Jump to content

Elizabeth Malleson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dsp13 (talk | contribs) at 11:28, 15 March 2020 (→‎Bibliography: wlink). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Elizabeth Malleson (née Whitehead; 1828-1916) was an English educationalist, suffragist and activist for women's education and rural nursing.

Life

Elizabeth Whitehead was born into a Unitarian family in Chelsea, Malleson was the first child of 11. After working as a governess she taught at the experimental Portman Hall School.[1][2]

In May 1857 she married a businessman and lifelong Unitarian named Frank Rodbard Malleson and they were to have four children. Malleson became involved with Frederick Maurice's Working Men's College.[3]

In 1863 she was a founding member of the Ladies' London Emancipation Society.[4] Other founder members and executive committee included Mary Estlin, Sarah Parker Remond, Harriet Martineau,[5] Eliza Wigham[6] and another women's college founder Charlotte Manning.[4]

Malleson founded the Working Woman's College in Queen Square in Bloomsbury in 1864, and the Rural Nursing Association in 1889 which supplied District Nurses to England's villages.[1][2]

Working Women's College

The Women's Superintendent in 1865 was Sarah Amos.[7] The college became open to both men and women in 1874 after the Working Men's College refused an offer to merge. This co-educational idea was driven by Malleson and her husband and the resulting opposition in the college led to a group moving away to form another college for women. The Malleson's "College for Men and Women" continued in operation to 1901.[8]

Rural Nursing

Malleson moved with her family to Dixton Manor in 1884[3] and there she was concerned to find that there was little local service of nurses for pregnant women. Malleson arranged for a trained nurse to be available to serve the people of Gotherington. Malleson's scheme was not the first but she decided to form a national organisation and her appeal for help brought her into contact with Lady Lucy Hicks-Beech. She was the wife of Michael Hicks Beach, 1st Earl St Aldwyn and they gathered enough support to launch a Rural Nursing Association.[9]

In 1871 Queen Victoria decided to use £70,000 donated to her Jubilee to found the Queen's Nursing Institute in 1889. Malleson's nurses became the Rural Nursing Division in 1891 and Malleson became the organisation's secretary.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Ogilvie & Harvey 2000, p. 834.
  2. ^ a b Crawford 2003, p. 367. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCrawford2003 (help)
  3. ^ a b Owen Stinchcombe, "Malleson, Elizabeth (1828–1916)", rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 29 July 2015
  4. ^ a b Mitchell, Sally (2004). Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press. p. 132.
  5. ^ "The Ladies' London Emancipation Society, Bedford College for Ladies, Bloomsbury". Museum of London Archive. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  6. ^ Crawford, Mary (2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928. p. 209. ISBN 1135434026.
  7. ^ "Amos [née Bunting], Sarah Maclardie (1840/41–1908), political activist | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-50715. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Working Women's College, Bloomsbury Project, Retrieved 19 July 2015
  9. ^ a b Pamela Horn (3 September 2014). Ladies of the Manor: How wives & daughters really lived in country house society over a century ago. Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-1-4456-1989-7.

Bibliography