Mary Morris (doctor)

[1] She became the first School Medical Inspector in Bath and the first woman in this role, despite an interview question by one alderman on the council sub-committee, as to whether she would "inspect both boys and girls.

"[11] Her published summary reports covered nutrition, dental care, physical and mental health, and appropriate growth and development examinations.

[10] She undertook 'bacteriological' research at the Royal Mineral Water Hospital into 'the pain and misery' of rheumatoid arthritis, the origins of which were not well understood at the time.

"[14] She set and examined scientific studies at a Bathwick Ladies (girls) School,[15] trained young people and parents in first aid and hygiene, was local secretary for The After Care Association for Poor Persons Discharged Recovered from Asylums for the Insane,[16] and briefed the Bath Literary and Philosophical Association on the challenges of care for the "feeble minded.

"[18] The following year, with Dr. Morris as leader, the Bath St John's Ambulance team were at Windsor Park ( in "D" camp hospital, at the right-hand side by Queen Anne's Gate) a very large event, with a reported 15,000 participants for the Review by the King.

"[20] Morris was one of the local women's suffrage leaders at the 1908 garden party at the Blathwayts', alongside Adela Pankhurst, Dorothy Pethick (sister of Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence), Annie Kenney and 230 other guests.

[23] In 1911, Morris hosted an 'At Home' at her house at 19 Gay Street, Bath, with joint honorary secretary of the local WSPU branch Mrs. Mansel to talk to nurses in preparation for the London Women's Sunday Procession.

[24] Morris spoke to a "crowded men's meeting" at Oddfellows Hall, Lacock, which "carried with enthusiasm a resolution calling on the Government to remove the sex disability.

"[25] Also in 1911, she spoke to a combined audience of suffragists and her fellow Conservatives and Unionists at a joint meeting on the National Insurance Act 1911, which several speakers had noted as being "unjust" to women.

[1] Speaking at the Lansdown Women's Conservative Association a decade later, she was reported as claiming "never to have been a militant suffragette," prompting laughter from the large audience.

[31] At this time, she was already a member of the committee for Bath and Bristol University, which met in the Guildhall to discuss issues around establishing local further education centres.

Dr. Mary Morris (on left) with Mary Blathwayt and Millicent Fawcett at Eagle House in Bath