9 August:
Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers' Union, 1921:
Mary Sumner was the wife of George Henry Sumner, rector at Old
Alresford, where she had begun to take great interest and concern for
the women of the parish. In 1885, her husband (whose father had
earlier been Bishop of Winchester) became suffragan bishop of
Guildford in the diocese of Winchester, and a residentiary canon of
Winchester Cathedral.
The same year she was asked to speak on the subject at a Church Congress in Portsmouth, and it is from this event that the Mothers' Union is dated. One of the buttresses added to Winchester Cathedral in the early 20th centiry bears the inscription: 'To the Glory of God and in gratitude to Mary Elizabeth Sumner, Founder of the Mothers' Union, AD 1885, this buttress is given by members of the Empire in recognition of her work for the sanctity of home life. AD 1912'.