Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane (; 27 May 1862 – 24 December 1937) was a Scottish author, biographer, philosopher, suffragist, nursing administrator, and social welfare worker. She was the sister of
Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane and
John Scott Haldane
John Scott Haldane (; 2 May 1860 – 14/15 March 1936) was a Scottish physician physiologist and philosopher famous for intrepid self-experimentation which led to many important discoveries about the human body and the nature of gases. He al ...
, and became the first female
Justice of the Peace in Scotland in 1920.
She was made a
Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. It was founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire.
The orde ...
in 1918.
Biography
Elizabeth Haldane was born on 27 May 1862 at 17 Charlotte Square,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. Her father was
Robert Haldane o
Cloan Housenear
Auchterarder, Perthshire and her mother was Mary Elizabeth Sanderson. She was educated by a succession of tutors and visiting schoolmasters. She wanted to go to college but it was too expensive and she was an only daughter tied to her widowed mother. Instead she educated herself by correspondence courses.
Haldane was persuaded by
Octavia Hill
Octavia Hill (3December 183813August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer and founder of the National Trust. Her main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteent ...
to apply to the system of property administration which Hill had developed in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to the situation in Edinburgh and in 1884, at the age of 21, she became convener of the Housing Committee of the Edinburgh Social Union. She took nursing courses in the 1880s and subsequently became involved in establishing the
Voluntary Aid Detachment
The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...
(VAD) from 1908 onwards. She became a manager of
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Comi ...
around 1901 onwards. Her autobiography, ''From One Century to Another'' covers the period from 1862 to 1914. It lacks precise detail but gives a graphic picture of what it was like to be a well-to-do lady in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. She was intimate with royalty such as
Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was List of British royal consorts, queen-consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 Januar ...
and was a personal friend of literary figures such as
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...
and
George Meredith. She was taken out to dinner by
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...
who astonished her "by his knowledge of the neighbouring fishing streams, since he did not personally know the neighbourhood." She adds that: "I enjoyed his talk very much, as I had always had a great admiration for his work and felt it an honour to meet him. He had the stiff rather highbrow Victorian face one knew so well from pictures, but he was delightful to me."
George Meredith visite
Cloan Housein September 1890. She recalls that "It was quite unnecessary to entertain him, for the wonderful sentences poured from his mouth and we had but to listen."
In later life, she corresponded with her niece,
Naomi Mitchison
Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison (; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and poet. Often called a doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote more than 90 books of historical an ...
(née Haldane) who regarded her suffragist views as being out of date. Haldane accepted "the restriction of women's activities to the inside, the personal, the domestic" whereas Mitchison considered women to be equally free to pursuit their lives outside the home. She died on 24 December 1937 at
St Margaret's Hospital, Auchterarder.
Haldane was an accomplished translator and put her considerable talents to use translating works of philosophy, including treatises by
Descartes and
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
. Along with G. R. T. Ross, she translated Descartes in a two-volume set, entitled
The Philosophical Works, for
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
in
1911
Events January
* January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia.
* January 3
** 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 7.7 m ...
.
Quote
Official appointments
* Vice-Chairman,
Territorial Nursing Service;
[This list of her appointments appears in her 'Who was Who' entry.]
* Member of
QAIM Nursing Board;
* Deputy President of
British Red Cross Society, Perthshire Branch;
* for some time a Manager of
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Comi ...
;
* Member of Scottish Universities Committee, 1909;
* Member of Royal Commission on the civil service, 1912;
* of Advisory Committees (National and Scottish) under the Insurance Act, 1912;
* of School Board since 1903;
* of County Authority for Education, 1919–22;
* of Scottish Savings Committee, 1916;
* o
General Nursing Council 1928;
* Central Council Broadcast Adult Education, 1930;
* Governor of
Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public research university located in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' ...
;
* late Governor of
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
.
Publications
''Hegel's History of Philosophy'' (3 vols) translated with Miss Frances H. Simson, MA. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1892–96;
* ''
The Wisdom and Religion of a German Philosopher: Being selections from the writings of G. W. F. Hegel.'' London:
Kegan Paul & Co., 1897;
* ''
James Frederick Ferrier.'' (With introduction by
R. B. Haldane) Edinburgh:
Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, 1899, (
"Famous Scots Series";
* ''
DescartesHis Life and Times.' London:
John Murray, 1905;
* ''
Descartes' Philosophical Works.'' (2 vols), with Professor G. R. T. Ross. Cambridge University Press, 1911/2;
* ''The British Nurse in Peace and War.'' London:
John Murray, 1923;
* ''Mary Elizabeth Haldane: A Record of a Hundred Years, (1825–1925).'' (Edited) London:
Hodder and Stoughton,
925
Year 925 ( CMXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By date January – June
* January 5 – Gabellus becomes the first abbot of the monsastery of San Martín de Albelda in the Spanish kingdom ...
reprinted by Kennedy & Boyd (2009) in th
Naomi Mitchison Library Series
* ''
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
and her Times: A Victorian Study.'' London:
, 1927:
* ''
Mrs Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian society, inc ...
and her Friends''. London:
, 1930;
* ''The Scotland of our Fathers: A Study of Scottish Life in the Nineteenth Century.'' London: Alexander Maclehose & Co., 1933;
* ''Scots Gardens in Old Times, 1200–1800.'' London: Alexander Maclehose & Co., 1934;
*
From One Century to Another: The Reminiscences of Elizabeth S. Haldane'. London: Alexander Maclehose & Co., 1937;
* Articles in various magazines, and in
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics
References
Sources
* ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 available at http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U210623
* ''From One Century to Another: The Reminiscences of Elizabeth S. Haldane''. London: Alexander Maclehose & Co., 1937. Availabl
here
* British Library catalogue available at http://www.bl.uk.
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
Reviewof Haldane's '
''Descartes: His Life and Times by Edward Cary published in the ''New York Times'' in 1906
Haldane's entryin ''The Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers'' (ed. by Stuart Brown, Hugh Bredin) viewable through
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
*December 28, 1937 ''
Times'
obituary for Haldane eadable as an image
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haldane, Elizabeth
1862 births
1937 deaths
Elizabeth
Scottish justices of the peace
Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
Writers from Edinburgh
Scottish biographers
Scottish women writers
Scottish non-fiction writers
British women biographers
Health professionals from Edinburgh