Elizabeth Malleson 1828 – 1916
(nee Whitehead)
Educationalist, suffragist.
29 October 1828 – 27 December 1916
Education
Home schooled by governesses with one year at a Unitarian school.
Experienced alternative teaching methods when sent by Barbara Leigh Smith to shadow William Shields at the Birkbeck School in Peckham.
Some Key Achievements and Interests
1854 Appointed, by Barbara Leigh Smith, as a teacher at Portman Hall School, Marylebone though forced to resign after a short period due to poor health.
Became involved with the Working Men’s College in Great Ormond Street.
1864 Joined the Ladies’ London Emancipation Society as Honorary Auditor.
1864 Established (with support of her husband Frank Malleson) Working Women’s College at 29 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, aimed to ‘meet the needs of the several classes of women who are at work during the day.’ The College was non-sectarian and open to women over the age of 15.
1868 Became executive committee member of the London NSWS (National Society for Women’s Suffrage)– later joined the Central Committee (CCNSWS) as the London committee did not allow members to be involved in agitating in the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Act. She was on the Committee for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.
1874 Turned the Working Women’s College into a co-educational college (College for Men and Women) having failed to merge with the Working Men’s College.
1876 Represented the Working Women’s College at the first meeting of the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching.
1889 Founded the Rural Nursing Association.
Issues
As the eldest of eleven children was expected to look after and teach her younger siblings. This, however, prompted her desire to find alternative teaching methods to those she had been subject to.
Suffered from poor health which forced her to resign from Portman Hall.
1877 Suffered a nervous breakdown which forced her to relinquish her involvement in the College for Men and Women.
Criticised by many staff and previous supporters for moving to a co-educational college. A breakaway group led by Frances Martin, a former teacher at the Working Women’s College, founded the women-only College for Working Women in Fitzroy Street in 1874.
Connection to Bloomsbury
Working Women’s College.
Female networks
Different organisations she was a member of including SPEW (Society for Promoting the Employment of Women).
Writing/Publications include:
Autobiographical Notes and Letters, with a memoir by Hope Malleson, 1926
Further reading:
Mrs Elizabeth Whitehead Malleson / Database – Women’s Suffrage Resources
Stinchcombe, Owen; Elizabeth Malleson and the Working Women’s College in Camden History Review 16 pp29-33.