| Administrative History | May Rawlinson (1868-1947) was Mary Rawlinson, the daughter of William George Rawlinson, a silk merchant, and Mary Marguerita Rawlinson, who lived in Campden Hill, London. In 1892 she married the journalist John Alfred Spender and the couple settled in Kent; they had no children. Over her life she was active in public works, providing and managing the Hop-Pickers' Hospital at Marden and a hospital for surgical patients at Tankerton, Whitstable. During the First World War she was Commandant of the First Line War Hospital at Tankerton, and served on Queen Mary's and Princess Mary's Committees for war work. She also spent two years as a probation officer at Tower Bridge police court and was a member of the committee of the Women's Joint Parliamentary Advisory Council. In 1929 she became JP for the Cranbrook Division. |