Flora Stevenson

Flora Clift Stevenson (30 October 1839 – 28 September 1905) was a British social reformer with a special interest in education for poor or neglected children, and in education for girls and equal university access for women. She was one of the first women in the United Kingdom to be elected to a school board. The first 30 years Flora Clift Stevenson was born in Glasgow, the youngest daughter of Jane Stewart Shannan (daughter of Alexander Shannan, a Greenock merchant) and James Stevenson FRSE (1786–1866), a merchant. Stevenson was one of a large family including her fellow-campaigner and sister Louisa, the architect John James Stevenson, and MP James Cochran Stevenson. The family moved to Jarrow in 1844 when James Stevenson became partner in a chemical works. After he retired, in 1854, the family moved to Edinburgh shortly before Mrs Stevenson died, and in 1859 they settled in a house at 13 Randolph Crescent. Louisa, Flora, Elisa Stevenson (1829–1904), an early suffragist, one of the founders of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage, and sister Jane Stevenson (1828–1904) who did not engage in these activities, were to spend the rest of their lives (the house now bears a plaque to "women of achievement"). Her first educational project was an evening literacy class for "messenger girls" in her own home. She was an active member of the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and a committee member of the United Industrial Schools of Edinburgh, organising education in ragged schools for some of the most neglected children of the city. She and her sister Louisa were involved in the movement to open university education to women, and as members of the Edinburgh Ladies' Educational Association, they were at the first course of lectures for women given by Professor David Masson in 1868.