Diary of Lady Battersea Vol. XIV - Women's Voices and Life Writing

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Title

Diary of Lady Battersea Vol. XIV

Author

Document Type

Date

1 Jan 1871 - 8 Aug 1871

Biography

Constance Flower (nee de Rothschild) was an aristocratic Jewish philanthropist and society hostess, who in 1885 founded the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children (JAPGW). Constance, born in 1843, was the eldest daughter of Lady Louisa de Rothschild and Sir Anthony, a descendent of the wealthiest Jewish banking family in England. She taught alongside her sister Anne at the Jew’s Free School in Aston Clinton, where her family home was. In 1877, she married Cyril Flower, a Liberal Party politician and property developer, and later Lord Battersea, whom she had met 13 years previously through Cyril’s friendship with her cousin Leopold. The marriage was a happy though unconventional one, with Cyril generally preferring the company of men. In 1902, he was involved in a public scandal with a male lover. Constance joined the British Women’s Temperance Association in 1894 and became involved in the reform movement of English women’s prisons. She established the JAPGW following reports of child prostitution by East European Jews and led the Association until the 1920s. She also turned her houses in London into shelters for unmarried women and children in need. In 1902-3 she was President of the National Union of Women Workers and continued to remain on the executive committee until 1919, becoming a leading figure in Anglo-Jewish feminism. Lady Battersea died in November 1931 and was buried at the Willesden Jewish Cemetery.

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