Mary Frances Billington (6 September 1862 – 27 August 1925) was an English journalist and writer, whose collected articles on women were published as ''Woman in India'' (1895), ''The Red Cross in War'' (1914) and ''The Roll-Call of Serving Women'' (1915).

Early life

Mary Frances Billington was born at Chalbury Rectory, in

Chalbury Chalbury is a village in the English county of Dorset. It lies on the southern edge of Cranborne Chase within the East Dorset administrative district of the county, four miles north of Wimborne Minster and four miles west of Verwood. The village ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. Her father, George Henry Billington, was a clergyman, the rector at Chalbury; her mother Frances Anne Barber Billington was a clergyman's daughter before she was a clergyman's wife.

Career

Mary Frances Billington helped establish the '' Southern Echo'' newspaper in 1888, and was recruited from there to the London office of the ''Echo'' by

John Passmore Edwards John Passmore Edwards M.P. (24 March 1823 – 22 April 1911) ODNB article by A. J. A. Morris, 'Edwards, John Passmore (1823–1911)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 200 accessed 15 ...

. Billington joined the staff of the '' Daily Graphic'' at its founding in 1890. Some of her journalism during this job included diving underwater in full gear at the Royal Navy Exhibition, and covering the funeral of

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. In 1897, she moved to the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''. She was in charge of the women's department at the ''Telegraph'', and wrote a weekly column that focused on women's working lives. Her 28 reports filed with the ''Graphic'' from India were compiled as her first book, ''Woman in India'' (1895). During World War I, Billington reported from France, and published two more books of her columns, this time focusing on women's wartime work: ''The Red Cross in War: Women's Part in the Relief of Suffering'' (1914) and ''The Roll Call of Serving Women: A Record of Woman's Work for Combatants and Sufferers in the Great War'' (1915). In a 1914 article about the war for ''

The Girl's Own Paper ''The Girl's Own Paper'' (''G.O.P.'') was a British story paper catering to girls and young women, published from 1880 until 1956. Publishing history The first weekly number of ''The Girl's Own Paper'' appeared on 3 January 1880. As with its m ...

'', she warned against inexperienced knitters making socks for soldiers, noting, "it is very important that a soldier should not get sore feet." Billington was one of the founders and president of the Society for Women Journalists from 1913 to 1920, and served on the executive council of the Cowdray Club."Woman Journalist Dead; Mary Frances Billington"
''The Argus'' (29 August 1925): 31. (via

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

) She served as the only woman delegate to the 1920 Imperial Press Congress when it was held in

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Canada.

Personal life

Mary Frances Billington died at home in London in 1925, a week short of her 63rd birthday. Her remains were buried at the

churchyard In Christian countries a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster-Scots, this can also ...

in Chalbury, with those of her parents and her brothers.Chalbury, All Saints Church, burial ground
memorial inscriptions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billington, Mary 1862 births 1925 deaths Writers from Dorset British women in World War I English women journalists British people in colonial India