John Parker Anderson

“ But the hard-working East End labouring poor, especially in Shoreditch and Bethnal Green, were always her foremost consider- ation. A night school which she established in Shoreditch in 1875 was converted into the Burdett-Coutts Club for young men and boys of the working-class, one of the first of its kind in London. A gymnasium was added in 1891, and the club is still carried on by Mr. Burdett-Coutts. At Bethnal Green she took a life-long interest in the costermonger class, and organised a club for them, and on the Columbia estate provided healthy and extensive stables for their donkeys. ”

“ With a view to ascertaining the truth regarding the reported 'Bulgarian atrocities' of 1876, Ashmead Bartlett visited Servia, Bulgaria, and Roumelia in 1877-8, and was a witness of barbarous outrages committed by Bulgarians and Russians on the Turkish inhabitants in Roumelia. He conceived the strongest distrust of Russia, and returning to England began a vigorous campaign against that power by speech and pen. ”

“ The results of this protracted effort were at the same time far-reaching, and the methods of food distribution greatly improved both in London and in the country. But Miss Burdett-Coutts's philanthropic efforts were not limited to England. Ireland early attracted her. There she characteristically sought to combine with relief of distress a permanent improvement of the conditions of life and industry amongst the poor. ”

“ Poor and neglected children were always Miss Burdett-Coutts's especial care. Dickens had encouraged her to subsidise the Ragged School Union, started in 1844, and in his company she examined for herself the squalid poverty of child-waifs in London. Besides liberally supporting ragged schools, she actively aided the shoeblack brigades established about 1851 to provide employment for lads rescued by the ragged schools. In 1874 she made a first contribution of 5000l. to the scheme for training poor boys for a sailor's life on the ships Chichester, Arethusa, and Goliath. ”

“ Professional nurses were engaged to visit the sick poor of the district, and especially to relieve the dangers and privations of childbirth in poor homes. In 1860, when the treaty with France, by encouraging increased importation of French silks, destroyed the occupation of the handloom weavers, Miss Burdett-Coutts by forming the East End Weavers' Aid Association helped the operatives to meet the difficulty of finding other employments. Many families were installed in small shops, and the young girls were trained for service. ”

“ On the accession of conservatives to power in June 1885 Ashmead Bartlett became civil lord of the admiralty, and he returned to the office in July 1886 on the formation of Lord Salisbury's second administration. He showed himself an industrious official, retired on the fall of the government in Aug. 1892, when he was knighted. On the outbreak of war between Turkey and Greece in 1897 Sir Ellis proceeded to Constantinople, where the Sultan conferred on him the grand cordon of the Medjidieh, and he joined the Turkish army in the field. ”

“ In 1879 the baroness in a like spirit served as president of a ladies' committee to aid the sick and wounded in the Zulu war, and she sent out a hospital equipment, trained women nurses forming a special feature of the staff. The voluntary hospitals in the South African war of 1899-1902, where women nurses were reluctantly sanctioned by military authorities, were largely modelled on the Zulu experiment of 1879. ”

“ She established large relief stores at Cape Clear and Sherkin. In 1863 she sent a party of emigrants from the district to Canada, and later on two other parties. She sought to create a demand in England for Irish embroidery and other cottage industries. Her chief work, however, was to revive and extend the fishing industry of the south-west coast. She advanced large-sums of money, on a well-devised scheme of repayment out of profits, to provide the fishermen of Baltimore and the Islands with the best fishing-boats that could be built, and fitted them with modern and suitable gear. ”

“ The baroness's love of animals was intense. She was long the acknowledged leader of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As president of the ladies' committee she instituted the great scheme of essays for which many thousands of children throughout the country competed annually. ”

“ She became president of the British Goat Society, and her goats were famous at all shows. She distributed the young stock in distant parts of the country ; the milk was sent to hospitals. With characteristic energy and prescience she faced the housing problem in the poorer districts of London almost for the first tune. On the site of Nova Scotia Gardens in Bethnal Green, a plague spot and den of crime, she erected before the close of 1862 four blocks of model tenements, affording accommodation for over 1000 persons. ”

“ The two schools were amalgamated in 1901, under the title of the Burdett-Coutts and Townshend Foundation Schools, and enjoy a high reputation. To complete her educational scheme for the district the baroness founded in 1893 the Westminster Technical Institute, which was handed over to the London County Council in 1901. In regard to the curriculum and administration of these foundations she was fertile in independent suggestion. She was the first to introduce sewing and cookery into elementary schools. ”

“ Outside the House he quickly gained an exceptional reputation as a platform speaker which he maintained throughout his public life. He was probably in greater demand among conservative organisers of great popular meetings than any other speaker, and invariably roused the enthusiasm of his audiences to the highest pitch. ”

“ BARTLETT, Sir ELLIS ASHMEAD (1849–1902) , politician, born in Brooklyn, New York, on 24 August 1849, was eldest son of Ellis Bartlett of Plymouth, Massachusetts, a graduate of Amherst, and a good classical scholar, who died in 1852. His mother was Sophia, daughter of John King Ashmead of Philadelphia. On the father's side he was directly descended from Robert Bartlett or Bartelot, of Sussex, who landed on Plymouth Rock from the ship Ann in 1623 and married in 1028 Mary, daughter of Richard Warren, who had sailed in the Mayflower in 1620. ”

“ Her private beneficiaries were chiefly the very poor, but she was always accessible to the appeal of struggling professional men, and all victims of sudden calamity. Doing little vicariously, she devised and developed for herself her schemes of philanthropy. ”

“ No young man of good family is said to have abstained from a proposal, and exaggerated rumour ncluded the duke of Wellington and Prince Louis Napoleon among aspirants to her hand. But she declined all advances, and devoted herself exclusively to social entertainment and philanthropy, both of which she practised at her sole discretion on a comprehensive scale and on the highest and most disinterested principles. ”

“ A strong protestant, but no doctrinal partisan, she first gave play to her philanthropic instinct by munificent benefactions to the Church of England, which she regarded as the best of all philanthropic organisations. William Howitt, in his 'Northern Heights of London' (1869) , wrote, 'I suppose no other woman under the rank of a queen ever did so much for the established church ; had she done it for the catholic church she would undoubtedly be canonised as St. Angela.' The beautiful church of St. ”

“ In 1884 she paid her first visit to the district and was everywhere welcomed with enthusiasm. With the assistance of Sir Thomas Brady she soon afterwards helped to inaugurate a fishery training school for 400 boys at Baltimore. The school was opened by her on 16 Aug. 1887, when she was received with bonfires on the wild hill-sides, and flags flew from every cottage down the coast from Queenstown to Baltimore. In the distressed 'congested' districts of the west of Ireland she also took a keen interest. ”

“ Large contributions both in money, amounting to 50,000l., and in kind were received, mainly from the working classes. Mr. Burdett-Coutts (then Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett) , as special commissioner to the fund, undertook with great efficiency the difficult task of organisation and administration. Eventually the refugees were drafted to Asia Minor. This generous help from England produced a lasting impression on the Turkish people, and endeared the baroness's name to the Moslem world. ”

“ In 1879 she instituted a Flower Girls' Brigade for flower-sellers between thirteen and fifteen years of age, and simultaneously established a factory in Clerkenwell with the object of teaching crippled girls the art of artificial flower-making, while others were trained for domestic service and other work. ”

“ He married in 1874 Frances Christina, daughter of Henry Edward Walsh, and had issue five sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, is well known as a war correspondent.
Ashmead Bartlett's published works included 'Shall England keep India?' (1886) ; 'Union or Separation' (1893) ; 'British, Natives and Boers in the Transvaal; the Appeal of the Swazi People ' (1894) ”

“ Baroness Burdett-Coutts: a sketch of her public life and work, prepared for the Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition, by command of Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, 1893; Woman's Mission: a series of Congress Papers on the philanthropic work of women, by eminent writers, 1893 ”

“ Albans. The duchess took a great liking to the girl, and on her death on 6 Aug. 1837 she made Angela heiress to her vast property. After providing for an annuity of 10,000l. a year to the duke, together with the occupancy of No. 80 Piccadilly and Holly Lodge, Highgate, during his life, the duchess left to Angela the reversion of those properties, and the whole of her remaining possessions, including her dominant share in Coutts's bank, and her leasehold interest in the town mansion, No. ”