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 Dorset unitary authority area of the county, four miles north of Wimborne Minster and four miles west of Verwood. The village is s ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. 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 (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 Nove ...

. 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 ...

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

. In 1897, she moved to the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

''. 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 Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, Ontario, 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 (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...

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