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Georgina Cowper-Temple, Lady Mount Temple

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The Right Honourable
The Lady Mount Temple
Lady Mount Temple and her adopted daughter Juliet in 1887
Personal details
Born
Georgina Elizabeth Tollemache

1822
Died17 October 1901
NationalityBritish
SpouseWilliam Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple
Children1
Parent(s)John Richard Delap Tollemache
Lady Elizabeth Stratford

Georgina Elizabeth Cowper-Temple, Lady Mount Temple (née Tollemache; 1822 – 17 October 1901) was an English religious enthusiast, humanitarian, and animal welfare campaigner. She was the second wife of William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple. Lady Mount Temple was active in the Temperance Movement and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was a co-founder of the Plumage League.

Early life and family

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Lady Mount Temple was born Georgina Elizabeth Tollemache on 8 November to Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache and Lady Elizabeth Stratford. One source says she was probably born in 1821.[1] Her father, whose original surname was Halliday, assumed by royal license the surname and arms of his mother, Lady Jane Tollemache, who was the daughter and co-heiress of Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart.[2] Her mother was the daughter of John Stratford, 3rd Earl of Aldborough.[3] She was the sister of John Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache.[3] Lady Mount Temple was a close friend and distant cousin of Constance Lloyd, the wife of Oscar Wilde.[4]

Humanitarianism and animal welfare

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Bronze statue of Lady Mount Temple in Babbacombe

Lady Mount Temple was one of the leaders of the Torquay Anti-Vivisection Society.[4] She also co-founded the Plumage League.

She was active in the Band of Mercy, whose first president was her husband, and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[4] Lady Mount Temple was also involved in the Temperance Movement.[4]

In 1903, a birdbath with a bronze statue of Lady Mount Temple, designed by Arthur George Walker, was erected in Babbacombe.[4][5] A horse trough near the Torre railway station is also dedicated to her.[4]

Lady Mount Temple became a vegetarian in 1876 and a vice-president of the Vegetarian Society in 1884.[6]

Personal life

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On 22 November 1848, she married The Honourable William Cowper, son of the 5th Earl Cowper.[3] She and her husband had no natural children, but adopted a daughter named Juliet Latour Temple, in 1869.[7][3] In 1880, her husband was elevated to the peerage as Baron Mount Temple.

Lady Mount Temple was a friend of the writer John Ruskin, the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and the suffragist Frances Power Cobbe.[3]

She lived at Babbacombe Cliff and also owned properties in Ireland.[4][3] She died in 1901.[4] After her death, part of her estate was bequeathed to the Church Army and to the Victoria Street Society of Protection of Animals from Vivisection.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004). "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. ref:odnb/53965. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53965. Retrieved 17 February 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ "John Tollemache (formerly Halliday)". Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Georgina Cowper & Margueritte Tollemache, ca. 1850s". Costume Cocktail. 19 December 2016. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Dixon, Kevin (28 December 2022). "Babbacombe's Georgina and Torquay's animal welfare campaigners". We Are South Devon. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Birdbath Commemorating Baroness Mount Temple". Geograph Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  6. ^ Gregory, James. (2009). Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian Britain. p. 162, pp. 192-193. ISBN 978-1848851115
  7. ^ "Broadlands Archives BR51-100". University of Southampton. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
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