Lady mayoress is an official female companion to the lord mayor of a major city in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland, or a capital city of an Australian state. Traditionally this was the wife of a male mayor.
It is not an elected office. Lady is used here as a title of respect. The lady mayoress accompanies the lord mayor to many events and in the past may also carry out engagements on her own. [1]
As an example, the Leeds Children's Charity states that "it has been the right of every new lady mayoress to become the president of the charity". [2]
The lady mayoress was traditionally the wife of a male lord mayor. In a post-patriarchal society, a female mayor can choose any lady mayoress. Some mayors have chosen their daughter, mother, or another female relative. [3]
A male companion for a female mayor may be given the title of lord mayor's consort. [1] [4]
When Jessie Beatrice Kitson was the first female lord mayor of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England in 1942–1943, she chose her friend Elinor Gertrude Lupton as her lady mayoress. [5]
When Bernard Atha was lord mayor of Leeds in 2000–2001, he selected 18 "high-profile, well-known Yorkshire women" to act in turn as his lady mayoress. [6]
As a colonial outpost, as in the United Kingdom, the lady mayoress of an Australian capital city is generally the wife of an elected lord mayor. A lady mayoress acts as a hostess for the city at official functions and sometimes acts as Chair of social and charitable committees.
Where a woman is elected to the office of lord mayor, there is usually no lady mayoress. Although, during part of the time in office as lord mayor of Brisbane of Sallyanne Atkinson, her mother served as lady mayoress. Atkinson's husband had served for a time as the president of the City of Brisbane Benefit Fund, a social and charitable organisation associated with the Brisbane City Council.
Mary, Princess Royal was a member of the British royal family. She was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, the sister of kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Elizabeth II. In the First World War, she performed charity work in support of servicemen and their families. She married Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles, in 1922. Mary was given the title of Princess Royal in 1932. During the Second World War, she was Controller Commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The Princess Royal and the Earl of Harewood had two sons, George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, and Gerald David Lascelles.
In England, the offices of mayor and lord mayor have long been ceremonial posts, with few or no duties attached to them. In recent years they have doubled as more influential political roles while retaining the ceremonial functions. A mayor's term of office denotes the municipal year.
Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Leeds has had a council since 1626, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the majority local government services in the city. It is the second most populous local government district in the United Kingdom with approximately 800,000 inhabitants living within its area; only Birmingham City Council has more. Since 1 April 2014, it has been a constituent council of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Captain Roland Dudley Kitson, 3rd Baron Airedale, businessman, was born in Leeds, son of Sir James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale and his second wife, Mary Laura, daughter of Edward Fisher Smith. Roland's elder half-brother was Albert Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale.
Albert Ernest Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale was a British peer. He was inter alia a director of Midland Bank.
James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale, PC, DSc, was an industrialist, locomotive builder, Liberal Party politician and a Member of Parliament for the Holme Valley. He was known as Sir James Kitson from 1886, until he was elevated to the peerage in 1907. Lord Airedale was a prominent Unitarian in Leeds, Yorkshire.
William Charles Roy Harvey, was Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia from 1982 until 1985. A member of the Labor Party, he spent a total of 27 years on the Council.
Chapel Allerton Hospital is located in the area of Chapel Allerton, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England and is operated by the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The main entrance is on Chapeltown Road, with vehicle exits onto Harehills Lane and Newton Road.
In Wales, the office of Mayor or Lord Mayor had long been ceremonial posts, with little or no duties attached to it. Traditionally mayors have been elected by town, borough and city councils. Since 2000, councils can decide to have directly elected mayors with extensive powers if such a proposal is approved in a local referendum.
In Northern Ireland, if a local government district has borough status then the chairman and vice chairman of the borough council may be styled mayor and deputy mayor, respectively. These provisions date from the Local Government Act 1972; some towns already had borough status which was carried over to their post-1972 district, while other districts later petitioned for a charter granting borough status. The head of Belfast City Council has been styled Lord Mayor of Belfast since 1892.
The Martineau family is an intellectual, business and political dynasty associated first with Norwich and later also London and Birmingham, England. Many members of the family have been knighted. Many family members were prominent Unitarians; a room in London's Essex Hall, the headquarters building of the British Unitarians, was named after them. Martineau Place in Birmingham's central business district was named in their honour.
The Middleton family is an English family that has been related to the British royal family by marriage since the wedding of Catherine Middleton to Prince William in April 2011, when she became the Duchess of Cambridge. The couple have three children: George, Charlotte and Louis. Tracing their origins back to the Tudor era, the Middleton family of Yorkshire of the late 18th century were recorded as owning property of the Rectory Manor of Wakefield with the land passing down to solicitor William Middleton who established the family law firm in Leeds which spanned five generations. Some members of the firm inherited woollen mills after the First World War. By the turn of the 20th century, the Middleton family had married into the British nobility and, by the 1920s, the family were playing host to the British royal family.
The Lupton family in Yorkshire achieved prominence in ecclesiastical and academic circles in England in the Tudor era through the fame of Roger Lupton, provost of Eton College and chaplain to Henry VII and Henry VIII. By the Georgian era, the family was established as merchants and ministers in Leeds. Described in the city's archives as "landed gentry, a political and business dynasty", they had become successful woollen cloth merchants and manufacturers who flourished during the Industrial Revolution and traded throughout northern Europe, the Americas and Australia.
Mill Hill Chapel is a Unitarian church in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians. The building, which stands in the centre of the city on City Square, was granted Grade II* listed status in 1963.
Frances Elizabeth Lupton was an Englishwoman of the Victorian era who worked to open up educational opportunities for women. She married into the politically active Lupton family of Leeds, where she co-founded Leeds Girls' High School in 1876 and was the Leeds representative of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women.
Bernard Peter Atha was an English politician and actor. He served as Lord Mayor of Leeds and was a major figure in the arts and sport in West Yorkshire and elsewhere; he also appeared in a number of films.
Jessie Beatrice Kitson (1876–1965) was the first woman to be Lord Mayor of Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. She was Lord Mayor from 1942 to 1943.
Kathleen Chambers CBE was a pioneer female politician who was the first woman to be Lord Mayor of Bradford holding that position in 1945–1946.
Michael Francis Middleton is a British businessman. He is the father of Catherine, Princess of Wales, Philippa Matthews and James Middleton.