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Ada Jane Summers (née Broome; 1861–1944) was the first British woman to sit as a magistrate, and one of the first women in England to become a Justice of the Peace. She was also the first female councillor, mayor and freeman of Stalybridge near Manchester. She was also a philanthropist.
In 1881, she married John Summers JP, of the John Summers & Sons steelworks. His family owned the Globe Ironworks in Stalybridge. They had four children, Kathleen, John Broome, Gerald, and Ada. John died in 1903, aged nineteen, when he fell from a hotel window in St Ives, Cornwall. Their son Gerald Summers (1885-1969) became a painter. Gerald Summers, 1886-1969, Suffolk Painters Her husband died in 1910.
She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1918, The London Gazette, Supplement 30730, Page 6742, 4 June 1918 and became an honorary Freeman of the borough in 1939.
She served as president of Stalybridge Mechanics Institute from 1926 until 1936. She founded a boys club in January 1929, which became known as "Mrs Summers Boy's Club". She was president of the Stalybridge branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society. She was also involved with the probation and social services of the Police Court Mission.
She was among the first contributors to the Young Men's Christian Association National War Service Fund when she donated £100 in 1939.
After her death, she was described (without irony) as "Lady Bountiful".
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