Florence Ada Keynes (née Brown; 10 March 1861 – 13 February 1958) was an English author, historian and politician.

Career

Keynes was an early graduate of

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

where her contemporaries included the economist Mary Marshall. She subsequently became involved in local charitable work, establishing an early juvenile

labour exchange An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency. Public employment agencies One ...

, and was one of the founders of the Papworth Village Settlement for sufferers of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

, a forerunner of

Papworth Hospital Royal Papworth Hospital is a specialist heart and lung hospital, located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridgeshire, England. The Hospital is run by Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital is a world-leading cardiot ...

. She was secretary of the local

Charity Organisation Society The Charity Organisation Societies were founded in England in 1869 following the ' Goschen Minute' that sought to severely restrict outdoor relief distributed by the Poor Law Guardians. In the early 1870s a handful of local societies were formed w ...

, which provided pensions for the elderly living in poverty, and worked with inmates of

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

s to resettle them into society. She encouraged women students to enter charitable work, including

Eglantyne Jebb Eglantyne Jebb (25 August 1876 – 17 December 1928) was a British social reformer who founded the Save the Children organisation at the end of the First World War to relieve the effects of famine in Austria-Hungary and Germany. She drafted th ...

who was introduced to her by

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

; Jebb subsequently founded

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

Cambridge Borough Council

She was the first female

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Cambridge City Council Cambridge City Council is a district council in the county of Cambridgeshire, which governs the City of Cambridge. History Cambridge was granted a Royal Charter by King John in 1207, which permitted the appointment of a mayor. The first recorde ...

in August 1914, and was also a town

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

. At 70 years of age, Keynes became 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

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

, 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 Rev. John Brown of Bunyan's Chapel,

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

, and schoolteacher Ada Haydon, ''née'' Ford (1837–1929). Her brother Sir Walter Langdon-Brown was the Regius Professor of Physic (medicine) at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. She married the economist

John Neville Keynes John Neville Keynes ( ; 31 August 1852 – 15 November 1949) was a British economist and father of John Maynard Keynes. Biography Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Keynes was the child of John Keynes (1805–1878) and his wife Anna Maynard Neville ...

in 1882. They had a daughter and two sons: *

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

(1883–1946), the economist and public servant * Margaret Neville Hill (1885–1970), who in 1913 married

Archibald Hill Archibald Vivian Hill (26 September 1886 – 3 June 1977), known as A. V. Hill, was a British physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research. He shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or ...

, winner of the 1922

Nobel Prize in Physiology The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according ...

* Geoffrey Langdon Keynes (1887–1982), a surgeon

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keynes, Florence Ada 1861 births 1958 deaths 20th-century British writers Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge British women historians Councillors in Cambridgeshire

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

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

Career

Cambridge Borough Council

Works

Family

See also

References