Before the Welfare State was set up in the 1940s, it was up to public-spirited individuals, usually of some means, to provide the sort of civic services we now take for granted. Few did more for Merstham than Adelaide ‘Lottie’ Stephens, who gave her time and energy to building the Merstham of today.
Born Adelaide Simpson and brought up in Wray Park, Reigate, Lottie married Peter Stephens who ran a family-owned insurance brokerage in the City of London. In 1902 the couple moved into the newly built Rookwood on London Road South where they quickly became leading figures in village life.
Together with her neighbour Maud Roffey of The Grange, Lottie became an active member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Unlike the militant suffragettes, the ‘suffragists’ campaigned peacefully through political lobbying, petitions, and legal challenges to win the vote. Lottie and Maud set up a stall in a school playground during the 1910 elections to petition voters to support the objectives of the NUWSS.
It was at this time that Lottie co-founded the Merstham Nursing Association, appointing the village’s first district nurse, Nurse Augarde, who was friend and midwife to so many of the village residents. At a time when many families could not afford medical care, the district nurse visited the sick, cared for new mothers and babies, and provided an invaluable lifeline to the whole community.
Her work for the Association and on the East Surrey Hospital Committee brought her into intimate contact with the poorer people and many there are who could testify to her ready sympathy, kindly interest and practical help. Surrey Mirror
In 1913 Lottie and Maud took part in the ‘Great Pilgrimage’, a massive six-week, non-violent march organised by the NUWSS and led by Millicent Fawcett. Thousands of women walked from across England and Wales to London to demonstrate that there was widespread, peaceful support for women's voting rights.
The march culminated in a 50,000-person rally in Hyde Park on 26 July, 1913. In a sympathetic account, which noted that the pilgrimage ‘contained nothing of the hooligan element,’ the Surrey Mirror recorded how the ‘pilgrims’ arrived in Merstham at 11am on the 24 July and were given refreshments before continuing their journey.
During the First World War, Lottie served on the War Pensions Committee and visited many of the wives of servicemen to help them apply for their allowances. She was also Food Officer for the district. Britain's food supplies were under enormous pressure and nothing edible could be wasted. One of her less glamorous duties was inspecting butchers' offal each week to ensure it was fit for sale outside the rationing system.
After the war, when the housing shortage was most acute, she set up The Merstham Housing Society with the backing of some thirty of their relatively prosperous neighbours. She was mainly instrumental in selecting the site for the first council houses in Brook Road and a century later, the Housing Society still manages some Brook Road properties today.
She also cofounded the Merstham’s Women’s Institute in 1919.
One of her greatest legacies came during the 1920s, after the family moved to Coppice Lea. The Stephens donated seven acres of their land adjoining Albury Road to create a public recreation 
ground. The Merstham football club has played there ever since and the Surrey Mirror described the gift as as’ a great boon to the parish and a magnificent memorial to a great and good-hearted woman.’
Recreation Ground, Merstham, Surrey, (2013) Peter Trimming
Appropriately for a former suffragist, Lottie was elected Merstham’s first councillor to the freshly enlarged Reigate borough in 1933 but died only four years later.
Although Lottie Stephens died in 1937 at the age of just fifty-six, her influence on Merstham endured. In its obituary, The Surrey Mirror described her ‘astonishing energy.’ The district nursing service she helped establish, the recreation ground she donated, the housing society she founded and the civic organisations she supported all helped shape the modern village of Merstham. As the address at her funeral said, ‘Care for others was the ruling passion of her life.
The Art of the Impossible, Rosemary Stephens 1986,
The History of Merstham School, J Neil 1998,
Twentieth Century Merstham, A Hunter 1999
Surrey Mirror, 8 October 1937