Janet Stancomb-Wills
Encyclopedia
Dame Janet Stancomb Graham Stancomb-Wills, DBE
(1853–1932) was the eldest daughter of George Perkins Stancomb and Catherine Janet Lobb, at Aldersgate, London, and niece of the first Baron Winterstoke (Sir W. H. Wills). With the early deaths of her father, and older brother, she and her sister, Yda Emily Margaretha Stancomb, were adopted by Sir William Henry Wills, and Janet and Yda officially changed their names to Stancomb-Wills.
Dame Janet was the first woman mayor of Ramsgate
, Kent
, an office which she held from 1923–24, and she was also the first person to receive, in 1922, the Freedom of the Town. She was president of the Royal West of England Academy
and president of the School of Architecture at Bristol in 1921.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(1853–1932) was the eldest daughter of George Perkins Stancomb and Catherine Janet Lobb, at Aldersgate, London, and niece of the first Baron Winterstoke (Sir W. H. Wills). With the early deaths of her father, and older brother, she and her sister, Yda Emily Margaretha Stancomb, were adopted by Sir William Henry Wills, and Janet and Yda officially changed their names to Stancomb-Wills.
Dame Janet was the first woman mayor of Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, an office which she held from 1923–24, and she was also the first person to receive, in 1922, the Freedom of the Town. She was president of the Royal West of England Academy
Royal West of England Academy
The Royal West of England Academy is an art gallery where Queens Road meets Whiteladies Road, in Bristol, England.- History :The Academy was the first art gallery in Bristol. Its foundation was financed by a bequest of £2000 in the will of Ellen Sharples in 1849, and a group of artists in...
and president of the School of Architecture at Bristol in 1921.
Name change
Janet and Yda Stancomb-Wills changed their names by deed poll, to, respectively, Janet Stancomb Graham Stancomb-Wills and Yda Emily Margaretha Stancomb-WillsPhilanthropy/Accomplishments
- She laid out ornamental gardens for public use on the sea front near her home on the East Cliff in Ramsgate
- She bought the land for the town's largest sports grounds and built the pavilions on it.
- She provided the money for a maternity ward and nurses home at the Ramsgate General Hospital. The Nurses Home in Ramsgate opened in 1927, containing 30 bedrooms and offices; she also provided the town with a motor ambulance and most up-to-date fire-fighting equipment.
- She also bought land for a new elementary school in Ramsgate, which was named in her honour, the Dame Janet Community Junior School
- The Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue (75°0′S 22°0′W) is the extensive seaward projection of the Stancomb-Wills GlacierStancomb-Wills GlacierStancomb-Wills Glacier is a large glacier that debouches into eastern Weddell Sea southward of Lyddan Island. The glacier was discovered in the course of the U.S. Navy LC-130 plane flight over the coast on November 5, 1967, and was plotted by United States Geological Survey from photographs...
into the eastern Weddell Sea. The cliffed front of this feature was discovered in January 1915 by a British expedition led by Ernest ShackletonErnest ShackletonSir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
. He named it the Stancomb-Wills Promontory after Dame Janet, one of the principal donors of the expedition.