Jamesina Anderson

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Jamesina Anderson (née McKenna) (1885–1977) was a Scottish politician and advocate for working‑class people, especially the elderly and children. She was born in Glasgow in December 1885. Her father, a cab driver, died before she was born, and her mother remarried in 1888. She left school at 13 or 14 and worked as a hand‑loom weaver and milliner until 1906 when she married John Anderson. They had eight children, six of whom survived her, and they lived in Maryhill, Glasgow.

In 1920 she helped found the Maryhill Ward Committee and served as chair several times until it was disbanded in 1977 after local government changes. She focused on elderly welfare, organizing fundraising and holiday events for older people.

In 1945 she was elected to Glasgow Town Council as a Labour Councillor for Maryhill, serving Maryhill Ward 18 from 1945 to 1962. She became a magistrate in 1947, a Bailie from 1947 to 1951, and a Police Court Judge for the burgh of Maryhill from 1951. On the council she worked on many committees and was convenor of the Children's Committee. She also served on the Boarding-Out sub‑committee, visiting children who had been placed with foster families. She died in Glasgow in 1977 at about 91 or 92.