Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Georgina Weldon’s Archive and her Biographers
- Prologue
- 1 Georgina
- 2 Mayfield
- 3 Harry
- 4 Beaumaris
- 5 Friends and Relations
- 6 Discontent
- 7 Gwen
- 8 Gounod
- 9 Tavistock House
- 10 Maestro or Marionette
- 11 Loss
- 12 Separation
- 13 Orphans
- 14 Argueil
- 15 Mad-Doctors
- 16 Home Again
- 17 Rivière
- 18 Covent Garden
- 19 Disaster
- 20 Conjugal Rights
- 21 Revenge
- 22 The New Portia
- 23 Swings and Roundabouts
- 24 Holloway
- 25 Gower Street
- 26 Gisors
- 27 The Trehernes
- 28 A New Century
- 29 Sillwood House
- 30 Angel or Devil?
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Georgina Weldon’s Archive and her Biographers
- Prologue
- 1 Georgina
- 2 Mayfield
- 3 Harry
- 4 Beaumaris
- 5 Friends and Relations
- 6 Discontent
- 7 Gwen
- 8 Gounod
- 9 Tavistock House
- 10 Maestro or Marionette
- 11 Loss
- 12 Separation
- 13 Orphans
- 14 Argueil
- 15 Mad-Doctors
- 16 Home Again
- 17 Rivière
- 18 Covent Garden
- 19 Disaster
- 20 Conjugal Rights
- 21 Revenge
- 22 The New Portia
- 23 Swings and Roundabouts
- 24 Holloway
- 25 Gower Street
- 26 Gisors
- 27 The Trehernes
- 28 A New Century
- 29 Sillwood House
- 30 Angel or Devil?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Georgina would no doubt have been pleased by the number of publications that took notice of her death, though she would not have been happy with everything that was written. Back in 1902 she had complained about the fact that her name did not appear in Who's Who, either in her own right or under her husband's name. She had even written her own entry:
Weldon, Georgina. Vocalist, composer, musical conductor, educationalist; trained Gounod's Choir, Mrs Weldon's Choir; founded Mrs Weldon's Orphanage. Celebrated through her successful agitation of Copyright Laws, Married Women's Property, Lunacy Laws and Litigation in person; also for Criminal Court of Appeal. Gained her suit for RCR (1882), against Forbes Winslow, MD, Sir Henry de Bathe, Gounod, Rivière and many others, being awarded heavy damages during 1884–86. Contributed many letters and articles on Spiritualism, Musical Reform, Education etc. Recreation: Requires none.
To which she added:
I have no hesitation in saying that my work has been more useful, more brave, more loyal, more arduous, more painful and more ungrateful than any woman's work recorded in Who's Who. Why, therefore, honor me by singling me out for boycottage? I bravely, laboriously, successfully – as a torpedo among men of war – steered my way alone and blew all calumnies and insinuations to blazes. I believe myself to be the bravest woman in the world.
The obituary in the Daily Telegraph paid more attention to Georgina's friendship with Gounod, which ‘has been described as romantic’ but ‘turned to woeful discord’, and to her fame as a litigant: ‘A handsome woman, proud of her abilities and strong of will, she rather courted than avoided law suits’. The notice in the Daily Mirror was headed ‘A Famous Woman Litigant who Liked the Way Fish was Cooked’, and told how the ‘aged litigant’ had described her time in Holloway Gaol as the happiest days of her life because ‘the way they cooked fish there was a dream’. She was, the journalist added, ‘the most celebrated woman litigant in the history of the British Law Courts’.
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- Georgina WeldonThe Fearless Life of a Victorian Celebrity, pp. 431 - 436Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021