Helen Acquroff (12 October 1831 – 18 September 1887) was a musician, pianist, music teacher, singer and poet who was born and lived in the Newington area of

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 ...

. She was blind from the age of 11 and grew to be active in the

Temperance Movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

Biography

Helen's parents were John Acquroff (born 1795) a Russian hairdresser, and Sophia Campbell Fletcher (born 22 May 1808) from Ardelach, Nairn. They had ten children of which Helen was the second eldest. She had poor sight from birth and was totally blind by the age of 11. She attended the Blind Asylum School (later the

Royal Blind Asylum and School The Royal Blind School is a specialist day and boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland that was established in 1793 and run by the charity, Royal Blind. The school caters for pupils aged 3 to 19 who are blind or partially sighted, and has faci ...

), and later taught there. Her son James was born in 1862 and she remained unmarried throughout her life. Helen died of

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 ...

at 51 Clerk Street, Edinburgh, aged 55.

Temperance movement

Helen was an active supporter of the Temperance Movement, singing and speaking in concert halls and theatres in Edinburgh and across Scotland. She was noted for her sense of humour, often opening Temperance meetings with light-hearted, amusing songs. She adopted the name Sister Cathedral (initially Sister Helen Acquroff) after an address for

Glasgow Cathedral Glasgow Cathedral () is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland. It was the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Glasgow, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and the province of Glasgow, from the 12th ...

was published, warning people of Glasgow of the perils of intemperance.

Poetry

She wrote many hundreds of songs, hymns, temperance music and poems, of which much has been lost. Some works appear in her collection ''Good Templar Songs'', published in 1872. They include ''Polly Hopkins'', ''Sabbath School Song, The Swiss Girl, When We Were Bairns Thegither'', ''The Reformed Drunkard To His Wife''. Her works are also included in the anthologies ''Working-Class Women Poets in Victorian Britain: An Anthology'', and in ''One hundred modern Scottish poets: with biographical and critical notices''.
''When We Were Bairns Thegither'' ''It's forty years, my ain gudeman.'' ''Since I was made your wife;'' ''An' nane in a' this warld can say'' ''But(?) we've led a happy life.'' ''But ah, waes me, it's sixty year'' ''Since we kent ane anither'' ''For hand in hand we gaed to schule'' ''When we were bairns ....''

Memorial

There is a marble

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

drinking fountain A drinking fountain, also called a water fountain or water bubbler, is a fountain designed to provide drinking water. It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap. The drinker bends down to the stream of water and s ...

to Helen in the Meadows, near the junction of Jawbone and Coronation Walks on the west side of the path, inside railings, near the

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

, Melville Drive, Edinburgh. The inscription reads: The IOGT were the Independent Order of Good Templars. It appears as a C on the memorial, not a G.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acquroff, Helen 1831 births 1887 deaths Musicians from Edinburgh Temperance activists Scottish blind people British women composers Scottish women poets Scottish people of Russian descent