Elizabeth Fry was born in 1780 and died in 1845.

Elizabeth and her family were Quakers and believed in charity and helping others.

Her mother was from a family of bankers and her father was a banker and owned a factory.

When she was 18 she was inspired by a speech read by American Quaker, William Savery.

Elizabeth started helping poor and sick people and visiting prisoners. She believed that everyone deserved kindness.

She visited many prisons and was shocked by how dirty and overcrowded they were. In some places prisoners slept on the floors.

Elizabeth brought clean clothes for prisoners and eventually started a school for the children who were in prison with their parents.

Elizabeth Fry really wanted to make prison conditions better, she campaigned to change the way prisoners were treated.

Queen Victoria liked Elizabeth Fry and even met with her a few times to talk about the issues in prisons.

Elizabeth was very important because she was one of the first women to speak to Parliament about important issues.

She wrote a book about the changes in prisons and thanks to her prisons are much better places now.