Mary Cranston Mason
{{Short description|Scottish social worker and temperance leader (1846–1932)}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| birth_name = Mary Cranston
| birth_date = 22 April 1846
| birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland
| death_date = 1932
| death_place =
| occupation = {{hlist|social reformer|temperance leader|school board member|hotel manager}}
| spouse = {{marriage|George Mason|1872}}
| known_for = President, Ladies’ Auxiliary, Scottish Permissive Bill and Temperance Association
| relatives =
- Sir Robert Cranston (brother)
- Kate Cranston (cousin)
}}
Mary Cranston Mason (1846–1932) was a Scottish hotelier, social reformer, and temperance leader. She served as President of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Scottish Permissive Bill and Temperance Association and was a prominent member of the Glasgow school board, where she assured that temperance lessons were included in the curriculum. At the same time, Mason also managed Cranston's Waverley Temperance Hotel in Glasgow.{{cite book |author1=Adam and Charles Black (Firm) |title=Black's Guide to Scotland |date=1903 |publisher=A. and C. Black |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XVsJAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA22 |access-date=12 April 2024 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}{{cite book |last1=Cherrington |first1=Ernest Hurst |author-link1=Ernest Cherrington |title=Standard encyclopedia of the alcohol problem. Vol IV. Kansas-Newton |date=1928 |via=Internet Archive |publisher=American Issue Publishing Co. |location=Westerville, Ohio |url=https://archive.org/details/standardencyclop04cher/page/1706 |page=1706 |access-date=12 April 2024 |chapter=MASON, MARY (CRANSTON)}} {{source-attribution}}
Early life
Mary Cranston was born in Edinburgh on 22 April 1846. She was a daughter of Bailie Robert Cranston (1815–1892), of Edinburgh, who was one of the temperance pioneers of Scotland, and his first wife, Elizabeth Dalgleish. Robert's cousin, George Cranston, was the father of Kate Cranston, a leading figure in the development of tea rooms in Scotland.{{cite book |last1=Kinchin |first1=Perilla |title=Taking Tea with Mackintosh: The Story of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms |date=1998 |publisher=Pomegranate |isbn=978-0-7649-0692-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJY2nGWEoQ0C&pg=PA14 |access-date=12 April 2024 |language=en}} Sir Robert Cranston, who served as Lord provost of Edinburgh, was Mary's brother.
Career
On 12 June 1872 she married George Mason, a Glasgow merchant. In that city, she managed "Cranston's Waverley Temperance Hotel".{{cite news |title=Bill Chamber-Tuesday, November 3. (Before Lord Trayner.) S. and I. - Mason v. Queen. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/393723056/?match=1&terms=Mary%20Cranston%20Mason |access-date=12 April 2024 |work=Glasgow Herald |via=Newspapers.com |date=4 November 1885 |page=4 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}
Born in the atmosphere of total abstinence and of organized opposition to the liquor traffic, Mason came by inheritance into those convictions and activities which led the Scottish women into a concerted temperance movement. She was a co-founder of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Scottish Permissive Bill and Temperance Association. After serving in different capacities, she became president of that organization in 1903. Under the auspices of the Auxiliary, social meetings were held in the schools every winter that included instructive programs regarding the ill-effects of alcohol use. With Mason at its head, the Auxiliary took an active part in all the local and national movements by which Scotland participated in temperance reform.
For a still longer period, she was a prominent member of the Glasgow school board, having supervision of the temperance lessons taught in every school within the board's authority. Mason served, too, on the Juvenile Delinquency Board.
Death
References
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Category:People from Edinburgh
Category:Scottish temperance activists