Crawshay was born
Rose Mary Yeates in Caversham Grove in Oxfordshire to Wilson Yeates and his first wife. She married the 29-year-old
Robert Thompson Crawshay on 15 May 1846 at
St Peter's Church, Caversham. He was the last of the
Merthyr Tydfil ironmasters. She became the mistress of the 72 roomed and 15 towered
Cyfarthfa Castle. The marriage was not happy but they did have five children William Thompson in 1847, Rose Harriette Thompson the following year, Henrietta Louise in 1851, Robert Thompson in 1853 and Richard Frederick in 1859. The following year her husband had a stroke which left him deaf. She involved herself in public life and encouraged the idea of reforming matrimonial law. She was not keen on Welsh culture and she joined the
National Society for Women's Suffrage founded by Lydia Becker in 1867. No woman before 1900 sat on two school boards, and Crawshay chaired one and was re-elected twice retiring in 1879. Meanwhile, in 1872 she had helped form the
Swansea Training College which was the first facility in Wales where women could train to be qualified teachers. The
Rose Mary Crawshay Prize is now "only" £500, but it provides a valuable recognition for non-fiction women writers. It has been awards since 1916 by the
British Academy. A
philanthropist, she paid for part of
Vaynor and Penderyn High School in about 1861. Crawshay opened seven free libraries which she opened on Sundays and insisted that they were open to men and women. When 49 local miners died in a disaster she visited each family. ==References==