Florence Mary Barrow
Florence Mary Barrow (27 January 1876 – 3 March 1964) was an English International Aid worker, Quaker and housing reform activist particularly associated with her home city of Birmingham. She co-founded the Birmingham Conference on Politics, Economics and Citizenship (COPEC) House Improvement Society that pioneered municipal slum clearance and the regeneration of inner-city housing. She served on the Council of Birmingham Civic Society for 30 years. Early life Florence Barrow was born on 27 January 1876 in Birmingham, to Richard Cadbury Barrow (1827–1894), Quaker businessman and mayor of Birmingham (1888–89), and his wife, Jane, née Harrison (b. 1831). She was educated at Edgbaston High School and Mason College, Birmingham. Together with her mother, brothers and sisters-in-law, she was a supporter of Birmingham Women's Suffrage Society and was active in a number of social welfare and reform initiatives in Birmingham. In 1900 she trained as a social worker at St Hilda's Settlement in Bethnal Green, London. She began her career as an aid worker in Russia before moving to Poland and later to the Middle East and the Balkans. Career Like others, Barrow was politicised by the First World War. She applied for permission to attend the controversial Women's Peace Congress