Mrs Catherine Gladstone

Catherine Glynne was born in 1812, in the same year as Charles Dickens. An earl's daughter, she married the son of a self-made British merchant, William Ewart Gladstone, who became Queen Victoria's Prime Minister on four occasions. While the Queen and the Prime Minister loathed each other, they both loved Gladstone's wife, Catherine. After a long and indecisive courtship, William Gladstone said of his new wife that "my Cathie forever twinkles." Society remarked that her beauty showed "a profound intelligence." Catherine loved being in the mainstream of the action, but she disliked politicians, fashion, and social niceties. Unusual for the time, William was present at the birth of each of their eight children and Catherine insisted on feeding them herself. Catherine's primary concern was support of the poor - in particular, those suffering from cholera, as well as near-starving mill girls and homeless orphans. She established the concept of free convalescent homes and her common sense i