By Martin Brisland.
Lucia Foster Welch (1864-1940) was first woman to become councillor, sheriff, mayor, alderman and Admiral of the Port in Southampton. She was also a Justice of the Peace from 1920.
When she became the first woman mayor from 1927-28 there were only nine women mayors in all of England and Wales. The first use of the term ‘mayor’ in Southampton was in a letter dating to around 1217.
Born in Liverpool into a Quaker family, Lucia married twice. First to Philip Braham in 1884, with whom she had three children, and to Robert Foster Welch in 1904.
She came to Southampton in 1903 and took a keen interest in local politics and social welfare.
In 1918 she was elected as Conservative councillor for the Newtown ward.
She chaired the Health Committee from 1924 which set up a Maternity Ward at the General Hospital and a system of health clinics in schools.
She travelled to Texas, USA and laid a wreath on the graves of George Washington and the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Military Cemetery.
She greeted Henry Ford on a visit to Southampton. He was exploring opening a car factory at Millbrook but eventually decided on Dagenham.
Lucia was active in the votes for women movement, a member of both the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. She was more of a suffragist rather than a suffragette as she did not condone the militant activities of the WSPU. However, in 1911 Lucia did have Mrs. Pankhurst visit for tea after she had spoken at a rally at the Palace Theatre in Above Bar Street.
Women only fully received the vote on the same terms as men with the 1928 Representation of the People Act.
Aviator Amelia Earhart arrived in Southampton in June 1928 having flown across the Atlantic. Received by Lucia Foster Welch they went to the South Western Hotel to meet the press.
Welch lived in a seven-bedroom house with a large garden at 61, Oxford Street which is now Grade II listed.
From the 1950s to early 70s the premises became a GP’s practice run by Dr. Bernard Burke. The house is now divided into flats.
A Solent University Hall of residence in Royal Crescent Road was named after her in 1995.
A large painting of her hangs outside the mayor’s parlour. It is a 1928 portrait in oils by Salisbury artist Frank Brooks, owned by Southampton Art Gallery.
Nearby is a painting by Martin Davey of Jacqui Rayment, Southampton’s 800th mayor. It was unveiled in September 2024.
Jacqui Rayment was also our first Lord Mayor, an honour given the city to mark Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. We are the 28th place to have been granted this status.
Welch was not the first female Mayor in the UK, that honour went to physician and suffragette Elizabeth Garrett Anderson who became Mayor of Aldeburgh, in Suffolk, in 1908.
Southampton did not have a second female mayor until 1951.
Currently, Pat Evemy is Southampton’s 32nd female mayor. Next May the Sheriff, Katherine Barbour, will also become mayor.
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