Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick (1845-1936) Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick (nèe Balfour) was a remarkable woman. As well as Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, President of the Society for Psychical Research, and one of the first women to be appointed to a Royal Commission, she was also one of the early suffragists. Following her retirement as Principal of Newnham College, she moved to ‘Fisher’s Hill’, Woking, to live with her brother, Gerald Balfour, and his wife Betty, a fellow suffragist. She died at Fisher’s Hill on 10 February 1936.

Eleanor [Nora] was the eldest child of James Maitland Balfour MP and his wife Lady Blanche. Nora’s brothers were Arthur James and Gerald William Balfour, both politicians; the biologist Francis Maitland Balfour (died whilst climbing Mont Blanc in 1882) and the architect Eustace James Anthony Balfour (went into partnership with Hugh Thackeray Turner in 1885). Her sisters were Evelyn Georgina (became Lady Rayleigh after her marriage to John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh of Terling Place) and Alice Blanche (never married, was a pioneer in the study of genetics, an entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator). Lady Blanche had encouraged her children in their education, in particular her daughters. Following her husband’s death in 1856 she ensured that all her children received independent fortunes from his estate. Nora was educated at home to a very high standard and was given advanced teaching in mathematics and Euclidian geometry for which she showed a natural talent. Lady Blanche died in 1872 after a prolonged illness, during which time Nora, as the eldest daughter, had to ensure the smooth running of three large Balfour households. At some point during the late 1860s or early 1870s Nora became aware of the suffrage cause and began to attend meetings. Years later she commented to a meeting of the Cambridge Branch of the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association (23 May 1913), about the challenges regarding the early days of the movement, particularly the ridicule and lack of interest in the issues raised by the suffragists of the 1860s and 1870s amongst the political establishment and the press of the day. In 1875 Nora moved to Cambridge with her brother Arthur, where she carried out research measuring electricity in collaboration with her brother-in-law, Lord Rayleigh, who was professor in experimental physics. The results of her research were later published by the Royal Society as three papers she co-authored with Lord Rayleigh. Nora also taught mathematics at the newly founded women’s college Newnham and was influential in promoting the higher education of women. At this time her brother Arthur was studying philosophy under Professor Henry Sidgwick, with whom they shared a mutual interest in the paranormal. Both Arthur and Nora attended séances in the company of Professor Sidgwick. Henry Sidgwick was the first President of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and as an influential academic he gave the organisation credibility. His presidency saw the introduction of Nora Sidgwick, Arthur and Gerald Balfour, and Lord Rayleigh to the SPR. Nora and Henry spent considerable time during university vacations carrying out investigations into ghost sightings or attending international conferences on the paranormal on behalf of the SPR. They carried out a series of investigations on hallucinations and these were collated and written up, mainly by Nora, later being published in the Report on the Census of Hallucinations by H. Sidgwick, A. Johnson, F.W.H. Myers, F. Podmore and E.M. Sidgwick. The statistical analysis and methods applied during the research reflected Nora’s skill in handling the large quantities of data collected from 17,000 individuals. Over 2200 responded that they had experienced some form of hallucination, each subject to scrutiny and interviewed by the authors. A shared interest in the promotion of women’s education and in paranormal phenomena led to her marriage with Henry Sidgwick in 1876. Her family and friends were delighted, as the couple were well suited with shared interests, they both continued with their working lives. Although the marriage proved to be childless, it seemed to be a model partnership between two working people with compatible interests and social circles. The Newnham College Company was founded in 1875 by Henry Sidgwick and Millicent Garrett Fawcett. Nora became a member of the council and treasurer to the college (a role she held until her death), having been approached by Professor Henry Sidgwick to help. During her lifetime she contributed around £30,000 of her own money towards the project. She is credited with having established the strong financial basis on which the future development and expansion of Newnham College depends. She was also mindful of the fact that not all women could afford to avail themselves of educational opportunities and established scholarships for poorer students. Her enlightened views and financial acumen helped Newnham College establish research scholarships and to set up a staff pension scheme. In 1880 Nora was appointed as vice-principal of Newnham College. Anne Jemima Clough was the first principal of the college and Nora followed her in this role in 1891 and continued in this capacity until 1910 when she retired. Initially Nora and Henry lived in rooms at the college (Sidgwick Hall) during term time, enabling them to become involved in the life of the college and in maintaining links with like-minded friends. Later, when Nora became principal, they lived in what is now the Pfeiffer building. In addition to their work in Cambridge, the couple were much involved in the Society for Psychical Research - Henry had been a founding member and this involvement continued alongside campaigning for the greater role of women students in the life of the university. Women were admitted to examinations in 1882 but effort was still required to push for them to be awarded the degrees for which they studied and were examined. In a letter from Nora published in Common Cause dated 8 June 1917, Nora wrote of her friend Millicent Fawcett’s life and achievements as she approached her seventieth year. Nora wrote: “Newnham College, with which I have been so long concerned owes to her a debt of gratitude, for it was at her house at Cambridge and by her invitation that, nearly forty-eight years ago, the meeting at which it was decided to start lectures for women in Cambridge was held, and it was out of that movement that Newnham College grew.” Nora was a campaigner for the right of women to access further education as well for women having a right to a career outside the home. She presided over a meeting of the Women’s Institute council at 15 Grosvenor Crescent reported in The Times on 7 November 1899. This organisation was founded by Mrs Leonora Philipps in 1897, being the academic and professional branch of the Grosvenor Crescent Club and should not be confused with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes. Other council members present included Mrs Wynford Philipps (Leonora Philipps was married to a Liberal politician John Wynford Philipps MP), Viscountess Harberton, Dowager Lady Westbury, Hon Mrs Arthur Lyttelton, Hon Mrs Bertrand Russell, Lady Montagu and Mary Kingsley, to name a few. Nora addressed the gathering saying that the principal aim of the Women’s Institute was to afford a meeting place for all those women who were interested in educational and philanthropic questions of the day and to represent in one building the various branches of women’s work. The organisation seems to have ceased activities around 1925. In an address Nora gave to the Women’s Institute in London on 23 November 1897, she observed: “There will always be gaps in domestic life which can best be filled by the unmarried girls and women of the family; help wanted in the care of old people and children and invalids, or in making the work of other members of the family go smoothly, to which a woman may well devote herself at some sacrifice of her own future—a sacrifice she will not regret. This kind of work can best be done by women, not only because they are generally better adapted to it, but because the sacrifice is not so clear nor so great in their case as it would generally be in that of a man. Only let the cost be counted and compared with the gain, and do not let us ask women to give up their chance of filling a more useful place in the world for the sake of employing them in trivial social duties from which they might be spared with little loss to anyone.” Nora, together with Lucy Caroline Cavendish [Lady Frederick Cavendish] and Sophie Bryant, were the first three women to be appointed to a Royal Commission in England. The Royal Commission on Secondary Education, under the chairmanship of James Bryce, was set up in the 1860s and became known as the Bryce Report when its findings were published in 1895. This report formed the basis for the administration and education of both boys and girls in the country. Nora was always ready for an intellectual and mathematical challenge, particularly when faced with ill-founded claims such as those of the journalist, Grant Allen, who wrote in the Pall Mall Gazette in the 1880s. He expressed the view that “Intellectual success can only be achieved by women at the cost of physical deterioration and consequent weakening of the stock”. Nora mustered a committee who represented both Oxford and Cambridge and circulated over 500 questionnaires to female students and as a comparison, sisters of female students, who were not themselves students. Nora then carried out evaluations of the health of the students, of their parents and children, their hours of sleep and exercise, then in 1890 published the results in The Health Statistics of Women Students. The findings served to silence the critics of women’s education. The Pall Mall Gazette of the 27 April 1892 lists Mrs Henry Sidgwick together with Lady Frances Balfour, Lady Matheson, Lady Rayleigh, Lady Maude Wolmer, Mrs Leonard Courtney, Miss Courtney, Mrs Culme Seymour, Miss Davenport Hill, Mrs Fawcett, Mrs Penrose, Mrs Temple and Mrs Westlake, as the committee arranging a “Conversazione” for those interested in the Women’s Suffrage Bill, at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in Piccadilly. On this occasion a speech was given by Mrs Fawcett who said that supporters of suffrage should not lose heart as there was not an issue that Mr Gladstone had initially opposed that he had not ended up supporting. On 3 February 1897, The Dundee Advertiser reported that Mrs Henry Sidgwick was a signatory to a letter sent to all Members of Parliament requesting that they support the ‘Parliamentary Franchise Extension to Women’ Bill which was to come before the House of Commons that day. Henry died of cancer in August 1900 at the home of his brother-in-law, Lord Rayleigh, at Terling Place, near Witham in Essex. He is buried in the Strutt family plot in the churchyard there. Even after his death, Nora continued to spend much of her spare time with her work for the Society for Psychical Research and investigating the paranormal. She became a member of their council and later honorary secretary; she also became president in 1908-9 and 1932-3. Nora was not a militant suffragist, she believed that the campaign for the vote would be successful if the campaigners used more subtle methods. Like her sisters-in-law, Lady Betty and Lady Frances Balfour, she used her family and social connections to lobby constantly for the extension of the parliamentary franchise to women on the same basis as for men. The Times carried a number of reports of Nora’s involvement in this lobbying work, including a report on the 22 June 1910 ‘The Government and Women’s Suffrage’, in which she was named as one of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) representatives in a joint deputation consisting of the NUWSS, Women’s Liberal Federation and the Scottish Women’s Liberal Federation, to put the case for extension of the parliamentary franchise to women to the Prime Minister: “It is heartbreaking that such things should be done in a good cause – and it is especially hard for women to bear because it hurts their pride in their own sex. They have to see not only their country injured, and the cause of women’s suffrage, in whose name these things are done, retarded, but they have to see the reputation of their sex for good sense and sober judgment dragged in the mud. This is most serious – indeed, I think the only serious set-back our movement has had.” She continued with the upbeat view that the women’s cause would survive any negative publicity from the militant action and that its general effect would be to delay rather than prevent success. She explained that the movement had shown itself able to convince many doubters over the years. Nora stated “The extension of the franchise in 1867 and 1884 has, I think, had a very important effect in bringing home to people that the arguments for extending the suffrage in the case of men apply equally to women with the same qualifications.” Commenting on the increasing number of educated women finding roles in the community and outside in the workplace she observed that this had a profound influence on the views of both men and women regarding the female franchise. She welcomed the merging of pioneer women’s suffrage societies with the NUWSS allowing the movement to grow, “A movement grows like a snowball – the larger the number of its supporters the more rapidly it increases. Progress in recent years has been more obvious than it used to be, but none the less the possibility of the present progress is largely due to the early efforts of the pioneers.” She believed that the potential setbacks brought about by militant action were a rallying call to the non- militants to redouble the effort to effect change through non-militant means. Nora did not participate in the boycott of the 1911 census and is recorded with members of her household at 1 Grange Terrace, Cambridge. She is the head of household and it is noted that she was the retired Principal of Newnham College (actually the Treasurer of Newnham College). Following her retirement as principal of Newnham College, Nora continued to take role in the administration and life of the college. She remained as treasurer to the college and as a member of the college council. Common Cause reported the retirement on 23 June 1910. On 22 February 1912 Common Cause reported that a joint deputation from the Eastern Counties Federation including representatives from the Cambridge Women’s Suffrage Association (NUWSS), the Cambridge University Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage and the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association, had called on Almeric Paget MP. Amongst the speakers was Nora, who questioned Almeric Paget about his position on granting the franchise to women. Nora advocated that women should have the parliamentary franchise in the interest of fairness but also because it would help improve conditions for women in the workplace. Her opinions were published in Common Cause on 24 January 1913, “An important reason why women should have the parliamentary franchise is the large number earning their own living and the growing tendency of parliament to interfere directly and indirectly with conditions of employment. Women’s interests may often be different from those of men and should be represented.” On 11 September 1915 Nora became the first woman to preside over the Educational Science section at a British Association Meeting. Her pioneering work in the field of women’s education continued despite retirement. During 1915-1916 she moved to Fisher’s Hill, Woking, to live with her brother Gerald Balfour and his wife, Betty. Nora continued to be actively involved with the affairs of Newnham Collage and remained in touch with her many friends and former students in Cambridge. In the fight for women’s rights in all walks of public life Common Cause reported on 9 April 1915 that a letter had been sent to the press regarding the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service by a number of prominent men and women, including Nora. The letter pointed out that continuing to exclude women from roles in the Civil Service was detrimental to the war effort due to the shortage of male workers available and there was demand for greater employment opportunities by women. The publication of an anti-suffrage manifesto during the second half of 1916 attracted a strongly worded response from one group of suffrage supporters. The reply published in Common Cause on 24 November 1916 was signed by many of Surrey’s suffrage campaigners, including Lady Julia Chance, Beatrice Webb, Lady Betty Balfour and Eleanor Sidgwick, together with other signatories such as Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Rose Macaulay and Lady Frances Balfour. Throughout the First World War Common Cause reported on many issues of the day concerning women. In the context of a falling birth rate, expansion of education the health and welfare of the nation’s babies and children became a hot topic. On the 29 September 1916 Common Cause carried an article entitled ‘The Quality of the Race’ in which used research carried out in the 1880s and 1890s by Nora, published in The Health Statistics of Women Students. The article disapproved of the idea that education of young people caused nervous strain and lessened the opportunity for women to become mothers. It was suggested that although university education might lead to a woman marrying later in life, the offspring of such a mother would benefit from the enlightened attitudes of their parents. A highly educated woman has as much capacity for motherhood as an agricultural labourer’s daughter and more so than an overworked woman from a shop or factory. The influence of the meticulous data collection and research carried out by Nora into such matters helped to inform the debate after her retirement. In 1921, a celebration was held in Cambridge to mark fifty years since the founding of Newnham College. The Vote (publication of the Women’s Freedom League, edited by Surrey resident, Charlotte Despard), reported on 5 August 1921 that following the loyal toast to the King, a toast to the health of Mrs Henry Sidgwick, Principal from 1892 to 1911, was given in tribute to her long career promoting women’s education and her commitment to Newnham College. During the 1930s Nora’s health was deteriorating, although in a letter dated 13 March 1935, Gerald Balfour wrote of Nora to a family friend, Susan Lushington: “Aunt Nora was 90 last Monday. Wonderful woman! So far as mere health goes she still flourishes like a green bay tree. Her feebleness increases but she might live a long time yet” (SHC ref 7854/4/17/4/7). Nora died at Fisher’s Hill on the 10 February 1936 at the age of 91 and The Times published a notice regarding arrangements for the funeral and memorial services on the 13 February: “Mrs Henry Sidgwick’s funeral will take place privately at Lord Rayleigh’s home, Terling, tomorrow. There will be a memorial service the same day in London at St Colomba’s, Pont St at 3pm. A memorial service will be held, by permission of the Master and Fellows, in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, on Saturday February 15 at 2.30pm.” The Surrey Advertiser published an obituary on the 15 February 1936, headlined ‘Pioneer of Higher Education; Death of Mrs Henry Sidgwick’. The Woking News and Mail carried an obituary on the 14 February 1936. Nora’s sister-in-law, Lady Betty Balfour, wrote of Nora’s death to her friend Susan Lushington: “The end came so quietly and so gradually with no pain or distress. It was more of a shock to G [Gerald] than I expected and has shaken him a good deal”. A copy of the Order of Service was enclosed (SHC ref 7854/4/17/5/8). Nora was buried near Henry in the Strutt family plot in the churchyard of All Saints, Terling, Essex.

Contributed by Miriam Farr, volunteer for The March of the Women project.

Sources

Archives Items relating to Eleanor Sidgwick in the Susan Lushington correspondence at Surrey History Centre, including: Letter from Gerald Balfour to Susan Lushington re 90th birthday of his sister, Eleanor Sidgwick (SHC ref 7854/4/17/4/7) Lady Betty Balfour, Nelly (Eleanor) Balfour and Mrs Sedgwick [Sidgwick] at “Fisher’s Hill” 1903, from Susan Lushington’s photograph album (SHC ref 7854/4/47/3/10 page 21) Letter from Betty Balfour to Susan Lushington re death of her sister in law, Eleanor, and Order of Service for her funeral (SHC ref 7854/4/17/5/8 a-c) Formal Letter from Eleanor to Susan Lushington with her signature, 21 Apr 1934 (SHC ref 7854/4/17/1/1a-b) Published sources Rodney Bolt. As Good as God as clever as the Devil; the impossible life of Mary Benson, Atlantic, 2011 Ros Black. A Talent for Humanity; the life and work of Lady Henry Somerset, Anthony Rowe Publications, 2010 ‘The Progress of the Women’s Suffrage Movement: An address to the Cambridge branch of the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association at their annual meeting on May 23 1913’; Mrs Henry Sidgwick, Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association, 1913 Woking News and Mail on microfilm Surrey Advertiser on microfilm Online sources Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed online via Surrey Libraries Online Reference Shelf at Surrey History Centre British Newspaper Archive accessed online via Surrey Libraries at Surrey History Centre Times Digital Archive accessed online via Surrey Libraries at Surrey History Centre Gale Vault, accessed online via Surrey Libraries at Surrey History Centre Ancestry, accessed via Surrey Libraries at Surrey History Centre Newnham College https://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/about/history/biographies/; portrait of Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick painted by Sir James Jebusa Shannon, 1889, Newnham College, University of Cambridge

Mother's Role, a Daughter's Duty: Lady Blanche Balfour, Eleanor Sidgwick, and Feminist Perspectives; Janet Oppenheim; Journal of British Studies, Volume 34 no 2; April 1995, pp. 196-232 https://www.jstor.org/stable/175929?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Taisha Abraham. Women’s writings in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: short stories. 2013

University of Edinburgh, blog ‘From Séance to Science: Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick’, 2017, https://koestlerunit.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/from-seance-to-science- eleanor-mildred-sidgwick/

Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, entry for Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and- maps/sidgwick-eleanor-mildred-balfour1845-1936

A guide to the whereabouts of papers relating to Eleanor Sidgwick can be found online at The National Archives https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F42080 Ann Kennedy Smith, May 2019, Blog: The Ladies Dining Society https://akennedysmith.com/2019/05/12/eleanor-sidgwicks-hidden-figures/ ‘Cambridge Association for Women’s Suffrage at the Corn Exchange,1909’, on Lost Cambridge website https://lostcambridge.wordpress.com/cambridge-association-for- womens-suffrage-at-the-corn-exchange-1909/ Women’s Suffrage Collection at Manchester Central Library Digital Collections (Ref. M50/3/3/1-13 - Printed Papers Relating to Degrees for Women, c.1880-1896) http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/womens_suffrage_mcl_parts_1_and_2/Detail ed-Listing-Part-2.aspx References to Eleanor Sidgwick in the LSE Library Archive https://archives.lse.ac.uk/Overview.aspx and Women’s Library Digital Library collection https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/search?q=Sidgwick Dr Hortense Geninet, http://www.henrysidgwick.com/index.html

Images

Eleanor ('Nora') Mildred Sidgwick (née Balfour) by Eveleen Myers (née Tennant), 1900s (© National Portrait Gallery, London, under license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

Henry Sidgwick, 1876 (Courtesy of Dr Hortense Geninet) Photograph of Lady Betty Balfour, Nelly (Eleanor) Balfour and Mrs Sedgwick [Nora Sidgwick] at ‘Fisher’s Hill’, 1903, from Susan Lushington’s photograph album (SHC ref 7854/4/47/3/10 p.21) Letter from Lady Betty Balfour to Susan Lushington re death of Nora Sidgwick, with the Order of Service, Feb 1936 (SHC ref 7854/4/17/5/8 a-c)