Christiana Hartley CBE (1872 – 14 December 1948) was an English social and welfare rights activist, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician.
During her term she handed over her mayoral salary of £500 to one of the Labour members of council for a project to assist Southport's poor and arranged for this sum to be matched by her father.
[6] As part of her political apprenticeship, Hartley spent seven nights, George Orwell style, in typical lodging houses, later speaking of her experiences and bringing them to bear in her public life.
In 1923, Hartley was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Southport Borough later becoming a Lancashire county magistrate for the Formby police sub-division.
The Christiana Hartley maternity unit remained on the Infirmary site until it was moved over to the new District General Hospital in 1999.