Grace Bannister OBE JP (née Johnson; 1924–1986)[1] was a Northern Irish Unionist politician.
Bannister was born in the Ravenhill area of Belfast into a Protestant family, the second child of William H. Collim and Grace Johnston.
[4] She stood as an independent Unionist in Belfast South at the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election, after failing to secure an official party nomination.
In 1981 she was elected as the first female Lord Mayor of Belfast, beating Paddy Devlin and Stewart McCrea.
[4] Bannister was awarded an OBE in the 1984 New Year Honours,[8] for services to local government in Northern Ireland.