Mary Cranston Mason

Mary Cranston Mason (1846–1932) was a Scottish hotelier, social reformer, and temperance leader. She served as President of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Scottish Permissive Bill and Temperance Association and was a prominent member of the Glasgow school board, where she assured that temperance lessons were included in the curriculum. At the same time, Mason also managed Cranston's Waverley Temperance Hotel in Glasgow.

Early life Mary Cranston was born in Edinburgh on 22 April 1846. She was a daughter of Bailie Robert Cranston (1815–1892), of Edinburgh, who was one of the temperance pioneers of Scotland, and his first wife, Elizabeth Dalgleish. Robert's cousin, George Cranston, was the father of Kate Cranston, a leading figure in the development of tea rooms in Scotland. Sir Robert Cranston, who served as Lord provost of Edinburgh, was Mary's brother.

Born in the atmosphere of total abstinence and of organized opposition to the liquor traffic, Mason came by inheritance into those convictions and activities which led the Scottish women into a concerted temperance movement. She was a co-founder of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Scottish Permissive Bill and Temperance Association. After serving in different capacities, she became president of that organization in 1903. Under the auspices of the Auxiliary, social meetings were held in the schools every winter that included instructive programs regarding the ill-effects of alcohol use. With Mason at its head, the Auxiliary took an active part in all the local and national movements by which Scotland participated in temperance reform.