Mary Elizabeth Townsend

Mary Elizabeth Townsend (23 July 1841 - 14 June 1918) was a British philanthropist and co-founder of the Girls' Friendly Society.

Domestic service was by far the largest employer of women, and those who got pregnant out of wedlock faced losing not only their job but also their housing.

Townsend decided to focus on prevention, by providing practical and moral support to what, a generation later, the Society's official historian called "working girls of unblemished character".

[4] Fosbery introduced her to other key women: Elizabeth Carlyon, wife of Harold Browne, Wilberforce's successor as Bishop of Winchester; Catharine Tait, founder of the Ladies Diocescan Society in 1865 and wife of Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury; and Jane Senior, who shortly afterwards went on to co-found the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants.

They met in 1874 at Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and founded the Girls' Friendly Society.

The official history, re-published in 1911, makes it clear that Townsend was the driving force behind the GFS, and that her genius was in seeing the need for structure.