Lucia Foster Welch

Lucia Marion Foster Welch (1864–1940) was a suffragette and conservative politician who served as Southampton's first female mayor.

[1] She moved to Southampton in 1903 before marrying Robert William Foster Welch (a doctor) a year later.

[1] On 4 February 1911 when Emmeline Pankhurst gave a speech in Southampton at the Palace Theatre, Lucia Foster Welch hosted Pankhurst and a number of friends and sympathisers for tea after the event.

[2] In 1912 when the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies was concerned that the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage was going to concentrate its activities on Southampton that winter, Lucia Foster Welch was made head of a committee formed to oppose them.

[4] At the time it was a regular part of the mayor's duties to greet more distinguished travelers at the docks.