Elizabeth Garnett

Elizabeth Garnett (23 September 1839 – 22 March 1921) was a British missionary to navvies and an author. She was a founder and leading force of the Navvy Mission Society.

Life Garnett was born in Otley in 1839. Her father conducted a service as Vicar of Otley for the men killed building the Bramhope Tunnel. Garnett married a clergyman but within a year she was a widow. The mission was founded in 1877 and Garnett was the force within it. That year she published Little Rainbow

The Navvy Mission Society merged with the Christian Social Union in 1919 to form the Industrial Christian Fellowship, which continued to develop issues of social justice and business ethics.

Garnett died in Croydon in 1921. Five years later a memorial was erected to her in Ripon Cathedral.

Works Little Rainbow: A story of Navvy Life, 1877 Our Navvies, 1885 Quarterly Letter to Navvies, from 1878