Carpenter, Mary (1807–1877)

English philanthropist. Her interest in poor children prompted her, in 1835, to start a working and visiting society and later a ragged school with a night school in the poorest part of Bristol, England. She visited India several times, and there she initiated several reforms in the condition of women and children. She wrote many books embodying her schemes for the education of destitute children. Her Juvenile Delinquents led to the passing of the Juvenile Offenders Act in 1854. Carpenter was born in Exeter, England.