Career
Keynes was an early graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge where her contemporaries included the economist Mary Paley Marshall, Mary Marshall. She subsequently became involved in local charitable work, establishing an early juvenile labour exchange, and was one of the founders of the Papworth Village Settlement for sufferers of tuberculosis, a forerunner of Papworth Hospital. She was secretary of the local Charity Organisation Society, which provided pensions for the elderly living in poverty, and worked with inmates of workhouses to resettle them into society. She encouraged women students to enter charitable work, including Eglantyne Jebb who was introduced to her by Mary Paley Marshall, Marshall; Jebb subsequently founded Save the Children.Cambridge Borough Council
She was the first female Councillor#United Kingdom, councillor of Cambridge City Council in August 1914, and was also a town magistrate. At 70 years of age, Keynes became Cambridge#Local government, Mayor of Cambridge on 9 November 1932, the second woman to hold the office. She chaired the committee responsible for the building of the new Cambridge Guildhall, Guildhall, which was completed in 1939.Works
Retiring from public duties in 1939, she wrote a history of Cambridge, ''By-Ways of Cambridge History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1947). In 1950 she published a memoir, ''Gathering up the threads'' (W Heffer & Son Ltd, 1950), in which she discusses her ancestors along with the childhoods of her children John Maynard, Margaret and Geoffrey.Family
Keynes was the daughter of John Brown of Bedford, Rev. John Brown of Bunyan's Chapel, Bedford, and schoolteacher Ada Haydon, ''née'' Ford (1837–1929). Her brother Walter Langdon-Brown, Sir Walter Langdon-Brown was the Regius Professor of Physic (Cambridge), Regius Professor of Physic (medicine) at the University of Cambridge. She married the economist John Neville Keynes in 1882. They had a daughter and two sons: * John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), the economist and public servant * Margaret Hill (social reformer), Margaret Neville Hill (1885–1970), who in 1913 married Archibald Hill, winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology *Geoffrey Keynes, Geoffrey Langdon Keynes (1887–1982), a surgeonSee also
*Keynes family *Papworth HospitalReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keynes, Florence Ada 1861 births 1958 deaths 20th-century British writers Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge British women historians Councillors in Cambridgeshire Keynes family, Florence Mayors of Cambridge British social reformers Women mayors of places in England Presidents of the National Council of Women of Great Britain 20th-century English women 20th-century English people Women councillors in England