Mary is most famous for her part in organising rent strikes in Glasgow during WW1, when landlords exploited servicemen's wives by greatly increasing their rents.
Later she became a councillor in Glasgow and helped drive through a number of social reforms.
Part of an article from the Herald newspaper:
Born in 1885 in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Mary
devoted her life to improving the welfare of Glasgow's "working
poor" after settling in Govan. While thousands of men were
fighting in the First World War, opportunist landlords seized the
opportunity to drive up rents. Evictions for arrears as little as £1
were common.
Mrs Barbour, along with others involved in the
so-called Red Clydeside Movement, rallied other local women to defy
sheriff's officers and resist evictions.
Women would bang metal bin lids to warn the street
the sheriff officers were coming, then block the close doors. At a
time where most people don't know who lives next door, such a show of
neighbourly solidarity seems incredible.
The unrest culminated in one of the largest
demonstrations ever seen in Glasgow, on November 17, 1915. Thousands
of women, nicknamed "Mrs Barbour's Army" accompanied by
shipyard and engineering workers, converged on the sheriff courts in
the centre of Glasgow. The action resulted in Lloyd-George's
Government quickly pushing through the Rent Restrictions Act of 1915.
Five years later, at the age of 35, she was
elected Glasgow's first female Labour councillor. Women had only
recently been given the vote, and only those over 30.
She campaigned for the introduction of municipal
banks, wash-houses, laundries and baths, free milk for
schoolchildren, child welfare centres, home helps and pensions for
mothers. She had two children herself and also pioneered the city's
first family planning centre and organised trips to the seaside for
impoverished children before her death in 1958 at the age of 83.
Despite her achievements, there is little reference to her in
Glasgow's historical records and her legacy forms no part of the
school curriculum.
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