Mary Barbour was the woman who beat the landlords. In 1915, as Glasgow’s wartime landlords raised the rents on families whose men were away at the front or toiling in the munitions yards, she organised the housewives of Govan into an army — and stopped the evictions in their tracks. Within months she had helped force rent control onto the statute book of the entire United Kingdom. She went on to become one of the first women ever elected to Glasgow Town Council, and spent the rest of her life fighting for the poorest people in the city.
This page tells her story: her early life, the rent rises that sparked the revolt, the army of women she led, the victory of 1915, and her long career of public service afterwards.
From Kilbarchan to Govan
Mary Barbour was born Mary Rough in 1875 at Kilbarchan in Renfrewshire, into a large working family, and went early into the mills as a thread twister. In 1896 she married David Barbour, an engineer, and the couple settled in Govan, then a booming shipbuilding burgh on the Clyde. There she threw herself into the life of the working-class movement — the Co-operative Guild, the Independent Labour Party and the Socialist Sunday School — and became a familiar and trusted figure among the women of the tenements. It was among them that her genius for organisation would soon be needed.
The landlords’ war
When war came in 1914, workers flooded into Govan and Partick to labour in the munitions yards, and housing grew desperately scarce. Sensing easy profit, landlords raised the rents sharply — often on the families of the very soldiers away fighting at the front. To be turned out of your home while your husband was in the trenches struck the tenement communities as a monstrous injustice. Petitions and protests achieved nothing. It was clear that if the landlords were to be stopped, the tenants would have to stop them themselves.
Mrs Barbour’s Army
Mary Barbour organised the resistance street by street and close by close. Through the South Govan Women’s Housing Association she built a network of women ready to act at a moment’s notice — ‘Mrs Barbour’s Army’, as it was admiringly called. When the sheriff’s officers arrived to evict a family for rent arrears, a warning bell or rattle would summon the women of the neighbourhood, who packed the closes and stairs and drove the officers off with a barrage of flour, wet cloths and sheer weight of numbers. Eviction after eviction was simply prevented, and the rent strike spread across the city.
The march to the court
Matters came to a head in November 1915, when a group of tenants was summoned to the Sheriff Court for refusing to pay the increases. On the day of the hearing, Mary Barbour led a vast demonstration through the streets — thousands of women joined by workers who downed tools and marched from the shipyards and engineering shops to pack the square outside the court. Faced with a city on the brink of a general stoppage in its vital munitions industry, the government gave way at once, passing the Rent Restriction Act of 1915 and freezing rents across the whole United Kingdom.
The women’s peace crusade
Victory over the landlords did not still Mary Barbour’s conscience. As the slaughter of the war dragged on, she helped lead the Women’s Peace Crusade, campaigning openly for a negotiated end to the fighting alongside fellow activists such as Helen Crawfurd and Agnes Dollan. It took real courage to argue for peace amid the patriotic fervour of wartime, and the crusade drew hostility as well as support. But it marked Barbour out as a campaigner of principle, prepared to take an unpopular stand for what she believed to be right.
Councillor & bailie
In 1920 Mary Barbour was elected to Glasgow Town Council for a Govan ward, one of the very first women to sit on the council, and she later became one of the city’s first female bailies. She used her position tirelessly on behalf of the poor: pressing for child welfare and play areas, municipal wash-houses and homes for the elderly, and free milk for schoolchildren. Most strikingly of all, she was the driving force behind one of Britain’s earliest municipal birth-control clinics, giving working-class women knowledge and choices they had never had before.
Red Mary remembered
Mary Barbour died in Govan in 1958, having spent more than forty years in the service of her community. For a long time her name was known mainly to historians of Red Clydeside, but in recent years it has rightly returned to public honour. In 2018 a striking bronze statue of ‘Red Mary’ leading her marchers was unveiled at Govan Cross, funded by public subscription — a fitting tribute to the housewife who took on the landlords of an empire, and won.
At a glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1875, Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire |
| Home | Govan, on the Clyde |
| Led | The 1915 Glasgow rent strikes |
| Her force | ‘Mrs Barbour’s Army’ |
| The win | The Rent Restriction Act, 1915 |
| Later | One of Glasgow’s first women councillors |
| Died | 1958; statue at Govan Cross, 2018 |
Frequently asked questions
Who was Mary Barbour?
Mary Barbour (1875–1958) was a Glasgow political activist and one of the leaders of the 1915 rent strikes. She later became one of the first women elected to Glasgow Town Council and a tireless campaigner for the welfare of the poor.
What were the 1915 rent strikes?
They were a mass revolt against wartime rent increases in Glasgow, especially in Govan and Partick. Led by working-class women under Mary Barbour, tenants refused to pay and blocked evictions, forcing the government to introduce rent control.
Who were ‘Mrs Barbour’s Army’?
They were the network of women Mary Barbour organised in Govan to resist evictions. Summoned by bells and rattles, they would fill the closes and stairs and drive off the sheriff’s officers with flour and sheer numbers, preventing families from being turned out.
What did the rent strikes achieve?
They forced the government to pass the Rent Restriction Act of 1915, which froze rents at pre-war levels across the whole United Kingdom. It was a landmark victory and one of the great achievements of Red Clydeside.
What did Mary Barbour do as a councillor?
Elected in 1920, she campaigned for child welfare, play areas, municipal wash-houses, homes for the elderly and free school milk, and was the driving force behind one of Britain’s earliest municipal birth-control clinics for working-class women.
How is Mary Barbour connected to Red Clydeside?
Her 1915 rent strikes were one of the defining episodes of Red Clydeside, the period of radical politics on the Clyde around the First World War. Her victory over the landlords showed the power of organised working-class action.
How is Mary Barbour remembered?
As one of Glasgow’s great campaigners. In 2018 a bronze statue of ‘Red Mary’ leading her marchers was unveiled at Govan Cross, funded by public subscription, restoring her to the public honour she had long deserved.