Christiana Hartley

Christiana Hartley (1872 – 14 December 1948) was an English social and welfare rights activist, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician.

Christiana Hartley was born at Colne in Lancashire in 1872, the daughter of Sir William Pickles Hartley, the manufacturer and philanthropist who founded the Hartley's jam company and Margaret O’Connor Horsfield. She was educated at home by governesses and at private schools. The Hartley family were Primitive Methodists and their philanthropy and approach to social affairs was governed by their religious principles. Christiana was actively involved with the Church Street, Methodist Church in Colne. She never married.

Christiana was associated with the family jam and marmalade business, being sometime Chairman and a Director of the company.

Following her Methodist beliefs, Christiana started her religious and social campaigning in 1907 in Southport, where her family home was situated. She served as a Poor Law guardian on the Ormskirk Board of Guardians for 18 years. In 1920 she became a member of Southport Town Council, at that time a County borough and served until 1932. In 1921-22, she was elected the first woman Mayor of Southport, causing what has been described as ‘trepidation’ among the male councillors. During her term she handed over her mayoral salary of £500 to one of the Labour members of council for a project to assist Southport’s poor and arranged for this sum to be matched by her father. She made the welfare of children and young people her especial focus and was rewarded with the soubriquet of the ‘Children’s Mayor’. As part of her political apprenticeship, Hartley spent seven nights, George Orwell style, in common lodging houses, later speaking of her experiences and bringing them to bear in her public life.

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