Ada J. (Jane) Graves (14 April 1870 – 8 July 1918) was a British children’s writer. She was born in

Benares Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, the daughter of James Speed Graves and Charlotte Graves. In 1881 her family was living in

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east- central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinbur ...

, Scotland. Graves is known for two books published round the turn of the 20th century: ''The House by the Railway'' (1896) illustrated by

Rosa C. Petherick Rosa Clementina Petherick (September 1871 – 20 December 1931) was a British book illustrator. Early life and family Born in Addiscombe, Croydon, she was the eldest of the five surviving daughters of the artist Horace William Petheri ...

and ''Four Little People and their Year at Silverhaven'' (1898) illustrated by

Florence Meyerheim Florence Meyerheim (October 1873 – c. 1936) was a British illustrator of children's books. She was born in Barton upon Irwell, the second daughter of Moritz and Mira Meyerheim. She was baptised on 30 November 1873 at St Paul, Southport, Lancashi ...

. She also wrote ''The Little Brown House'' (1902).

Controversy

In 2011, it was claimed that significant sections of E. Nesbit's novel ''

The Railway Children ''The Railway Children'' is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in ''The London Magazine'' during 1905 and published in book form in the same year. It has been adapted for the screen several times, of which the 1970 fil ...

'' may have been plagiarised from Ada J. Graves’s ''The House by the Railway'', which was published in 1896 and later serialised in a 1904 children’s annual. Both works bear remarkable similarities in plot. In both stories, children avert a train disaster by waving red flags made from pieces of their clothing to attract the driver’s attention. The young heroes in both books are presented with engraved watches. Both stories also end with a family being reunited.

Personal life

Graves, who was distantly related to the war poet Robert Graves, married Dr. Edward Rainsford Mumford (1876-1953), in Newfoundland Cathedral on 23 October 1905. Her husband later became a missionary to

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. She died in the

Srimangal Sreemangal ( bn, শ্রীমঙ্গল, Srimongol) is an upazila of Moulvibazar District in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. It is located at the southwest of the district, and borders the Habiganj District to the west and the Indian state ...

earthquake of 8 July 1918. She had run back into her home in

Kalighat Kalighat is a locality of Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. One of the oldest neighbourhoods in South Kolkata, Kalighat is also densely populated — with a history of cultural intermingling with the various foreign incursions i ...

to look for her daughter, not realising that the girl had already been taken to safety by a nanny. She was killed by the falling roof and debris. Her sister Frances Gordon the suffragette, survived the earthquake.Murray Sturat, Preliminary Note on the Srimangal Earthquake of 8 July 1918, ''Records of the Geological Survey of India'', Vol XLIX,Part 3, pp.173-189, 1919. (pdf

/ref> Her niece was the poet Ida Affleck Graves.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graves, Ada J. 1870 births 1918 deaths English children's writers Victorian women writers British people in colonial India Srimangal Upazila Graves family Writers in British India