Lady Mary Feilding

Lady Mary Frances Catherine Feilding (9 April 1823 – 24 April 1896) was an English aristocrat and founder of the Working Ladies' Guild.

Life Feilding and her twin brother Rudolph were born in 1823 at Woodchester Park in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire. Her father was William Basil Percy Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh. She became the de-facto parent to her siblings after her mother, Mary Elizabeth Kitty, died in 1842 while her twin brother inherited her father's title and became Rudolph Feilding, 8th Earl of Denbigh in 1865. This was a self-help organisation that offered assistance to unmarried or widowed upper class women who had not been brought up to be self sufficient. They were described as "poor victims of a false code of honour and gentility" by Mayo. The organisation offered help via "associates" of the guild and in time it was hoped that they would in time become associates themselves. Associates would supply time and money and refer on other women who needed the guild's assistance. The founding committee members of the guild were Jessie Boucherett, Lady Eden, Louisa Hubbard, Lady Knightley and from the Royal College of Needlework Louisa Wade. and she was buried at the family estate of Newnham Paddox near Rugby.