Catherine Williamson

Catherine Ellis Williamson was an Irish politician.
Born in Dublin to lawyer Lewis Goodbody and his wife Edith
, Williamson studied at Cheltenham Ladies College and in St Germain-en-Laye in Paris. For part of World War I, she taught Braille at St Dunstan's in London, before becoming a director of J. J. Williamson & Sons, her family's tannery business in Canterbury.
Williamson joined the Labour Party and was elected to Canterbury City Council in 1935, serving as Mayor of Canterbury from 1939 to 1941: the city's first woman mayor. Soon afterwards, she defected to the Common Wealth Party, for which she stood in the 1943 Ashford by-election, taking 30.3% of the vote against a single opponent. She stood in Canterbury at the 1945 [United Kingdom general election] but, facing both Labour and Conservative opponents, could only take 2.6% of the votes cast.
Williamson rejoined Labour late in the 1940s, and stood in East [Grinstead (UK Parliament constituency)|East Grinstead] at the 1950 [United Kingdom general election|1950 general election], and in Hastings in 1951. She travelled widely, particularly to China, where she met Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.
Long a member of the Society of Friends, Williamson also identified as a member of the Church of England, and joined the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.