(HOUSEWIFE)
(527)
Born in Leicester on 18 June 1927 and educated at Newarke Girls’ Grammar School and Leicester Domestic Science College. On leaving College, she commenced a career in catering and taught cookery in a number of schools. She cooked for several members of the Royal Family and other dignitaries.
Married Leslie Jack Setchfield of Yorkshire, who served in the Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) 1939 to 1946, on 18 June 1951 at Leicester Register Office. The bride was given away by her father Alderman Thomas Rowland Hill, J.P. who was Lord Mayor of the City at the time (1951-52). She was taken to her wedding in the green Mayoral limousine, which had been purchased from Prince Rainier and bore the crest of the Principality of Monaco. They had two daughters, Jeanne, Catherine May (known as Katy) and a son, David.
Councillor Mrs Setchfield’s maternal grandmother, Mrs Annie Stretton helped to form the Labour League of Women in Leicester in 1906 and her parents Rowland and Molly Hill were both involved in Labour Party politics from an early age. She was to follow in the family tradition and was first elected to the Leicester City Council as a Labour Councillor for the North Braunstone Ward in May 1970. With the re-organisation of Local Government in 1973, she was elected to serve on the new Leicester District Council and also on the new Leicestershire County Council as a representative for North Braunstone.
Councillor Mrs Setchfield was the Chairman of the Leicestershire County Council from 1982-84. She was the first woman to hold the Chairmanship, she also had the distinction of being the County Council’s first Labour Chairman and became the first Councillor from a City Ward to become Chairman of the Leicestershire County Council.
She served on a number of the major Committees of the City Council including Environmental Health and Public Control, Estates and Housing, on all of which she was the Chairman. She also served on the Education, Planning and Improvement and the Policy and Resources Committees.
Councillor Mrs Setchfield was a Governor of several local schools and of Southfields Further Education College and was a member of the Leicestershire Health Authority. She was one of the first members of the Radio Leicester Council.
Appointed High Bailiff of the City on 19 May 1983 for the year 1983-84, whilst still serving as the Chairman of the Leicestershire County Council.
Councillor Mrs Setchfield was elected to the office of Lord Mayor of the City on 16 May 1985. It was history in the making as she was the first daughter of a Lord Mayor of Leicester to become the Chief Citizen of the City in her own right. A further historic landmark was reached at the commencement of her Mayoralty, as Councillor Mrs Setchfield became the first person to have held the offices of Lord Mayor of Leicester and the Chairmanship of the Leicestershire County Council.
Councillor Mrs Setchfield chose her younger daughter Miss Katy Setchfield to be her Lady Mayoress. Miss Setchfield thus followed in the footsteps of her grandmother Mrs Molly Hill who was Lady Mayoress of Leicester in 1951-52. The Lady Mayoress, who was educated at King Richard III School and Newarke Girls’ Grammar School, gained a BA (Hons) in Geography at North Staffordshire Polytechnic and then an M.Sc. in Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey. She was a Director of the Marketing Communications Research Centre, at the International Management Centre, Buckingham.
Civic history was again made in Leicester with the appointment of Deaconess Mrs Janet Gough who became the first woman to be appointed Chaplain to the Lord Mayor of Leicester.
The highlight of Councillor Mrs Setchfield’s Year of Office was the privilege of meeting two members of the Royal Family. On 15 October 1985, Her Royal Highness The Princess Anne visited the City where, following a tour of the factory of N. Corah (St Margaret) Limited, Hosiery Manufacturers, the Princess attended a Reception at the City’s Art Gallery. Her Royal Highness, in her capacity as the President of the ‘Save the Children Fund,’ came, at the invitation of the Lord Mayor, to meet volunteers of the fund in Leicestershire and to give her personal support to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent formally opened the Glenfield Community Hospital on 19 March 1986. The Lord Mayor attended the opening ceremony and the subsequent Civic Luncheon at County Hall, Glenfield.
The City’s twinning links were significantly strengthened during the Mayoral year, as Councillor Mrs Setchfield became the most widely travelled Lord Mayor in the City’s history. She visited Strasbourg in September 1985 and took part in the opening of the European Fair. The previous month, the 25th Anniversary of the twinning between Leicester and Strasbourg was celebrated. This included a Civic Reception for 120 citizens from Strasbourg who were the guests of the City of Leicester. An identical group of Leicester people travelled to Strasbourg to complete the celebrations.
In November 1985 the Lord Mayor led a Civic Delegation on a nine day visit to the City of Chongqing in the Republic of China, in furtherance of the twining arrangements being undertaken between the two Cities. Councillor Mrs Setchfield’s Civic Visit to Krefeld in February 1986 was of historic importance, as she became the first Lord Mayor of Leicester to attend the traditional pre-Lent Carnival.
The Lord Mayor had the distinction of taking part in the Lord Mayor of Leicester’s Show on 1 June 1985. She travelled through the streets of the City escorted, for the first time, by a bodyguard of horses and riders from the Prince Carnival Celebrations, which takes place in Krefeld each year.
Several other historical events occurred during Councillor Mrs Setchfield’s Year of Office. She presided over a meeting at the Guildhall of a re-enactment of the first meeting of the reformed Corporation of the Borough of Leicester, which took place 150 years earlier on 1 January 1836 at the commencement of the Mayoralty of Thomas Paget. The Lord Mayor hosted a Reception to mark the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of the Leicester Police Force. She also took a leading part in the 500th Anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth in 1486.
On 29 April 1986, Councillor Mrs Setchfield attended a service in Westminster Abbey, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, to commemorate the 900th Anniversary of the compilation of the Domesday Book under the order of King William I.
The Lord Mayor’s special Appeal was on behalf of ‘The Save the Children Fund’ in order to raise sufficient money for four diesel powered Land Rovers. The Appeal raised the sum of £41,700, which together with one donated vehicle by Kirby and West Limited of Leicester, enabled the specially converted Land Rovers to take food and medical supplies to starving children in Somalia. The balance of the Appeal went to the Save the Children Fund in Great Britain.
Councillor Mrs Setchfield’s Year of Office was concluded on 15 May 1986 whereupon she was appointed Deputy Lord Mayor for the year 1986-87.
