Mary Ethel SalisburyCBEDLJP (1917 – 27 October 2008), previously Mary Ethel Wilkinson, was an EnglishLabour politician in Wiltshire County Council, serving for three years as its first woman Chairman.
Life
Born in 1917 in a mining village in County Durham, one of six children, she began life as Mary Wilkinson and in 1928 won a scholarship to Bishop Auckland County School for Girls. She later trained as a nurse.[1]
When the Conservatives lost control of Wiltshire County Council at the 1985 elections, resulting in a hung council, Salisbury commented to The Times that there was virtually nothing which she opposed in Jack Ainslie's plan for a new Liberal-SDP administration and almost nothing on which she agreed with the defeated Conservatives. "Where the Liberals put forward measures which seem to be beneficial to the people of Wiltshire, we will support them", she said.[5] With the council remaining hung, she went on to become the first woman Chairman of Council,[6] holding that office from 1989 until 1992.[1] She was a member of the county council for thirty-eight years,[7] and was also a member of the Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Authority, standing down from both in 2001.[8][9]
She died at the age of ninety on 27 October 2008,[1] and a service of thanksgiving for her life was held at St Michael and All Angels Church, Melksham, in December 2008.[10]