Helen Priscilla McLaren

Who was Helen Priscilla McLaren?

Helen Priscilla Rabagliati, MBE was a local philanthropist and campaigner for improvements in health, women's condition and political change.

She was the daughter of Duncan McLaren and Priscilla Bright.

Her most significant and enduring contributions to Bradford were education and public health. She founded an early hospice, St Catherine's and supported a maternity home for young unsupported women, St. Monica's. After 1900 she was very prominent in West Riding Conservative women's politics.

Helen Priscilla McLaren was born on 28 October 1851. She was the daughter of Duncan McLaren and Priscilla Bright. She married Andrea Rabagliati on 25 May 1877. She died on 3 January 1934 at age 82. Helen Priscilla McLaren was invested as a Member, Order of the British Empire.

Curiously, Helen increasingly took the opposite political viewpoint of that of her family.