Miss Mary Frances Billington

Mary Frances Billington was born at Chalbury Rectory, Wimborne, Dorset on September 6, 1862. One of four children, she was the only daughter of the Rev. George Henry Billington, the rector of Chalbury, and Frances Ann Billington. Mary Frances was educated at home and encouraged to read leading newspapers from an early age. She boasted that she had “been a daily reader of the Times since I was eight years old.” She published her first article on “Dorsetshire Ghosts” at the age of 21, and five years later, in 1888, she joined the staff of the Echo. In 1890, she became the first woman appointed as special correspondent on feminine interests when she joined the Daily Graphic. While working for this paper she published a series of dispatches from India on the condition of women’s lives, which were later collected into the book, Woman in India (1895). In 1897 she moved to the Daily Telegraph to run its women’s department and worked there until her death in 1925. She wrote two books on women’s World War I work during the early years of the war, The Red Cross in War (1914) and The Roll-Call of Serving Women (1915). Toward the end of the war, she visited Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps camps in France.

Although Billington was a founding member of the Society of Women Journalists and was appointed one of its vice-presidents in 1894, membership lists indicate she dropped out of the organization for several years. She rejoined the SWJ in September 1911 and served as President from 1913-19. Billington shepherded the organization through the First World War, which negatively impacted women journalists in particular. In 1920, she represented the Society of Women Journalists at the Imperial Press Conference in Ottawa, Canada, the only overseas female delegate invited to attend. Despite her trailblazing efforts in journalism, Billington was opposed to women’s suffrage. She was a member of the Cowdray Club, a club for nurses and professional women.

Billington died on August 27, 1925 at age 63 due to injuries sustained after being hit by a bus.