Mary Wakefield (1853 - 1910) Mary Wakefield was the daughter of William Wakefield, a Kendal Banker, and Augusta Hagerty, daughter of the American Consul in Liverpool. In 1885 she and her sister Agnes gathered together groups of singers from villages near Sedgwick House, where the family then lived, for a singing competition "for pleasure". From this modest beginning they went on to found the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Music Festival which pioneered a national movement of music festivals to encourage amateur performers. This plaque was erected to celebrate the 150th anniversary of her birth on 19th August 1853 in Wakefield Bank House, Stricklandgate, Kendal.