Rose Mary Crawshay

Rose Mary Crawshay (1828–1907) was a British philanthropist. She commissioned free libraries and a non-fiction prize for women. Life Crawshay was born Rose Mary Yeates in Caversham Grove in Oxfordshire to Wilson Yeates and his first wife. She married the 29-year-old Robert Thompson Crawshay on 15 May 1846 at St Peter's Church, Caversham. He was the last of the Merthyr Tydfil ironmasters. She became the mistress of the 72 roomed and 15 towered Cyfarthfa Castle. The marriage was not happy but they did have five children William Thompson in 1847, Rose Harriette Thompson the following year, Henrietta Louise in 1851, Robert Thompson in 1853 and Richard Frederick in 1859. The following year her husband had a stroke which left him deaf. She involved herself in public life and encouraged the idea of reforming matrimonial law. She was not keen on Welsh culture and she joined the National Society for Women's Suffrage founded by Lydia Becker in 1867. She became a Vice President of the Bristol and West of England National Society for Women's Suffrage. In 1870 women were first allowed to become members of school boards. The following year she had joined the school board in Merthyr Tydfil and she not only joined but chaired the school board at Vaynor. No woman before 1900 sat on two school boards, and Crawshay chaired one and was re-elected twice retiring in 1879. Meanwhile, in 1872 she had helped form the Swansea Training College which was the first facility in Wales where women could train to be qualified teachers.