Mary Clifford

[2][3] When her friend Catherine Winkworth began the Clifton Association for the Higher Education of Women she attended the lectures.

Clifford soon became the most prominent woman serving on a Board of Guardians, and developed a widely-adopted scheme for the fostering of orphans.

Due to Clifford's prominence, she was co-opted to the Central Committee of Poor Law Conferences, serving on it for twelve years.

[2] Clifford was known for wearing a hooded bonnet and a long cloak, considered old-fashioned at the time, and this created a myth that she was a Quaker.

[2] Clifford retired from the Bristol Board of Guardians in 1907, due to poor health, but she lived a further twelve years.