Ada Summers

{{Short description|British magistrate}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}} {{Use British English|date=March 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Ada Summers | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MBE|JP|size=100%}} | image = Ada Jane Summers JP.jpg | image_size = | caption = Councillor Summers | alt = | birth_name = Ada Jane Broome | birth_date = {{birth year|1861}} | birth_place = Oldham, England | death_date = {{death year and age|1944|1861}} | death_place = | other_names = Ada Jane Summers, "The Lady Bountiful" | occupation = Philanthropist | known_for = First female Magistrate and Justice of the Peace in Britain; first female councillor and Mayor of Stalybridge | spouse = John Summers ({{abbr|d.|died}} 1910) }}

'''Ada Jane Summers''' (née '''Broome'''; 1861–1944) was the first British woman to sit as a magistrate, and one of the first women in England to become a Justice of the Peace. She was also the first female councillor, mayor and freeman of Stalybridge near Manchester. She was also a philanthropist.

== Early and personal life == She was born in Oldham in 1861, where her father George Broome owned a textile mill.<ref name="Tameside">{{cite web|url=http://www.tameside.gov.uk/blueplaque/adasummers|title=A Tribute to Ada Jane Summers, MBE, JP (1861–1944)|accessdate=19 March 2016|publisher=Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council}}</ref>

In 1881, she married John Summers JP, of the John Summers & Sons steelworks.<ref name="Tameside" /> His family owned the Globe Ironworks in Stalybridge. They had four children, Kathleen, John Broome, Gerald, and Ada. John died in 1903, aged nineteen, when he fell from a hotel window in St Ives, Cornwall.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Summers [née Broome], Ada Jane|last=Logan|first=Anne|date=8 November 2018|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111915}}</ref> Their son Gerald Summers (1885-1969) became a painter.<ref>[http://www.suffolkpainters.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=1255 Gerald Summers, 1886-1969], Suffolk Painters</ref> Her husband died in 1910.<ref name="Tameside" /><ref name="Wade" />

== Political and judicial career == Summers was elected as a Liberal Party councillor in Stalybridge in 1912.<ref name="Tameside" /><ref name="F100Y">{{cite web|url=http://first100years.org.uk/ada-summers/|title=Ada Summers|date=10 July 2014 |accessdate=19 March 2016|publisher=First 100 Years}}</ref> She was then elected mayor in November 1919, and served until 1921.<ref name="Tameside" /> As Mayor of Stalybridge, she was ''ex officio'' a Justice of the Peace, and was sworn in as the first female Justice of the Peace in England on 31 December 1919, one week after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 came into force.<ref>[http://www.micncheshire.org.uk/Full%20History.pdf History of the Magistracy, 1361 to 2011], p.27</ref> In October 1920 she was appointed a Justice of the Peace in the borough in her own right, again the first woman in Britain to be so appointed.<ref name="Tameside" /><ref name="Wade">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m30ACwAAQBAJ&q=Ada+Summers&pg=PA62|title=The Justice Women: The Female Presence in the Criminal Justice System 1800–1970|author=Stephen Wade|page=62|publisher=Pen and Sword|year=2015|accessdate=2016-03-25|isbn=9781473843653}}</ref><ref name="F100Y" />

She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1918,<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30730/supplement/6742 The London Gazette, Supplement 30730, Page 6742], 4 June 1918</ref> and became an honorary Freeman of the borough in 1939.

== Philanthropy== Summers used the wealth inherited from her husband to pursue philanthropic aims, including funding a maternity and child welfare centre, and an employment centre in Stalybridge, the Ladies Work Society.<ref name="Tameside" /> She set up a nurses' home in 1926.<ref name="Wade" /> At Christmas she would give presents to local children, and she paid for a Christmas tree.<ref name="Wade" />

She served as president of Stalybridge Mechanics Institute from 1926 until 1936. She founded a boys club in January 1929, which became known as "Mrs Summers Boy's Club". She was president of the Stalybridge branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society. She was also involved with the probation and social services of the Police Court Mission.<ref name="Tameside" />

She was among the first contributors to the Young Men's Christian Association National War Service Fund when she donated £100 in 1939.<ref name=":0" />

After her death, she was described (without irony) as "Lady Bountiful".<ref name="Tameside" /><ref name="Wade" />

== Legacy == Summers died in 1944. There is a blue plaque about her at Stalybridge Civic Hall.<ref name="Wade" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/people/5696|title = Ada Jane Summers MBE JP (1861-1944) historical plaques and markers}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summers, Ada}} Category:1861 births Category:1944 deaths Category:English justices of the peace Category:English philanthropists Category:Mayors of places in Greater Manchester Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Oldham Category:English women philanthropists Category:English women judges Category:Liberal Party (UK) councillors Category:Women councillors in England Category:Women mayors of places in England Category:First women mayors