Elizabeth Haldane diaries [1917-1930]

  • Women's Voices and Life Writing
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Title
Elizabeth Haldane diaries [1917-1930]
Author
  • Haldane, Elizabeth
Document Type
  • Diary
Date
1917-1930
Biography
Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane was a Scottish author, nurse and welfare worker. She was born in Edinburgh in 1862, the younger sister of statesman Richard Burdon Haldane and physiologist John Scott Haldane. She was privately educated – a rarity for girls at the time – though wasn’t allowed to study at university like her brothers. Elizabeth developed an interest in philosophy and social justice. Influenced by English housing reformer Octavia Hill, she founded an organisation for slum reconstruction in Edinburgh in 1884 at age 21. She also took nursing classes throughout the 1880s and in 1901 became manager of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1908 she became involved in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), in 1913 she became the first female trustee of Andrew Carnegie’s United Kingdom Trust and in 1920 she was the first woman justice of the peace in Scotland. Elizabeth also had a successful literary career, publishing at least 12 books in her lifetime. She died in Perth in 1937.
Copyright and Source Archive
Material sourced from the National Library of Scotland