Florence Ada Keynes

Florence Ada Keynes (née Brown; 10 March 1861 – 13 February 1958) was an English author, historian and politician.

Florence Ada Keynes
Keynes c. 1925
Born	Florence Ada Brown (1861-03-10)10 March 1861 Cheetham, Manchester, England
Died	13 February 1958(1958-02-13) (aged 96) Cambridge, England
Nationality	British
Education	Newnham College, Cambridge
Known for	Author, historian and politician
Spouse	John Keynes ​ ​ (m. 1887; died 1949)​
Children	John, Margaret, and Geoffrey
Parent	John Brown

Career

Keynes was an early graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge^[1] where her contemporaries included the economist Mary Marshall. She subsequently became involved in local charitable work, establishing an early juvenile labour exchange,^[1] and was one of the founders of the Papworth Village Settlement for sufferers of tuberculosis,^[2] a forerunner of Papworth Hospital. She was secretary of the local Charity Organisation Society, which provided pensions for the elderly living in poverty, and worked with inmates of workhouses to resettle them into society.^[1] She encouraged women students to enter charitable work, including Eglantyne Jebb who was introduced to her by Marshall; Jebb subsequently founded Save the Children.^[3]

Cambridge Borough Council

She was the first female councillor of Cambridge City Council in August 1914, and was also a town magistrate.^[2] At 70 years of age, Keynes became Mayor of Cambridge on 9 November 1932, the second woman to hold the office.^[4] She chaired the committee responsible for the building of the new Guildhall, which was completed in 1939.

Works

Retiring from public duties in 1939, she wrote a history of Cambridge, By-Ways of Cambridge History (Cambridge University Press, 1947). In 1950 she published a memoir, Gathering up the threads (W Heffer & Son Ltd, 1950), in which she discusses her ancestors along with the childhoods of her children John Maynard, Margaret and Geoffrey.

Family

Keynes was the daughter of Rev. John Brown of Bunyan's Chapel, Bedford, and schoolteacher Ada Haydon, née Ford (1837–1929).^[5] Her brother Sir Walter Langdon-Brown was the Regius Professor of Physic (medicine) at the University of Cambridge.

She married the economist John Neville Keynes in 1882. They had a daughter and two sons:

• John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), the economist and public servant
• Margaret Neville Hill (1885–1970),^[6][7] who in 1913 married Archibald Hill, winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology
• Geoffrey Langdon Keynes (1887–1982), a surgeon

See also

• Keynes family
• Papworth Hospital

References

1. "Florence Ada Keynes (1861–1958) – part 1". Retrieved 19 June 2019.
2. Skidelsky, Robert (1994). The Economist as Saviour. John Maynard Keynes. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Viking Penguin. p. 7. ISBN 0713991100.
3. Mulley, Clare (2009). The woman who saved the children : a biography of Eglantyne Jebb founder of Save the Children. Oxford: Oneworld. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-85168-657-5. OCLC 271080917.
4. "Cambridge Independent Press". No. 11 November 1932. 11 November 1932. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
5. Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004). "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. ref:odnb/39171. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39171. Retrieved 29 December 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
6. FreeBMD. "England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837–1915". Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
7. Ancestry.com. "England & Wales, Death Index: 1984–2005". Ancestry.com. Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Retrieved 17 September 2019.