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Eva Anstruther

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Eva Anstruther
Eva Anstruther, 1930
Born
Eva Isabella Henrietta Hanbury-Tracy

25 January 1869
London, England
Died19 June 1935(1935-06-19) (aged 66)
Chelsea, West London, England
Occupation(s)Writer and poet
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1889; div. 1915)​
Children2; including Jan Struther
Parents

Dame Eva Anstruther DBE (née Hanbury-Tracy; 25 January 1869 – 19 June 1935) was an English writer and poet. During World War I, she organised libraries for troops and prisoners of war in France, for which she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918.

Early life

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Anstruther was born in London on 25 January 1869. She was the eldest child of Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 4th Baron Sudeley and his wife, Ada Maria Katherine Tollemache, daughter of the Honourable Frederick James Tollemache and Isabella Anne Forbes.[1][2]

Career

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Anstruther wrote poems, newspaper columns, short stories, plays and several novels. She was supportive of women's work and, in an article for the Nineteenth Century periodical,[3] argued that as an increasing number of women went to work outside of the family home, a "feminine clubland" that helped women to professionally network was indicative of how women's social circles were growing beyond biological family.[4] She also wrote for other publications, including publishing short stories in Harper's New Monthly Magazine.[5]

During World War I, Anstruther was the director of operations of the Camps Library, whose director was Sir Edward Ward. The Camps Library was a charitable organisation responsible for stocking "Soldiers Libraries" for troops and prisoners of war in France. Anstruther was able to use her contacts in the publishing industry to obtain remaindered books for the libraries.[6] The books were sorted and shipped by volunteers.[7] For this service Anstruther was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Years Honours list in 1918.[1][2][8]

Personal life

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Anstruther married Liberal Unionist politician Henry Torrens Anstruther in 1889[9] (they divorced in 1915). The couple had two children, Douglas and Joyce, the latter of who became a writer using the name Jan Struther.[1][2][10]

Death

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Anstruther died at her home in Chelsea, West London, from bronchial pneumonia on 19 June 1935, aged 66.[1][2]

Selected works

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  • Ebb and Flow (1894) short story[5]
  • The Influence of Mars (1900) short stories[11]
  • Old Clothes (1904) play[11]
  • A Lady in Waiting (1905) fiction[11]
  • Fido (1907) play[11]
  • The Whirligig (1908) play[11]
  • My Lonely Soldier (1916) play[11]
  • The Vanished Kitchen-Maid (1920) article[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Dame Eva Anstruther obituary". The Times. London, England. 20 June 1935. p. 19.
  2. ^ a b c d "Death of Dame Eva Anstruther". Dundee Courier. 21 June 1935. p. 3.
  3. ^ Stern, Kimberly J. (17 October 2016). The Social Life of Criticism: Gender, Critical Writing, and the Politics of Belonging. University of Michigan Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-472-13007-8.
  4. ^ Black, Barbara (27 April 2012). A Room of His Own: A Literary-Cultural Study of Victorian Clubland. Ohio University Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-8214-4435-1.
  5. ^ a b Bergman, Jill; Bernardi, Debra (28 August 2005). Our Sisters' Keepers: Nineteenth-Century Benevolence Literature by American Women. University of Alabama Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8173-5193-9.
  6. ^ King, Edmund G. C. (2013). ""Books Are More to Me Than Food": British Prisoners of War as Readers, 1914-1918". Book History. 16: 246–271. ISSN 1098-7371. JSTOR 42705787.
  7. ^ Laugesen, Amanda (15 April 2016). 'Boredom is the Enemy': The Intellectual and Imaginative Lives of Australian Soldiers in the Great War and Beyond. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-317-17302-1.
  8. ^ Subject Guide to Books. J. Clarke. 1934. p. 332.
  9. ^ Grant, Peter (18 February 2014). Philanthropy and Voluntary Action in the First World War: Mobilizing Charity. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-50038-3.
  10. ^ Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah (1999). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Yorkin Publications. p. 650. ISBN 978-0-7876-4069-9.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Nicoll, Allardyce (1973). English drama, 1900-1930; the beginnings of the modern period. Cambridge [England]: University Press. p. 480. ISBN 0-521-08416-4. OCLC 588815.
  12. ^ Anstruther, Eva (6 March 1920). "The Vanished Kitchen-Maid". The Graphic. p. 342 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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