Ethel Leach

Ethel Leach (centre) canvassing bloater-packers in the Gorleston ward of Great Yarmouth, in the run-up to the municipal election of 1908. Mary Ethel Leach (1850 or 1851 – April 1936) was a British politician.

Life Leach grew up in Great Yarmouth and married an ironmonger, the couple sharing a commitment to radical politics. In 1881, she was elected to the Great Yarmouth School Board as an independent. School provision in the area was then poor, and she championed kindergarten methods of teaching younger children. Within six months, she persuaded the rest of the board to adopt this measure.

Leach discovered that a pupil at the local industrial school had been hit with a trowel and organised a public enquiry into the matter. The enquiry found no evidence of similar incidents, so decided to take no action. Leach arranged to be appointed as the school's matron, reducing the use of corporal punishment. However, eighteen months later, the school board believed that the school regime was too soft, and replaced her with a male superintendent. In 1885, she was election agent to Helen Taylor's campaign in Camberwell North at the 1885 general election, although the returning officer refused to accept Taylor's papers, as women were not permitted to stand.

Leach gradually increased her vote in school board elections, and by 1890 was able to take second place. By this time, she stood as a Liberal Party representative, but this had little impact on her activity, and she refused to campaign jointly with other Liberal candidates in the elections. In 1895, she was elected as vice-chair of the school board, and by this time she was also able to win election to the Board of Guardians.