Frances Batty Shand (c.1815–1885) was an early charitable activist in
Cardiff, Wales.
Shand was born in about 1815 in Jamaica,
the daughter of John Shand, a Scottish plantation owner, and an enslaved woman named Frances Brown.
['John Shand', ''Legacies of British Slave-ownership database'', http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146635763 ccessed 15 June 2020
'Frances Brown', ''Legacies of British Slave-ownership database,'' http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146642837 ccessed 15 June 2020
] She was sent to live in
Elgin
Elgin may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Elgin County, Ontario
* Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Chatham-Kent, Ontario
* Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario ...
,
Scotland in 1819, probably to live with an aunt. She remained unmarried.
In the mid 1800s
Shand came to Cardiff, where her brother
John Batty Shand (c.1804-1877) worked for the Rhymney Railway Company.
With the help of money inherited from her father, Shand founded the Association for Improving the Social and Working Conditions of the Blind
(which became
Cardiff Institute for the Blind
Sight Life, previously known as Cardiff Institute for the Blind (CIB), is Cardiff's oldest charity, founded in 1865 and offering support to visually impaired residents of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.
History of CIB
Cardiff Institute for ...
) in April 1865. The Association initially helped five blind men set up basket-making workshops.
Shand retired in 1877.
She died in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in 1885, though her body was returned to Cardiff for burial at
Allensbank Cemetery.
She bequeathed money to the Institute to allow it to continue with financial security.
In 1953 it moved to a new purpose built four storey building on
Newport Road, Cardiff, which was named Shand House in her honour in 1984.
Shand was the subject of an ITV television programme in 2013.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shand, Frances Batty
1810s births
1885 deaths
Welsh people of Jamaican descent
Welsh people of Scottish descent
British community activists
Founders of charities