née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...
Jones; 30 June 1869 – 20 January 1962) was a British socialist journalist and philanthropist. Her best known work was ''In Darkest London''.
Life
Chesterton was born in
Dulwich
Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half ...
in 1869. She was working in
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...
at the age of sixteen. She was known for writing under pseudonyms including John Keith Prothero. She met
Edith Nesbit
Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English writer and poet, who published her books for children as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political activist a ...
,
Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in ...
,
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term '' collective bargaining''. She ...
,
Eleanor Marx
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist who sometimes worked as a ...
Annie Besant
Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist.
Regarded as a champion of human ...
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The F ...
.Ada Chesterton Spartacus Educational, Retrieved 28 February 2017
She had a lifelong relationship with
Cecil Chesterton
Cecil Edward Chesterton (12 November 1879 – 6 December 1918) was an English journalist and political commentator, known particularly for his role as editor of '' The New Witness'' from 1912 to 1916, and in relation to its coverage of the Marco ...
who was also a journalist and the brother of
GK Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, '' Time'' observed: ...
.Bernard Bergonzi, ‘Chesterton, Cecil Edward (1879–1918)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200 accessed 28 Feb 2017 /ref> The pair appeared together on 7 January 1914 in King's Hall, Covent Garden, when, as "Miss J.K. Prothero", she played Princess Puffer in the mock trial of John Jasper for the murder of
Edwin Drood
''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' is the final novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870.
Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium ...
. Cecil acted for the defence, G.K. Chesterton was Judge and
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
was foreman of the jury.
They married in 1916, before he left to be a soldier during the First World War. She went to work with her brother. Her husband survived being wounded but he eventually became sick with
nephritis
Nephritis is inflammation of the kidneys and may involve the glomeruli, tubules, or interstitial tissue surrounding the glomeruli and tubules. It is one of several different types of nephropathy.
Types
* Glomerulonephritis is inflammation ...
. Chesterton travelled to his bedside just before he died and she was the only family member at his funeral.
After her husband died she went to Poland funded by the '' Daily Express''. She took a dare to live in poverty in London in 1925 lasting much longer than the few days that were expected. These newspaper articles were eventually published as her first book, ''In Darkest London''. She created other similar books based on the success of her first book.Mark Knight, ‘Chesterton , Ada Elizabeth (1869–1962)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 201 accessed 28 Feb 2017 /ref> She worked at the drama critic for her brother-in-law's journal '' G. K.'s Weekly'' and in 1941 wrote a biography about "The Chestertons".
She created th Cecil Houses known today a Central & Cecil Housing Trust which provided accommodation for women who no place to stay. They were funded thanks to the publicity that her living in poverty books created. The houses were named for her late husband.
Chesterton died in a nursing home in
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extens ...
in 1962.
Cecil Houses
In March 1927, the first Cecil House opened its doors to 44 women and 2 babies. Less than a year later, in January 1928, her second house was opened in Kings Cross, providing shelter for 58 women and 12 babies. In March 1929, the third house in North Kensington, opened for 60 women and 18 babies. In November 1930, a property in Harrow Road opened for another 60 women and 18 babies. And in March 1934, the property in Waterloo that is now C&C's central office was opened for 49 women and 2 babies.
By 1935, Mrs Chesterton Lodging Houses had received recognition and donations from across the world. It became a refuge for women across the capital who could seek shelter without any questions asked.
For over 90 years, Cecil Houses have continued to take inspiration from Mrs Chesterton merging with social housing charities and care providers for the elderly, eventually becoming a Housing Association in 1974. Today Cecil Houses are known as C&C, a not-for-profit housing provider for over-55s, offering affordable housing services including sheltered and care accommodation. Their Central Offices can still be found an old Cecil House building on Waterloo Road.
Works
* ''The man who was Thursday. play in three acts.Adapted from the novel of G.K. Chesterton'' 1926
* ''In Darkest London'' 1926
* ''St. Teresa'' 1928
* ''The Love Game: A Comedy in Three Acts'' 1926 (West End 1931)
* ''My Russian Venture'' 1931
* ''Women of the Underworld'' 1932
* ''Young China and New Japan'' 1933
* ''Sickle or Swastika?'' 1935
* ''This Thy Body, An Experience in Osteopathy'' 1937
* '' I Lived in a Slum'' 1938
* ''What Price Youth?'' 1939
* ''The Chestertons: By Mrs. Cecil Chesterton'' 1941
* ''Salute The Soviet'' 1942