Mary Barbour (1875–1958): The Govan Housewife Who Beat the Landlords

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The rent strikes were a collective movement with many leaders, including Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan and Jessie Ferguson, and Barbour has become their symbol partly through later commemoration. Some popular claims about her, such as being Glasgow's first woman Labour councillor, are not correct. Numbers of strikers vary between accounts.

From Kilbarchan to Govan

established Mary Rough was born in Kilbarchan, a weaving village in Renfrewshire, on 20 February 1875, the third of seven children of a handloom carpet weaver. She worked as a thread twister and later as a carpet printer. In 1896 she married David Barbour, an engineer, and they moved to Govan, the shipbuilding burgh on the south bank of the Clyde, where she raised her family and became involved in the co-operative movement and the Independent Labour Party.

The rent strikes of 1915

established The First World War drew tens of thousands of workers into Glasgow's shipyards and munitions factories, in a city whose tenements were already among the most overcrowded in Europe. Landlords raised rents, and families who could not pay, often women whose husbands were at the front, faced eviction.

established Barbour led the South Govan Women's Housing Association, which organised tenants street by street. When sheriff officers came to evict a family, women gathered at the closemouth to block them, raised the alarm with rattles and bells, and pelted the officers with flour, wet washing and worse. Barbour's organising became so effective that her supporters were known as "Mrs Barbour's Army". The refusals spread across Glasgow, from Govan to Partick, Parkhead and beyond.

shared By November 1915 many thousands of households were on rent strike; figures of around 20,000 are commonly given. When eighteen tenants were taken to court in November, shipyard and munitions workers walked out and marched with the women, alarming a government that depended on Clydeside's war production. In December 1915 Parliament passed the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act, freezing rents at pre-war levels across Britain. Historians regard the rent strikes as one of the most successful direct actions of the period and a founding moment of "Red Clydeside".

established Barbour was one of several leaders. Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan, Jessie Ferguson and others were central too, and the strikes were a mass movement of working-class women rather than the work of one person.

Peace and politics

established In 1916 Barbour helped found the Women's Peace Crusade, which campaigned against the war. In 1920 she was elected Labour councillor for Fairfield ward in Govan, one of five women elected to Glasgow Town Council that year. She is often called Glasgow's first woman Labour councillor, but others were elected at the same time.

established From 1924 to 1927 she served as one of the Corporation's first women bailies, sitting as a magistrate in the police courts, and in 1928 she became a Justice of the Peace. As a councillor she pressed for municipal wash-houses, baths, laundries, children's play areas and free milk for schoolchildren.

Scotland's first birth control clinic

established From 1925 Barbour chaired the Glasgow Women's Welfare and Advisory Clinic, which opened in August 1926 at 51 Govan Road. It was the first place in Scotland to offer birth control advice to married women, at a time when the subject was highly controversial, especially in a city with a large Catholic population.

Remembering Mary Barbour

established Barbour died on 2 April 1958, aged 83. For decades she was largely forgotten outside the labour movement. The Remember Mary Barbour Association campaigned for a memorial, and on International Women's Day, 8 March 2018, a bronze statue by the sculptor Andrew Brown was unveiled at Govan Cross. It shows Barbour leading a crowd of women, men and children.

• "Mrs Barbour's Army" used rattles and bells to warn of approaching sheriff officers.
• Women pelted eviction officers with flour.
• The rent strikes forced a change in the law across the whole of Britain within months.
• Barbour opened Scotland's first birth control advice clinic, in 1926.
• She was one of five women elected to Glasgow Town Council in 1920.
• Her statue was unveiled on International Women's Day, 2018.

• Myth: Barbour was Glasgow's first woman Labour councillor. She was one of five women elected to Glasgow Town Council in 1920, and others were elected at the same time.
• Myth: the rent strikes were Barbour's work alone. She was one of several leaders, including Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan and Jessie Ferguson, in a mass movement of working-class women. She has become their symbol partly through later commemoration.
• Disputed: how many households were on strike. By November 1915 many thousands were, and around 20,000 is commonly given, but figures vary between accounts.