Lucia Foster Welch

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Lucia Marion Foster Welch (1864–1940) was a suffragette and Conservative politician who became Southampton’s first female mayor.

She was born Lucia Marion Brown in Liverpool in 1864. Her mother was a close friend of Elizabeth Fry. In 1884 she married Philip Braham, and moved to Southampton in 1903 before marrying Dr. Robert William Foster Welch a year later.

Lucia was active in the suffragette movement, joining the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the Women’s Social and Political Union. After Emmeline Pankhurst spoke in Southampton on 4 February 1911, Lucia hosted Pankhurst and friends for tea. In 1912 she led a committee to oppose anti-suffrage groups, though there was little anti-suffrage activity in Southampton at the time.

In 1918, when elections were suspended because of the war, she was co-opted to the town council as Southampton’s first female councillor. Later that year elections were held and she won the seat for Newtown. In 1927 she was elected Southampton’s first female mayor. As mayor, she greeted distinguished travelers at the docks, including Henry Ford and Amelia Earhart after her transatlantic flight.