Jemina Durning Smith (1843–1901) was a British philanthropist. She was the daughter of the Manchester cotton merchant,

John Benjamin Smith John Benjamin Smith (7 February 1794 – 15 September 1879) was an English Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1847 to 1874. Life Smith was the son of Benjamin Smith, a merchant of Manchester. He was himself a merchan ...

, who in 1835 becoming the founding chairman of the Anti-Corn Law League, and his wife Jemina Durning, who was an heiress from Liverpool. She paid for the

Durning Library Durning Library is a public lending library in Kennington, London. It is part of Lambeth Libraries in the London Borough of Lambeth and is in purpose-built listed building, Grade II listed building at 167 Kennington Lane, Kennington, London SE1 ...

, a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

library at 167 Kennington Lane,

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...

, London SE11, designed by Sidney R. J. Smith, in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style. She never married.

References

1843 births 1901 deaths 19th-century British philanthropists 19th-century British women philanthropists {{UK-bio-stub