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30 - Angel or Devil?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2021

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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 Weldon
The Fearless Life of a Victorian Celebrity
, pp. 431 - 436
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Angel or Devil?
  • Joanna Martin
  • Book: Georgina Weldon
  • Online publication: 09 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800100992.032
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  • Angel or Devil?
  • Joanna Martin
  • Book: Georgina Weldon
  • Online publication: 09 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800100992.032
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Angel or Devil?
  • Joanna Martin
  • Book: Georgina Weldon
  • Online publication: 09 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800100992.032
Available formats
×