Lily Sophia Tawney (1867–1947)
Mayor of Oxford 1933/4
Alderman Mrs Tawney in 1933/4
(Picture Oxon 0618230)
Lily Sophia Tawney was the first woman to be elected Mayor of Oxford.
She was born at Wroxton in Oxfordshire on 26 January 1867 (with her birth announced in the Morning Post) and was baptised there on 27 February.
Her father Archer Robert Tawney, Esq. was born in Dunchurch, Warwickshire in 1818.
Her paternal grandfather, Richard Tawney of Dunchurch, was the great-grandson of another Richard Tawney (1684–1756), who was the founder of the Lion Brewery in Oxford and Mayor of Oxford in 1748/9. She was also related to three other Mayors of Oxford surnamed Tawney in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Lily Tawney’s father had been an undergraduate at Merton College, Oxford and had then studied at the Inner Temple. The 1851 census shows him as an unmarried banker, aged 32, living alone in Wroxton, near Banbury and looked after by four servants.
Her mother was Emma Harriett Richards, a wine merchant's daughter born in Bloomsbury in 1828 who was living at 28 Park Crescent, Marylebone in 1851 with her widower father and her two siblings, plus their seven servants
See also this page about her who are buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery, Oxford for more information about them and her six siblings
Lily's father Archer Robert Tawney was a banker living alone (but with four servants) at Wroxton near Banbury at the time of the 1851 census. He was still there, and her mother Emma Harriett Richards was at 28 Park Crescent, London, when they were married at Marylebone on 2 April 1853. He brought his wife back to Wroxton and they had seven children baptised at the parish church there:
- Eleanor Mary Tawney (born at Wroxton on 23 March 1856, and baptised there on 25 June)
- Mabel Emma Tawney (born at Wroxton in 1858 and baptised there on 21 April)
- Edward Plowden Archer Tawney (born at Wroxton on 8 January 1861 and baptised there on 2 February)
- Lawrence Archer Tawney (born at Wroxton on 20 October 1862 and baptised there on 19 November)
- Ethel Catherine Tawney (born at Wroxton in 1864/5 and baptised there on 20 February 1865)
- Lily Sophia Tawney (born at Wroxton on 26 January 1867 and baptised there on 27 February
- John Archer Tawney (born at Wroxton on 7 September 1868 and baptised there on 28 October).
Lily’s father was a retired banker by 1856 when he was aged only 37, and his “occupation” thereafter was given as “Esquire”.
At the time of the 1871 census Lily (4) was at home at Wroxton with her mother Emma (42) and five of her siblings: Eleanor (14), Mabel (13), Lawrence (8), Ethel (6), and John (2). Her father was paying a visit to the Vicar of Isleworth, and her brother Edward (10) was away at Philberds House Preparatory School at Holyport, near Maidenhead.
In 1881 Lily (14) was again at home in Wroxton with her mother Emma (52) and three of her older sisters: Eleanor (24), Mabel (23), and Ethel Catherine (16). Her father was staying at a hotel in Cornwall with her brother Edward (20). Her two other brothers were away from home: Laurence (20) was a midshipman in the Royal Navy and was on board the Dido off Natal, and John (12) was at Alvescot House School in Alvescot, Oxfordshire.
In the mid-1880s the family moved to Oxford, where they lived at
63 St Giles’ Street (the middle house on the left, demolished in
the 1920s to make way for Blackfriars).
At the time of the 1891 census Lily (24) was visiting her aunt, Miss Mary Richards (65), at 3 St Andrew’s Place, Marylebone. Her father Archer (72) and her mother Emma (62) were at home at 63 St Giles' Street with Lily's three sisters Eleanor (34), Mabel (33), and Ethel (26), and two of her brothers: Edward (30), who was a Captain in the Royal Artillery and John (22), who was an articled clerk. The family had five servants: a cook, lady’s maid, upper housemaid, under housemaid, and kitchenmaid.
On 2 November 1892 at St Mary Magdalen Church in Oxford, Lily's brother Captain Edward Plowden Archer Tawney married Flora Jane Radcliffe of Plympton, Devon, and Lily was the only bridesmaid. .
Lily's father Archer Robert Tawney died at 63 St Giles' Street at the age of 75 on 27 February 1893 and was buried at St Sepulchre's Cemetery. His effects came to £18,007 6s. 6d.
At the time of the 1901 census, Lily Tawney (34) was home at 63 St Giles’ Street with her 72-year-old mother and her sisters Eleanor (44) and Mabel (43), and her brother John (32), who was a bank clerk. (There were also three Tawney grandchildren aged 6, 4, and 2 living with their grandmother: their father Captain Edward Tawney was away in India and would die there on 12 September that year.) They now had six servants: a cook, lady’s maid, nurse, parlourmaid, housemaid, and kitchenmaid.
Lily's other two brothers were married before the next census:
- On 11 April 1903 at St Luke's Church, Manningham, Yorkshire, John Archer Tawney, described as a gentleman of 62 Banbury Road, Oxford married Cecile Mary Jeffery, a solicitor's daughter of Massingham, Bradford
- On 9 October 1906 at St Mary's Church, Chatham, Kent, Lawrence Archer Tawney married Marguerite Baillie Greet.
By 1911 Lily (44) was living at 62 Banbury Road, Oxford (now part of Kellogg College) with her 82-year-old mother and her unmarried sisters Eleanor (54) and Mabel (53).
Lily's mother Emma Harriet Tawney died at 62 Banbury Road at the age of 87 on 3 November 1915 and was buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery.
The following year Lily and her sister Eleanor were living at 14 Northmoor Road with their married brother John Archer Tawney and his family.
The passing of the Qualification of Women (County and Borough Councils) Act in 1907 allowed certain women ratepayers to stand for the city council for the first time, and in November that year Mary Sophia Merivale was the first woman to be elected on to Oxford City Council. Eleven years later in 1918 Miss Tawney came on to the Council as a Conservative when there were no contested elections. The following article, entitled “Lady Councillor for the North Ward” appeared in the Oxford Journal Illustrated on 20 March 1918, and is reproduced by kind permission of the Oxfordshire History Centre:
In October 1920 she was returned unopposed as one of the three councillors for the North Ward: photographs of the event can be seen in the Oxford Journal Illustrated of 3 November 1920.
The 1921 census show Miss Tawney (54), described as a city councillor, staying at a boarding house in Whitby, Yorkshire.
Miss Tawney was re-elected again for the North Ward in October 1926: photograph of the event in the Oxford Journal Illustrated of 27 October 1926.
By 1927 Lily Tawney was the head of the household at 14 Northmoor Road. She lived there with her sister Eleanor Mary Tawney until the latter died on 7 May 1930. By 1932 Lily was listed as living at 5 Lathbury Road.
Lily Tawney was elected as the first woman Alderman of the city on 3 April 1929, and served as Chairman of the Public Assistance Committee and on the Board of Guardians.
In 1933 she was elected the first woman Mayor of Oxford (for 1933/4), and while in office was always addressed as “Mistress Mayor”.
Newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic reported on two decisions made during her mayoralty. First she refused to perform the opening ceremony of the Majestic Cinema at 120 Botley Road in April 1934 when she learnt that the controversial Mae West film “I'm No Angel” was being shown. Then she banned the opening of a menagerie in Oxford on Sundays, and on 17 November 1934 the M'Alester News-Capital of Oklahoma reported:
WOMAN MAYOR CLOSES MENAGERIE ON SUNDAYS
OXFORD, England. — The first woman mayor of this university city, Alderman Lily Tawney, who refused to open a local theater showing the Mae West film “I'm No Angel,” has now banned the opening of a menagerie here on Sundays.
When a representative of the menagerie told her that no objection had been taken to Sunday opening in other English cities, the mayor replied: “Oxford has a dignity of its own which I intend to maintain.”
No other places of amusement are open in Oxford on Sunday.
On 15 March 1935 her brother John Archer Tawney, who had worked as a banker's clerk, died at his home at 11 Moreton Road, Oxford.
Miss Tawney was still at 5 Lathbury Road in 1936, but in 1938 she moved to 28 Belsyre Court, Woodstock Road, where she spent the rest of her life, and the 1939 Register shows her living there with one general maid. In the New Year's Honours of 1939 she was awarded an OBE for “political and public services in Oxford”.
On 25 May 1942 her brother Lawrence Archer Tawney, who had served as a Captain in the Royal Navy, died at his home in Parkstone, Dorset.
Miss Tawney resigned from the city council in 1942.
Her last two surviving siblings died soon afterwards: Miss Mabel Emma Tawney at 7 The Circus, Bath on 18 January 1943 and Miss Ethel Catherine Tawney at Laleham Abbey Convent in Staines, Middlesex in December 1944.
† Miss Lily Sophia Tawney died at the Acland Hospital, Oxford on 14 October 1947 following an operation. Her funeral took place at St Paul’s Church, Oxford and she was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery in the grave of her sister Eleanor (Plot H1-129) .
Her effects came to £22,109 18s.
She was survived by five nephews and nieces.
See also:
- Richard Tawney I (Mayor in 1748)
- Richard Tawney II (Mayor in 1764/5, 1778/9, and 1790)
- Edward Tawney (Mayor in 1772, 1784, and 1793)
- Charles Tawney (Mayor in 1837 and 1840)
- Oxford Magazine, 1933–4, p. 207
- Oxford Monthly, November 1933, p. 27
- Oxford Times, 17 October 1947, p. 8 (obituary)
- Memorial at Wroxton Church to Lily's father Archer Robert Tawney and brother Major Edward Plowden Archer Tawney
- Martin K. Thompson, Tawney of Oxford and their Relatives (2022)
- 1851 Census: Oxford (Wroxton), 1733/456
- 1861 Census: Oxford (Wroxton), 916/79
- 1871 Census: Oxford (Wroxton), 1462/63
- 1881 Census: Oxford (Wroxton), 1525/87
- 1891 Census: rest of family at Oxford (St Mary Magdalen), 1167/130
- 1901 Census: Oxford (St Mary Magdalen), 1384/153
