Mrs. (Mary) Bayly

Mary Bayly, sometimes spelled Mary Bayley, was born Mary Saunders in Market Lavington, Wiltshire, on March 4, 1816. She became known in Britain as a temperance activist and writer, using her books and pamphlets to argue that alcohol damaged family life and that practical support for mothers and households could help counter it.

In the 1850s she began organizing temperance meetings in North Kensington, bringing together mothers from different social backgrounds for advice on religion and domestic life. In 1861 she published Mended Homes and What Repaired Them, and that same year helped open the Workmen's Temperance Hall, a coffee-based alternative to the public house that was meant to offer working men a healthier place to gather.

Bayly continued writing later in life, including Danger Signals: How to Use them Wisely and, with her daughter Elisabeth Boyd Bayly, Home Weal and Home Woe. She died in Streatham, London, on December 13, 1899. No suitable verified portrait image was found from the sources checked, so a profile image is not included.