Ethel was appointed the first Lady Lord Mayor of Norwich in 1923. She was the daughter of Jeremiah J. Colman, the famous mustard manufacturer, who had previously been mayor. Ethel was the director of a missionary society, and one of the first women deacons in a Congregational church, at Princes’ Street. She and her sister, Miss Helen Colman who acted as her Lady Mayoress, firmly believed in women taking public roles and supported women’s suffrage.
