BIRKENHEAD'S first female mayor will be remembered in a blue plaque ceremony at her former home in Norman Street.

Mary Ann Mercer became mayor of Birkenhead in 1924, making her the second Labour female mayor in the country at a time when many women were still not allowed to vote.

From 1918 the Representation of the People Act allowed women over the age of 30 to vote, but 1928's Equal Franchise Act gave all women the same voting rights as men.

At a special ceremony on May 12 at midday, led by mayor councillor Ann McLachlan and Birkenhead MP Frank Field, a blue plaque funded by Wirral Council's Heritage Fund will be placed above the door of 103 Norman Street in north Birkenhead with the help of Conservation Areas Wirral (CAW).

Originally from Newport in Shropshire, the struggles that Mary's mother faced as a single parent once her father died when she was three years old played a key role in forming her political views.

Although she originally trained as a nurse, Mary went to work in Belfast as district visitor for the Dean where she became interested in politics and joined the Labour Party.

She then met and married a Labour activist and journalist in 1912 and the couple moved to Birkenhead 1914.

Mary was subsequently elected as Labour councillor for the Argyle Ward in 1919, which she continued to represent until 1945.

She became the first woman to be elected as an alderman of the council, a position she held from 1926 to 1932 while also becoming a magistrate in 1929.

In 1935, Mary stood for parliament and contested the Liberal-held Birkenhead East Division for Labour but was defeated, coming third behind the Liberal and Conservative candidates.

Cllr McLachlan said: “She unveiled the Cenotaph in Hamilton Square in 1925 in front of thousands of people, including all the Generals from the First World War, and she held lots of events in Birkenhead Town Hall for children, ensuring they were fed.

“She was a pioneer for women at a time when working class women were not usually in public life, and women generally did not have the vote.”

She died on September 26, 1945 and Mercer Road in the Bidston & St James Ward was named after her.

Mary was buried at Flaybrick Cemetery – where the epitaph on her grave says: “First woman Mayor and first Socialist Mayor 1924-25 deeply mourned by her children and towns people.”