Edith Batten

Edith Mary "Mollie" Batten OBE (8 February 1905 – 7 January 1985) was a British welfare worker and educationist.

Life Batten was born in London in 1905. Her father, Charles William Batten, was a draper and he was married to Edith Wallis (born Black) and she was the third of their four children. After attending Southport High School for Girls she gained a degree in chemistry from the University of Liverpool in 1925.

She became the secretary of the Birmingham Settlement in 1933. In this position she came to national notice and she had a transforming effect on the charity she was employed by. Batten submitted evidence to support Ellen Wilkinson's The Hire Purchase Act of 1938

During the war she worked on the call up of women in London to assist the war effort. She was asked to join the civil service but decided instead to take a third degree in theology at St Anne's College, Oxford. She was awarded an OBE in 1948.

Batten died in 1985 in Midhurst.