Elizabeth Malleson

English educationalist, suffragist and activist

Elizabeth Malleson

Born	1828
Died	1916
Known for	activist for women's education

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.^[7]

Working Women's College

The Women's Superintendent in 1865 was Sarah Amos.^[8] 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 led by Frances Martin moving away to form another college for women.^[9]

The Malleson's "College for Men and Women" continued in operation to 1901.^[10] The rival women's college started by Frances Martin operated until 1966.^[9]

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.^[11]

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.^[11]

References

^ Ogilvie & Harvey 2000, p. 834.
^ Crawford 2003, p. 367.
^ ^a ^b Stinchcombe, Owen (2004). "Malleson [née Whitehead], Elizabeth (1828–1916), educationist and promoter of rural district nursing". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37733. ISBN 9780198614128. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ ^a ^b Mitchell, Sally (2004). Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press. p. 132. ISBN 9780813922713.
^ "The Ladies' London Emancipation Society, Bedford College for Ladies, Bloomsbury". Museum of London Archive. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
^ Crawford 2003, p. 209.
^ Crawford 2003, p. 834.
^ Levine, Philippa (2004). "Amos [née Bunting], Sarah Maclardie (1840/41–1908), political activist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50715. ISBN 9780198614128. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ ^a ^b Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004), "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. ref:odnb/48513, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48513, retrieved 11 March 2023
^ Working Women's College, Bloomsbury Project, Retrieved 19 July 2015
^ ^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

Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. ISBN 1-135-43402-6.
Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-92040-7.