margarine, little pieces of cheese and rudimentary vegetables), not buying goods such as new clothes that she saw as luxuries, not holidaying or sleeping on mattressed beds and in 1915 moving into the community settlement of Kingsley Hall, Bow. The Hall was an old chapel that was re-decorated and fitted by local volunteers in 1915. It was a ‘people’s house’, where locals including, workmen, factory girls and children came together for worship, study, fun and friendship in order to better their lives.

In 1917 Mary was made a Justice of the Peace for Shoreditch, she specialised in rates and educational cases and was commonly known to cry at the evidence and pay fines for the poor.

Mary referred to herself as a Christian and a communist. She took part in marches of London’s unemployed, even when mounted police were in attendance. She was also a pacifist for example, after the German blitz on London (1940) she was appalled by people, especially Christians, who called for retaliation. Christianity was an important factor in Mary’s life and what drove her social work. In 1918 she joined the Quakers (Society of Friends) and moved to Blackwall Buildings, Whitechapel in order to become a poor law guardian and volunteer visitor to the local poor law infirmary and children”s home. Locally she was known as a benefactor of the poor and local unemployed people would knock on her door seeing if she knew of work. In 1928 Mary moved to a converted pub on Vallance Road, Whitechapel and renamed it the Dew Drop Inn. The purpose of the Inn was to act as a social centre and refuge for the local homeless. Through the 20′s and 30′s she was passionately involved with the problems of the unemployed and she took part in a number of marches and rallies. In 1931 when Gandhi was visiting Britain for the Commonwealth conference, he insisted on meeting Mary. When they met, they clasped hands, looked at each other and burst out laughing. Hardly a word was said but ‘each had recognised the quality of the other’s life’.

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Mary refused to move from the Dewdrop Inn though that area of London was a prime target for bombing. By now she was frail and weak. In early 1941 she began to fail and was taken to St. Peter’s Hospital nearby, where she died on 2nd April. In her will she wrote ‘You may recall the longing of we Hughes (who feel rather like the receivers of stolen goods) that this effort may ever be for education and joy at the least noticed, the least well-off people’s comfort.’ For 30 years she had had no new clothes, no holiday and no proper bed.

Courtesy of Graham Senior-Milne www.peerage.org and this is the work of  Karyn Stuckey, National Co-operative Archive.http://archive.co-op.ac.uk/