* Mary Ann Aaron

..... was the FIRST name entered in the birth register at Somerset House after the Registration Act came into effect on 1st July 1837

* Mary Adams

..... English woman who was the FIRST woman television producer. She was a University lecturer and in 1928 gave a broadcast on heredity. Nine years later she was appointed as a producer in a television department which had been newly created and on which she pioneered medical programmes

* Mary Adshead

..... in 1949 she designed the FIRST pictorial issues for the GPO

* Mary Allen and Ellen F Harburn

..... on November 27th 1914 Britain's FIRST two official uniformed policewomen took to the streets in Grantham, Lincolnshire after Lincolnshire officials had requested the assistance of female police officers to protect the women of Grantham from the attentions of the 18,000 soldiers at the new army camp. When the war was over Scotland Yard tried to disband the Women's Police Service but the moves were countered by Miss Allen. In 1920 she became commandant of the renamed Women's auxiliary Service. Her motto was 'Set a woman to catch a woman'

* Mary Allen

..... on 23rd April 1994 she became the FIRST woman Secretary General of the Arts Council

* Mary Anderson

born 1872 died 1964

..... Swedish/American who was the FIRST working woman to rise through Union activities to a government position as Director of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labour in 1920

* Mary Anning

born 1799 died 1847

..... British palaeontologist who was the FIRST person to discover the fossils of a plesiosaurus and a pterodactyl. She was born in Lyme Regis where her father was a carpenter and a vendor of specimens. In 1811 she discovered the fossil skeleton of an ichtuypsauras, the FIRST known of its kind, in a local cliff. It is now in the British Museum

* Mary Archer

..... FIRST woman elected to the Council of Lloyds in 1988 after polling 3,539 votes. It was her second attempt to get on to the council. In 1987 she came fourth in a battle for three places

* Mary Ashley

..... society woman of whom it was said that she was the FIRST woman in London to paint her fingernails red

* Mary Astell

born 1666 died 1731

..... FIRST woman to demand higher education for women through her publication in 1696 of Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of True and Greatest Interest. It was published anonymously at the time and proposed the foundation of an academic community, two centuries before the foundation of Girton College. Her book was welcomed enthusiastically by an anonymous rich woman who was prepared to donate £10,000 for the foundation of 'a seminar, or college for the education of young women' but the idea was opposed by leading church figures

* Mary Baffi

..... in 1979 she was the FIRST woman long shore worker on the New York waterfront

* Mary Bailey

born 1890 died 1960

..... English airwoman who was the FIRST woman to fly across the Irish Sea in 1927, made the FIRST solo return flight between London and South Africa by a woman when she left London on 9th March 1928, flew around Africa and returned to London on 16th January 1929. Her outward flight occupied the period 9th March to 30th April and her return flight 21st September 1928 to 16th January 1929. She was also the FIRST woman to fly a glider

* Mary Baker

..... FIRST woman to serve on the Barclays Bank UK Board when appointed a director from 1982/83. She was chairman of the London Tourist Board and also a member of the CBl Steering Group on unemployment

* Mary Barbour

..... Glasgow's FIRST woman councillor she led against the rent increases during WW2

* Mary Beale

born 1632 died 1699

..... FIRST native-born professional female painter to work in England. She was born in Suffolk and in 1655 moved to Covent Garden with her husband where she began to paint portraits. She was a commercial success as an artist and died a highly respected woman. Her self-portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery

* Mary Berg

..... FIRST non-executive member of the Central Statistical Office's management board in 1992

* Mary Berry

..... television and radio cook who was the FIRST person ever to cook on the radio when she was asked to cook on Woman's Hour and although thinking it was a joke she turned up at the studio with pots and pans and there found a table, 'Baby belling' cooker and a Fire Officer in attendance. She proceeded to tell listeners of an all-in-one method of making a Victoria sandwich.  In 1973 her freezer cookbook for Marks and Spencer was published

* Mary McCleod Bethune

born 1875 died 1955

..... in 1935 President D Roosevelt established an Office of Minority Affairs and appointed Mary as administrator, the FIRST post of its kind to be assigned to an African-American woman. Her title was later changed to Director of the Division of Negro Affairs. In the same year she founded the National Council of Negro Women. The Bethune Memorial statue was the FIRST monument to an African-American ever erected in a public park in Washington DC

* Mary Bousted

.....  FIRST woman to be elected general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers - 2003

* Mary Elizabeth Braddon

born 1835 died 1915

..... English novelist known as Mrs Maxwell who became famous for her novel Lady Audley's Secret which was first published in the Sixpenny Magazine and then issued separately in 1862. It was a new thing in fiction, the sensational society novel with which everyone soon became familiar. It was the FIRST of its kind and its publication appears as a literary event of the year in date charts of the Victorian era. She wrote over 70 novels, edited magazines and wrote nine plays

* Mary Breen

..... FIRST lay headmistress of St Mary's, Ascot, a traditional Roman Catholic girls' boarding school in Berkshire that had been run by a nun since it was founded in 1885. She was the FIRST woman head of a major department at Eton when made head of physics, a profession she entered into by accident

* Mary Ann Britland

..... FIRST woman to be executed at Strangeways Prison in Manchester

* Mary Bruce

..... FIRST woman Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society for her work in culturing the organism of Malta fever in the 1920s along with her husband

* Mary Constance Burnett

..... FIRST woman juror to take the oath at the Old Bailey, London - January 11th 1921

* Mary Butcher

.....  English woman who was the FIRST Fellow in Basket-making at Manchester Metropolitan University in July 1995 in a post created jointly by the university, the North West Arts Board and projects Environment. She planned an exhibition in 1996 to show work from all over Britain and to investigate the relationship between textiles and basket-making

* Mary Campbell

born 1877 died 1954

..... FIRST full-time woman medical officer on the Board of Education in London

* Mary Campbell

..... FIRST white child to travel to the Connecticut Western Reserve

* Mary Lucy Cartwright

born December 17th 1900 died 1998

..... one of the most eminent British mathematicians of the 20th century and the FIRST woman mathematician to be elected to the Royal Society in 1947. Between 1949 and 1968 she was Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, the longest tenure in the college's history. In 1964 she received the Sylvester Medal from the Royal Society and in 1968 was awarded the De Morgan Medal by the London Mathematical Society of which she had been President. In 1969 she was appointed DBE

* Mary Ann Shadd Cary

born 1829 died 1893

..... FIRST black woman to practise law in America. During the 1850s she taught in Canada and whilst there edited the abolitionist newspaper - The Provincial Freeman, the FIRST black woman to edit a newspaper. With the outbreak of the Civil War she returned to America and became active in the recruitment of blacks into the militia. After the war she attended Howard University where she earned a degree in law

* Mary Eugenia Charles

born 1919

..... FIRST woman Prime Minister in the Caribbean when she took office on the island of Dominica in 1980. The island won independence from Britain in 1978. Her Freedom Party had a landslide victory winning 17 Parliamentary seats compared with only two won by the Democratic Labour party which had governed the island for 13 months. She was also the FIRST female lawyer to practice in Dominica (1949)

* Mary Cooper

..... published the FIRST book of English nursery rhymes on March 22nd 1774. The book was called Tommy Thumb's Song Book and included Baa Baa Black Sheep, which was already 500 years old

* Mary Clara Dawes

..... in 1884 she was the FIRST woman Master of Arts

* Mary Ellman

neé Donoghue

born 1921 died 1989

..... author of Thinking About Women, one of the FIRST works of feminist literary criticism in which she analysed and debunked the stereotypes of women in literature

* Mary Quaid Emery

..... the first woman to ride the Rock Island railroad - at the time she was a little girl

* Mary Field

born 1896 died 1968

..... FIRST British woman to make her name as a director and producer of children's films. She also produced two of the earliest natural history documentary series - Secrets of Nature (1928) and Secrets of Life (1934). In 1951 she was the founder of the Children's Film Foundation and was one of those responsible for the Saturday morning picture shows for children

* Mary Eleanor Fortesque-Brickdale

born 1872 died 1945

..... FIRST woman member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters

* Mary Francis

..... in 1995 was the FIRST woman Economic Private Secretary at 10 Downing Street and in 1998 was made the FIRST woman assistant private secretary to Queen Elizabeth 11, the third most senior position in the private office at Buckingham Palace

* Mary Frith

born c1589 died 1662

..... legendary Englishwoman who was probably the FIRST great professional female criminal popularly known to the underworld and the police of her day as Moll Cutpurse. For over two decades her supremacy among London criminals went unchallenged and she amassed a great fortune. She became so rich that she did not need to sell much of the stolen goods that were brought to her door and kept them for herself filling several buildings with paintings, statues, furniture, jewellery and scores of gilt-edged mirrors

* Mary Fuller

..... star of the FIRST serial in the cinema on 26th July 1912 - What Happened To Mary

* Mary Garden

neé Davidson

born 1877 died 1967

..... American-Scottish opera star who was the FIRST Prima Donna to be given such a position when made Director of the Chicago Grand Opera Company. 'Gardenia' perfume was named after her

* Mary Genevieve Gaudron

born 1943

..... FIRST woman to be appointed a judge in the High Court in Australia in 1987

* Mary Gaunt

born 1861 died 1942

.... one of the FIRST two women students at the University of Melbourne in Australia

* Mary Jean Gilmore

born 1865 died 1962

..... FIRST woman member of the Australian Workers Union

* Mary Katharine Goddard

born 1738 died 1816

..... FIRST printed copy of the Declaration of Independence was published by her newspaper , the Maryland Journal

* Mary Sophia Gore

neé Palmer

born 6th September 1920 died 2000

..... the FIRST Lady-in-Waiting to be appointed to the Queen when she was Princess Elizabeth. She joined her in July 1944 and served until 1947 acting as secretary and accompanying the Princess on public engagements. Her first husband was Anthony Strachey and in 1981 she married St John Gore, a trustee of the Wallace Collection and of the National Gallery. She was a cousin of Elizabeth David, the cookery writer and ran her own business making and selling bedspreads which were made by herself and a team of three workers

* Mary Glen Haig

born 1918

..... FIRST woman President of the Amateur Fencing Association from 1964 to 1973 and was the Commonwealth individual women's champion in 1950 and 1954. She was also Assistant District Administrator with the South Hammersmith Health District and from 1975 was Chairman of the Central Council for Physical Recreation. In 1971 she was made an MBE and created a CBE in 1977

* Mary Harvey

born 1629 died 1704

..... FIRST published woman composer in Britain when her song A False Designe to be Cruel was used in

 1669

* Mary  (Sidney) Herbert

Countess of Pembroke

born 1561 died 25th September 1621

 ..... English writer and patron and sister of Sir Philip Sidney she married Henry, Earl of Pembroke in 1576. She was one of the most accomplished and amiable women of her time and wrote and translated in various languages. She translated many of the psalms from Hebrew into English verse and from the French translated a Discourse of Life and Death and The Tragedy of Antony. Her epitaph by Ben Johnson reads  " Underneath this sable hearse - Lies the subject of all verse - Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother - Death, ere thou hast slain another - Fair and learned and good as she - Time shall throw a dart at thee"

Her reputation as a renowned author and patron of the Arts was reflected in a portrait engraved by Simon Van De Passe in 1618 in which she is depicted crowned with the laurel wreath of a poet, the FIRST Englishwoman ever to receive such recognition

* Mary Howarth

..... in 1903 Alfred Harmsworth appointed her to launch The Daily Mirror, a paper intended for gentlewomen and thereby making her probably the FIRST woman editor of a national newspaper in England. Unfortunately the paper collapsed within a year and her successor sacked the largely female staff

* Mary Phelps Jacob

aka Caresse Crosby

..... FIRST official girl scout in America when named by Lady Baden Powell. She was also the one who supposedly gave us the brassiere after she tired of tightly laced whalebone corsets and stitched together 2 lace handkerchiefs onto a piece of ribbon and wore it instead.  Her gently revealed figure made her the belle of New York society. She applied for a patent but her business brain did not match her inventiveness and she sold out to Warner Brothers Corset Company for £3750

* Mary Corrinna Puttnam Jacobi

born 1842 died 1906

..... American who was the FIRST woman to enter the Ecole Medécine where she graduated in 1871 and the FIRST woman to be elected to the New York Academy of Medicine in 1880. The FIRST consumers organisation in America, The National Consumers League, was organised by her.  She was once cited as the most brilliant medical woman in the world. Born in London  her family emigrated to America when she was five and in 1863, after studying chemistry and pharmacy she graduated from the New York School of Pharmacy  determined to become a doctor. A year later she graduated from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She then went to study in Paris and for two years tried unsuccessfully to enrol in the all-male Ecole de Medécine. She was finally admitted by ministerial permission and in 1871 returned to America with her Paris MD and became a faculty member of the struggling Women's Medical college of the New York Infirmary. It was here that, for the next 25 years, she was Professor of Matera Medica and Therapeutics and was known for her teaching and clinical abilities in voluntary work for the slums and also in her private practice. In 1872 she founded the Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women but was happy to close the college when Cornell University eventually offered places to women. Altogether she produced nearly 100 medical articles and an address which she gave in 1894 became the book Common Sense Applied to Women Suffrage. She died of a brain tumour after having diagnosed the condition herself

* Mary Latchford Kingsmill Jones

..... DBE and CBE and the FIRST woman Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1947-48 (P/L)

* Mary Morton Kehew

born 1859 died 1918

neé Kimball

..... American who was the FIRST President of the National Women's Trade Union League with Jane Addams as Vice President She was born in Boston and educated privately in France, Germany and Italy. In 1886 she joined the Women's Education and Industrial Union, became Director four years later and then President and forced the union into a more active role. She worked for new schools of dressmaking, housekeeping and salesmanship to be established and was a trustee of Simmons College for Women and a member of numerous local reform bodies. With Mary Kenney she founded the Union for Industrial Progress organising bookbinders, laundry and tobacco workers and women in the clothing trade between 1896 and 1901. Although she would not make public appearances she was a good campaigner and had great support from shop floor workers to society leaders

* Mary Kies

  ..... American who was the FIRST woman to be granted a patent in the U.S.A when she filed for a method of weaving straw for millinery use in May 1809

* Mary Henrietta Kingsley

born October 13th 1862 died June 3rd 1900

..... English traveller who was the FIRST white person to travel through some of the regions of the Congo, Cameroon and Nigeria during the 1890s when she signed on as an agent with a coastal trading company and made the journeys pay by bartering cloth and tobacco for oil, rubber and ivory. In just seven years she made herself widely loved and respected in two continents and through her books, lectures and articles she shared her findings with millions

* Mary Joy Langdon

..... on August 21st 1976 she became the FIRST woman fire-fighter in Britain when she joined the East Sussex Brigade

* Mary Elizabeth Lange - Mother

..... in July 1829 she founded the Obiate Sisters of Providence, the FIRST black order of nuns in the U.S.A

* Mary Irene Levison

born 1923

neé Lusk

..... English woman who was the FIRST woman Chaplain to the Queen - 1991/3

* Mary Lowrey

..... in 1989 she became the FIRST woman general manager with London Buses Limited in charge of 200 (mostly male) staff and some 50 buses at Alperton Garage. She had been a bus conductress in her native Edinburgh during her university vacation and went to London to begin an MA course. However there was trouble with her grant and finding herself without money she fell back on her previous job on the buses and eventually rose through the company to her position as general manager

* Mary Lyons

born 1797 died 1849

..... principal of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the FIRST permanent institution devoted to the higher education of women. Between 1834 and 1837 she worked on a plan to establish a seminary for the education of girls of moderate means, raising the funds for the project and shaping the curriculum which was based on that of Amherst College. Eventually Mount Holyoke was opened. She made valuable contributions to educational theory and wrote Tendencies of the Principles Embraced and the System Adopted in the Mount Holyoke Seminary (1840)

* Mary MacArthur

..... FIRST woman to be nominated as a parliamentary candidate in 1918. She gained the highest number of votes but a man won. Constance Markievicz won for Ireland but refused to take her seat. In 1906 Mary founded the National Federation of Women Workers

* Mary Helen Macaulay

Lady Ogilvie

born March 22nd 1900 died 1990

..... initiated the FIRST Oxford College nursery at St. Anne's and gave full support to the establishment at St. Anne's of the FIRST schoolmistress studentship at the university

* Mary Magdalene

..... the FIRST Apostle when she was appointed by Jesus personally to bring the news of his resurrection to his friends and supporters. However because of Jewish convention women were not allowed to be religious leaders and teachers and she could not continue in the role without giving offence to her community

* Mary Eliza Mahoney

born 1845 died 1926

..... FIRST African-American woman to graduate from a professional white nursing school. When she was 33 years old she was accepted at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, the FIRST American school to introduce a nursing programme. Head of the school was Dr Marie Zakrzewska who was a firm believer in equal rights for women and black people. Under her guidance in 1899 six black nurses graduated and Mary was the FIRST in 1879 and she worked in her profession for the next 40 years helping other graduate nurses. For her efforts in the field of nursing and in the organisation of nurses the Mary Mahoney Award was established in 1936 by the National Association of Coloured Graduate Nurses

* Mary de Ia Riviere Manley

born 1663 died 1724

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST professional woman journalist in 1709 when she handed out moral advice in response to readers' letters in The Female Tatler under the pseudonym of ' Mrs Crackenthorpe '

* Mary Ann Mantell

..... in 1822 she discovered the FIRST fossil to be recognised as a dinosaur. It was named Iguanodon by her husband amid suggestions that he had been the actual discoverer

* Mary Marre - Lady

neé Romola Mary Gilling

born 25th April 1920 died March 6th 2005

..... made legal history by enabling solicitors for the FIRST time both to plead and to judge in the higher courts. In April 1986 she was appointed to chair the Committee on the Future of the Legal Profession and twenty seven months later they produced the majority report that allowed the two branches of the profession to compete. The main part of her work however lay with the sick and needy and in all she gave her time and commitment to 16 councils and committees

* Mary McAleese

..... FIRST President of the Republic of Ireland to come from Northern Ireland. Candidate of the Fianna Fall government she had an easy election victory and succeeded Mary Robinson in November 1997

* Mary Patricia McHugh

born June 5th 1915 died August 6th 1992

..... FIRST woman coroner in Britain as coroner for the southern district of London from 1965 to 1985. She was one of the most independent of the coroners and once decided on a course of action would see it through. She had many brushes with councils, institutions and in 1984 took on the legal establishment and The Observer newspaper. Her last big argument was in 1985 over kidney transplants

* Mary Helen McKillip

born 1842 died 1909

.....  FIRST Australian saint ,Mother Mary of the Cross in 1995

* Mary McLeod

..... FIRST woman Diocesan Bishop when appointed on November 7th 1993

* Mary Munton

born September 23rd 1901 died 1996

..... English newspaper reporter who was one of the one of the FIRST reporters to enter Paris after the liberation where she stayed long enough to re-open the office of The Daily Telegraph. She then followed Allied forces into Belgium and Holland and then to Berlin

* Mary Ann 'Polly' Nicholls

..... became the FIRST victim of Jack The Ripper on 31st August 1888 and one of the FIRST murder victims to be photographed

* Mary Teresa Hopkins Norton

born 1875 died 1959

..... FIRST woman to serve on the New Jersey State Democratic Committee and FIRST woman elected to the US  Congress on her own political strength (1925)

* Mary Okelo

..... FIRST woman bank manager in Africa in 1977 and the FIRST woman Senior Adviser to the President of the African Development Bank and FIRST woman director of the African Development Bank

* Mary Rosalind Paget

born January 4th 1855 died August 19th 1948

..... FIRST Queen's Nurse in 1871

* Mary Peachment

..... FIRST female headmistress to be appointed in Bury, Manchester (UK)

* Mary Edith Pechey-Phipson

born 1845 died 1908

..... English woman who was the FIRST woman elected to the Senate of the University of Bombay . In 1869 she was with Sophia Jex Blake and three other women who were admitted to the University of Edinburgh and although she won the Chemistry prize in her first year and the Hope Scholarship of £250 both were denied to her because she was a woman. She therefore transferred to Berne University in Switzerland and gained her MD there and in 1877 was granted a license to practice by the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. In 1883 she went to India through the Medical Women for India Fund

* Mary Engle Pennington

born October 8th 1872

..... American who was the FIRST Chief of the U.S. Food Research Laboratory. She was the only person refused a bachelor's degree but awarded a PhD from a major university. She had completed her Bachelor of Science course in only 2 years at the University of Pennsylvania but was refused a degree because she was a woman. She was given a Certificate of Proficiency instead but she carried on studying and eventually, due to her outstanding performance, the University was finally shamed into granting her a PhD. When she was asked by an old friend of the family to do research into refrigeration he advised her to sign her civil service exam as ME Pennington. By the time it was realised that he' was a woman she had become indispensable to the Dept of Agriculture. Her work in refrigeration and food preservation revolutionised the food industry

* Mary Elizabeth Peters

born July 6th 1939

.....' Golden Girl' of British athletics who brought home the gold medal for Britain at the Munich Olympics in 1972 after competing in the pentathlon with a world record score of 4801 points and later became the FIRST woman President of the British Athletics Federation

* Mary Pickford

neé Gladys Marie Smith

born April 8th 1893 died 1979

..... known as the  ' world's sweetheart' she began in films in 1909 at a salary of $40 per week and ten years later was the FIRST female movie star to head her own independent movie company , United Artists , and was earning $1m a year. She was the first and greatest victim of typecasting but was made so by herself in order to retain her box office popularity. She retired in 1933 and in retirement gave radio broadcasts, wrote several books and founded a cosmetics company. In 1975 she was awarded a special Academy Award for her services to the film industry. When she died in 1979 she left a fortune of $50m. Her films include Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) Rebecca of Sunnybrooke Park (1917) Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) and Coquette (1929)

* Mary Pierce

..... FIRST French woman to win a Grand Slam title in nearly 30 years in 1995 when she won the Australian Open

* Mary Pope

neé Evelyn Mary Wheeler

born July 23rd 1899 died 1990

..... formed the FIRST flower arranging society in the British Isles in 1949 with the guidance of Constance Spry , the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies, and inspired thousands all over the world to devote themselves to the art of flower arranging. She pioneered the concept of non-competitive flower arrangement displays which developed into flower festivals in cathedrals and churches and in 1978 played an active part in the formation of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens

* Mary Potts

.... in 1904 she was one of the FIRST women to be accredited to the new Central Midwives Board

* Mary Prince

.... FIRST black writer to publish a book in England - The History of Mary Prince - A West Indian Slave

* Mary 1 - Queen

born 1516 died 1558

also called Mary Tudor or Bloody Mary

..... daughter of Henry V111 by Catherine of Aragon. In 1553 she became Queen of England, the FIRST to rule in her own right

* Mary Denise Rand

born 1940

..... Britain's first 'Golden Girl' who was the FIRST British woman to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics in 1964 when she set up a new world record of 6.76 metres in the 1964 long-jump event at Tokyo. She also won a silver in the pentathlon and a bronze in the 4 x 100 metres relay

* Mary Read and Anne Bonney

.....  considered to be the FIRST two female pirates in the 18th century. Mary was English and Anne was born in Carolina, America and the two met when they ended up on the ship of Jack Rackham, known as Calico Jack, and for months they roamed the high seas with the women changing into men's clothes when they went into action. Eventually their ship was overtaken and boarded and they were all taken prisoner. The rest of the crew were hanged but Mary and Anne were reprieved because they were both pregnant. Mary died shortly afterwards of prison fever and Anne's father used his influence to have her released and she was never heard of again. Their story is told in Daniel Defoe's General History of the Robberies and Murder of the Most Notorious Pirates

* Mary Reibey

born c1777 died 1855

..... English/Australian who was the FIRST woman tycoon in Australia after she was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia at the age of 13 for horse stealing.  She arrived in Sydney in 1792 and later became a nanny. In 1794 she married Thomas Reibey who started an import business and Mary opened a shop in which to sell the goods.  By the time her husband died in 1811 he was a ship-owner and Mary took over his business running coastal ships, building, buying and managing property and became a very rich woman. One of her grandchildren became Prime Minister of Tasmania

* Mary Reveley

..... FIRST woman trainer to achieve the 'ton' in the same year when in 1991 she visited the winner's enclosure on 109 occasions

* Mary Riffkin

nee Yeats

..... FIRST Scottish woman to swim the English Channel - 1979

* Mary Robinson

 died 27th December 1800

..... FIRST female poetry editor of the Morning Post she was also the FIRST mistress of the Prince of Wales and was known as "Perdita"

* Mary Robinson

neé Bourke

born May 21st 1944

.....11th President of the Irish Republic and the FIRST woman she was also the FIRST Irish President to build links with the British Royal family. She was  the FIRST overseas premier to visit Salford, Manchester and FIRST woman to be elected Chancellor of Dublin's famous Trinity College in its 400-year history

* Mary Rodgers

..... FIRST female Master Manager to a Kwik-Fit Centre in Scotland when appointed at the age of 24 years. The company had a handful of female managers in England and Wales but not in Scotland and the Edinburgh-based company began a recruitment drive to attract women to work in its centres to cater for its female customers

* Mary Scharlieb

born 1845 died 1930

..... FIRST woman member of staff at a general hospital - the Royal Free in Hampstead - and was one of the country's foremost gynaecological surgeons

* Mary Jane Seacole

born 1805 died 1881

neé Grant

..... Jamaican who was the FIRST black nurse in Britain and the FIRST black woman to write her autobiography. She was the daughter of a free Creole and a Scottish army officer and in the days of the Crimean War she ran a hostel for sick and wounded British soldiers, where she went of her own accord after her offer of her services as a nurse was turned down in 1854 in London. At the end of the war she returned to England and eventually gained recognition for her work and was awarded a medal by Queen Victoria. She also received medals from the French and Turkish governments and one of the FIRST blue plaques to commemorate a black figure was to her. In the 1870s she lived at 157 George Street, Marylebone and this is where the plaque was erected in 1985

* Mary Smith

born January 5th 1920

..... one of the FIRST advisors appointed to the Dept of the Environment's Housing Service Advisory Unit in 1978

* Mary Ellen Smith

born 1862 died 1933

..... Canadian who was the FIRST woman in the British Empire to reach cabinet rank when from 1921-22 she was briefly a Minister without portfolio

* Mary Harris Smith

born 1847 died 1934

..... FIRST woman chartered accountant in 1919. She was aged 72 years at the time. Although she had studied from the age of 16, worked as an accountant and established her own practice in 1888, she was turned down repeatedly in her efforts to join the Society of Accountants and Auditors. She refused to be beaten and eventually in 1919, after the Sex Discrimination (Removal) Act was passed, she was finally accepted

* Mary Louise Smith

neé Epperson

born October 6th 1914 died 1997

..... American politician who was the FIRST woman chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1974 when she succeeded George Bush in the wake of Richard Nixon's downfall

* Mary Greig Somerville

neé Fairfax

born 1780 died November 29th 1872

..... Scottish mathematician and astronomer whose name was the FIRST on the petition for women's suffrage in 1866. Somerville College at Oxford University, one of its first women's colleges, is named after her. She was one of the FIRST two women honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society ( see Caroline Herschel) and wrote books on mathematics, astronomy, chemistry and physics

* Mary Somerville

born November 1st 1897died September 1st 1963

..... Scottish educationalist and broadcasting executive who was the FIRST woman to become a Controller at the BBC in 1950 and when she retired in 1955 she was recognized as the creator of broadcasting to schools

* Mary Dorothy Stanton

born December 10th 1914 died 1995

..... who became Dorothy Lamour, undisputed 'Queen of the Sarong' which she wore in most of her movies such as The Jungle Princess, The Hurricane and the 'Road' movies made with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. She was the FIRST Hollywood star to get out into the field and sell war bonds. Over the years all her sarongs were auctioned off for charity although it is said that the first one she wore is in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington

* Mary Anne Talbot

born 1778 died 1808

..... probably the FIRST ever woman sailor in the British navy in 1792. She was known as the 'British Amazon' and served as a drummer boy in Flanders  and as a cabin boy on the Le Sage and then in the Brunswick where she was wounded whilst on board ship in the great battle of the 1st June, 1794, known as The Glorious First of June. After other adventures she became a servant and received a small pension. Her history is recorded by her employer in his' Wonderful Museum' 2nd volume 1804

* Mary of Teck 

born 1867 died 1953

..... English Queen, born Princess May, the only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck she was the FIRST Royal to be awarded an honorary degree at Oxford University (11.03.1921) and with her husband King George V were the FIRST British monarchs to attend a public cinema performance. In 1825 Queen Alexandria's saloon ( on a train) was fitted for Queen Mary with the FIRST bathroom ever fitted on a train and she was the FIRST Queen of England to launch a merchant vessel when on 26th September 1934 she launched the liner Queen Mary

* Mary Church Terrell

born 1863 died 1954

..... fighter for women's rights who was the FIRST black woman in the United States to be appointed to a city's Board of Education in Washington. When she went to teach at Wilberforce College her father disinherited her because he believed that women should not work.  With Susan B Anthony and Jane Addams she campaigned to win passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which gave women the right to vote and then during WW1 helped to organise the Women Wage-Earners Association to improve working conditions for black women. At the age of 77 she wrote her autobiography and at the age of 90 could still be found leading picket lines to end segregation in restaurants in Washington DC

* Mary Thomas

..... FIRST woman chairman of Penarth Horticultural Society Committee in June 1997

* Mary Harris Thompson

born 1829 died 1895

..... American doctor and medical pioneer who was the FIRST woman to present a paper to the American Medical Association in 1886

* Mary Joan Caroline Tyrwhitt

Brigadier Dame

born  22nd December 1903 died 1997

..... last director of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) and FIRST director of the Women's Royal Army Corps when it was established in 1949

* Mary Walker

born 1832 died 1919

..... one of the FIRST women journalists in the United States of America. She graduated from medical college in 1855 and worked on the battlefield during the Civil War where she served with the Ohio Regiment. For this she was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour but this was revoked 50 years later in 1917 when a review board claimed that it had been awarded by mistake. However she refused to give up her medal and continued to wear it until she died. She wore an officers uniform and often appeared on public occasions wearing men's full evening suit and a silk top hat. Her hair was worn in curls to show that she was a woman but she was arrested several times for masquerading as a man. In 1897 she founded a colony for women called Adamless Eden. In 1977 her great grandniece campaigned successfully to have her Congressional Medal of Honour official restored to her

* Mary Edwards Walker

born 1832 died 1919

..... FIRST woman surgeon in the US Army and during the American Civil War was the only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honour

* Mary Augusta Ward

neé Arnold

born 1851 died 1920

..... novelist who was one of the FIRST seven women magistrates in England in 1920 (but died in the same year ) and FIRST President of the Anti-Suffrage League in 1908. She first began to write by contributing to the Dictionary of Christian Biography in 1877 and believing in the need for higher education for women became secretary to Somerville College, Oxford in 1879. Altogether she wrote some 25 novels, 3 plays and 9 non-fiction works

* Mary Esther Wells

born May 13th 1943 died 1992

..... American soul singer who was the FIRST great female star with Motown Records whose memorable signature tune was   My Guy. Throughout her stay at Motown she was managed by Smokey Robinson and under his guidance produced several hit songs. In 1964 she became the FIRST Motown artist to travel to Britain where she toured with the Beatles. She later teamed up with Marvin Gaye with whom she had a couple of Top 20 hits

* Mary  Wells

..... advertising supremo and the FIRST ever female CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange

* Mary Wollstonecraft

born April 27th 1759 died September 10th 1797

..... her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792  was the FIRST work in English to link the emancipation of women to the transformation of society as a whole. In December 1792 she went to Paris to write a book about the French Revolution and whilst there had an illegitimate daughter, Fanny. Although the marriage was registered in France it was not recognised in Britain.  On her return to England she lived with the writer William Godwin and married him five months before the birth of their daughter Mary who later became the second wife of the poet Shelley and was the author of the novel Frankenstein. Mary Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Mary and her last work The Wrongs of Woman; or Maria was published posthumously

* Mary Youngblood

..... FIRST woman to win the "Flutist of the Year" award at the Native American Music Awards

* Mary Zugg

born 1828 died 1861

..... FIRST outstanding women workers leader whose name we know. In 1845 over 100 girls in one establishment were tricked into signing a statement saying that they were perfectly satisfied with the wages being paid to them. When the trick was discovered Mary led them into a strike but unfortunately it failed. When she died of consumption at the age of 33 an obituary to her read " Nothing could exceed the temper, moderation and firmness she displayed. She possessed great energy, strong sense and great acuteness of perception and could detect at a glance pretence from reality. She was not what was termed as a strong-minded woman hut commanded great respect and but little affection for her goodness of heart and great regard for the feelings and welfare of others."

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