In 1895, the new Lady Burne-Jones took her first steps into elected office, winning a seat on the parish council of her beloved Rottingdean (an office established by the Local Government Act of 1894), to the apparent delight of both her husband and her old friend William Morris.Taylor (1987), p. 264 She supported interests of the working class and women's issues, taking positions in her electioneering materials that were radical for the wife of a baronet and simply baffling to the villagers of Rottingden. But her day-to-day work in the parish focused on street lighting, fire brigades, and the provision of a village nurse for the community.Taylor (1987), p. 158–59
