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Mary Neal Booking Info

Mary Neal CBE, born Clara Sophia Neal, was an English social worker and collector of English folk dances. Neal was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, to a prosperous family. Her father was David Neal, a button manufacturer. In 1888, she began voluntary social work with the West London Methodist Mission of Hugh Price Hughes, helping the poor of Soho, Fitzrovia, and Marylebone in London, taking the name "Sister Mary". She set up and ran a "Club for Working Girls" at the mission's Cleveland Hall, and also wrote for the Mission Magazine. According to Emmeline Pethick, who worked with her in the Girls' Club, she had "a strong sense of humour and a profound aversion from unreality; she had also a sharp tongue".