Sheriff of Newcastle upon Tyne

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The Sheriff of Newcastle upon Tyne is a historic role that began in 1400. It lasted until 1974 when local government was reorganised, and it was brought back in 1996 as a title held by the Deputy Lord Mayor. Newcastle has a sheriff because it used to be a county corporate.

The first woman to hold the post was Violet Grantham in 1950, and she became the first female Lord Mayor in 1952. In 2019 Councillor Habib Rahman became the first person from a BAME background to hold the office.

In 1886, Sheriff William Haswell Stephenson commissioned a bronze statue of Queen Victoria by Alfred Gilbert to mark 500 years of the shrievalty. The statue stands in the city centre and is Grade II* listed.