Angela: Victorian Britain’s Definitely Radical, Probably Queer Female Philanthropist

Angela Burdett-Coutts Wikicommons

Last month a famous female philanthropist died. But this Herstory is not another eulogy to Dolly Parton. Although it is inspired by Dolly’s kindness and compassion. 

This month’s Herstory is about a far older female philanthropist, who, like Dolly, lived life on her own terms and had a lot more in common with the Queen of Country Music than you may think. I present to you the formidable  Angela Burdett-Coutts. 

Angela was born in 1814, into the wealthy British Coutts* banking dynasty and after a series of deaths in the family, found herself in 1822 the heir to a fortune of £1.8 million. As a result she became, at 23, one of the richest women in England. Her privilege and status afforded her access to elite circles; Queen Victoria and the Prime Ministers were among her associates. But Angela wasn't going to just sit on her wealth. She had a profound sense of social justice, and she was going to put her money to good use.

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Coutts Strand HQ in London (2022, Wikipedia)

Philanthropy

Angela’s philanthropic causes (a bit like Dolly’s!) knew no bounds. She turned her hand to medicine, education, housing, animal protection, social work.  Here are just some of the projects she funded and built. 

She built homes in the deprived area of London’s East End, and a fresh water supply for the slum residents of Bethnal Green. She founded Columbia Road market, and she installed a drinking water fountain in Victoria park in Hackney.

She provided free basic education for working class children who wouldn’t otherwise have access to school we well as building the schools themselves.

In 1884 she co-founded the NSPCC -  still going strong today. 

Her money helped build the Royal Marsden Hospital, and she continued to fund nurses, missionaries and soldiers wives through the Crimean War. Thanks to Angela’s money, Florence Nightingale was able to improve conditions on the frontline in the Crimean war hospitals and build the foundations of modern nursing.  Much of our cancer research owes its original funding to Angela. 

Florence Nightingale, History.com

After witnessing the conditions many sex workers were in,  and the increasing scourge of child prostitution in the West End where she lived, with her friend Charles Dickens she founded a refuge for fallen women (or a ‘Magdalen House’ as they had been known since the 18th Century) called Urania Cottage in Shepherds Bush. She was warned against associating with scandal such as prostitution, but she ignored the warnings. Her sense of social justice was just too great. Indeed, she was known as the “Queen of the Poor”. 

Her generosity wasn’t limited to British soil either. She was a benefactor of the Church of England schools in South Africa, Australia and Canada. She donated large amounts of money to help feed victims of the Irish Potato Famine, refugees from the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, and aboriginal and indigenous people in Australia and Africa. The list goes on and on. 

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L-R: The Irish potato famine as depicted in Illustrated London News, December 22, 1849 / Wikimedia Commons, and a slum street in London's East End, Youtube.

And it wasn't just humans she helped. In 1870 she became President of the RSPCA and paved the way for the current organisation dedicated to protecting animals. She was President of the British Beekeepers Association, and installed drinking fountains for dogs. 

And Edinburgh’s famous ‘Greyfriars Bobby’ statue that hundreds of tourists admire every year? The dog that spent 14 years guarding his master’s grave? Angela commissioned that -  in his honour.  

Greyfriars Bobby, Alamy

But in her personal life, she was equally radical. Although we will never truly know whether she was bisexual or queer, she did choose not to marry despite many suitors for her hand,  - but to live for 52 years of her life with her governess Hannah Brown. She sent out Christmas cards featuring both their photos and signatures which was common for married couples at the time (see image) suggesting that their relationship was more than just platonic. 

Angela and Hannah's Christmas card, Torquay Museum website

After her companion died, Angela  at the ripe old age of 67, shocked society by marrying for the first time to her secretary - a man 38 years her junior (!)  William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett, who later became an MP, was also an American -  a double threat to polite society! Marrying a foreigner meant that Angela had to forfeit three fifths of her inheritance to her sister - but this didn’t stop her -she did what she wanted, regardless of the criticism and consequences to her.  By all accounts their union was a happy one. He was also a philanthropist.

Angela is estimated to have donated around £350 million to humanitarian causes during her lifetime, and  was honoured by Queen Victoria in 1871 when she was made a Baroness.  She died at 92, and was buried in pomp and ceremony in Westminster Abbey - a fitting resting place for someone whose behaviour was nothing less than royal. 

Angela Burdett Coutts and her husband at the time of their marriage (Getty)

Legacy 

She is included in a mural of heroic women by Walter P. Starmer in the church of St Jude-on-the-Hill in Hampstead. She's had many books dedicated to her such as Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. 

Although  Angela was born into privilege and Dolly Parton wasn't, in some ways I find Angela’s desire to give most of it away to those less privileged even more impressive. She had never, unlike Dolly - experienced true poverty or hardship. And yet she still had amazing empathy. I think there’s much that the two women have in common. 

Like Dolly Parton, Angela Coutts may not have been a Queen but she was the Queen of many hearts. Even Edward VII described her as:

“After my mother, she is the most remarkable woman in the kingdom”. 

In world of where a trillionaire and abject poverty inexplicably co-exist, I firmly believe that it is women’s philanthropy that will lead the way to justice and a fairer world. And Angela Burdett-Coutts is a powerhouse inspiration. 

*Fun fact! Coutts were in the public spotlight recently after they closed Reform UK Leader and MP Nigel Farage's bank accounts in July 2023. It was leaked that they had described him as a "disingenuous grifter" who promoted "xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views" that were at odds with their brand and reputation. Can't argue with that, and I'm sure Angela would've approved too! 😂

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