Lady Unknown: The life of Angela Burdett-Coutts

by Edna Healey

In 1837, at the age of twenty-three, Angela Burdett-Coutts inherited a vast fortune from her banker grandfather, making her one of the richest and thus potentially powerful women in Victorian England. She moved in the highest social entertaining the rising stars of the political scene, Disraeli and Gladstone; attending scientific lectures with Faraday; pursuing her philanthropic work with Dickens; and falling in love with the aged Duke of Wellington. Her acts of charity were enormous and wide-ranging-establishing a home for 'fallen women', pioneering model housing, battling for sanitary reform, supporting the NSPCC and the RSPCA, and promoting technical education and domestic science. A devout Anglican, she built churches, founded colonial bishoprics and encouraged the missionary work of Livingstone and others. Despite all this activity, Angela remained throughout her life a shy and supremely private person. The full range of her charity will probably never be known, for she often acted through intermediaries such as Dickens, describing herself only as 'lady unknown'. And a 'lady unknown' she has largely remained, her role in Victorian England strangely overlooked or forgotten. Edna Healey has uncovered much new material, including unpublished correspondence from Dickens, Livingstone, Gladstone, Wellington, Faraday and Henry Irving, to provide a fascinating insight into this most remarkable lady.

Genres: History, Research, Nonfiction

253 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Edna May Healey née Edna May Edmunds, was a writer, lecturer and film-maker married to Denis Healey.

Reviews

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so proud to call this woman a relative and I am so happy to have found this book. There is so little about her and when I found out she was a distant cousin, I wanted to learn more.

I usually don't care for biographies, but this one was so well-written and so easy to read. I highly recommend it.

She was a remarkable woman and I wish more people knew about her and her contributions.

[History Buff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good biography, not quite five stars, but very thorough, and with a good understanding of the Victorian Age and the problems that this remarkable philanthropist tried to solve. Few people who inherited an enormous fortune would have done more good for humanity.