| Grace Bannister | |
| Honorific Suffix: | OBE |
| Order: | 39th Lord Mayor of Belfast |
| Deputy: | Frank MIllar |
| Term Start: | 1 June 1981 |
| Term End: | 1 June 1982 |
| Predecessor: | John Carson |
| Successor: | Thomas Patton |
| Order1: | 1st Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast |
| Term Start1: | 1 June 1975 |
| Term End1: | 1 June 1977 |
| Predecessor1: | Office established |
| Successor1: | Dorothy Dunlop |
| Order2: | Member of Belfast City Council |
| Term Start2: | 1965 |
| Term End2: | 1985 |
| Birth Name: | Grace Johnson |
| Birth Place: | Ravenhill, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Party: | Ulster Unionist Party |
| Children: | 1 |
Grace Bannister (née Johnson; 1924–1986)[1] was a Northern Irish Unionist politician. She was the first female Lord Mayor of Belfast.
Bannister was born in the Ravenhill area of Belfast into a Protestant family, the second child of William H. Collim and Grace Johnston.[2] She had an older sister and three younger brothers. Her grandfather owned a bakery, where her father worked. She was educated Roslyn Street primary school and Park Parade but left school at age 14 in order to work in the family shop. During the Second World War, she and her siblings were taken out of the city to Ballydrain after a landmine was discovered. To help the war effort, she went to work at Mackie's making parts for Stirling bombers.[3]
In 1948, she married John Bannister. They had one daughter.[2]
Bannister was elected to Belfast Corporation in 1965, representing the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).[4] She stood as an independent Unionist in Belfast South at the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election, after failing to secure an official party nomination. She was not elected and continued to sit with the UUP group on the council.[5] [6]
Bannister served as Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1975–1976,[7] and in 1979 was appointed High Sheriff of Belfast. In 1981 she was elected as the first female Lord Mayor of Belfast, beating Paddy Devlin and Stewart McCrea.
Bannister was awarded an OBE in the 1984 New Year Honours,[8] for services to localgovernment in Northern Ireland.