Mrs. Rosa Grindon ..... another story by Tony Goulding

In continuation of my recent theme of celebrating the lives of prominent women of Manchester during the first half of the twentieth century this is the story of Mrs. Rosa Leo Grindon. 

Mrs. Rosa Leo Grindon, 2024

This bronze plaque, the work of the Manchester-based sculptor John Cassidy (1) is currently located in the vestibule of Manchester’s central library where it faces the large stained-glass Shakespeare window funded by her bequest of £1000.

The Shakespeare Window, 2024

Rosa was born Rosa Elverson during the June quarter of 1848 in Newhall, Burton-on-Trent, Derbyshire. Her parents were William Elverson and his wife Jane (née Haynes). Her father had an interesting career. 

When Rosa was born, he was working as an agricultural labourer but by the time the 1861 census was taken, he had become a grocer and draper. Harrod’s directory of 1870 shows him as a “private resident” of The Laurels, Stapenhill, Derbyshire and both a farmer and a brick, tile, and drainpipe manufacturer. Ten years later he is recorded in the 1881 census as a “brick manufacturer and farmer – employing 12 men and 6 boys” 

He died on 23rd October 1890 in Southport, Lancashire leaving an estate valued at £798-13s-6d (equivalent to £85,000 today); both Rosa and her unmarried older sister Mary were two of the executors of his will. Rosa’s mother, Jane, died in a tragic traffic accident in High Street, Burton-on-Trent on Monday 28th January 1884 when the horse of the trap she was driving unexpectedly bolted and in the resultant collision Jane was pitched out and struck her head on the wheel of another vehicle.

Besides Mary, Rosa had an older brother, William Henry, and two younger sisters, Alice and Clara. William Henry’s life story is an absorbing one. He started work as a brickmaker, presumably with his father, before marrying Maria Adkin, the daughter of George Adkin a blacksmith, in Tamworth, Staffordshire on 12th March 1866. The 1871 census records the couple at 13, Parliament Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire with William Henry employed as a brickmaker. By the time of the following census in 1881 the couple had split up and were living apart. The Burton Chronicle of 3rd October 1878 carried a notification by Maria that she had obtained a legal separation from her husband and could no longer be held responsible for any future debts he incurred. He left England for the United States in April 1884 accompanied by Sarah Anne Elks and her son Leonard (born in Nottingham on 10th September 1881) and remained there until his death in Eddystone, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on 3rd August 1915

Rosa’s two younger sisters both got work as governesses, Alice for a solicitor John Vallance in Kensington, London (2) and Clara for John Anderson, a landscape painter and headmaster of an art school, his wife Elizabeth Hoskin and eight children in Middlesborough Street, Coventry, Warwickshire. Rosa, also, worked as a housekeeper / lady companion in various households. In 1871 she was a “companion” to Isabella Leighton Morgan, an 88-yaer-old widow living on income derived from dividends, at 6, The Mount, Stafford, Staffordshire. In 1881 the census record shows Rosa working as a housekeeper for a law student of the Inner Temple, John Emmot Barlow, (3) at Torkington Lodge, Hazel Grove Stockport. The next census in 1891 records Rosa as a “Lady Housekeeper” for John Gilbert, a widowed brewery manager living at 5, Beacon Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire. While residing in Lichfield Rosa acted as the city’s Lady Mayoress in 1892-3 during the term of her employer. She also made acquaintance with a friend of her father, Leopold Grindon, who was soon to become her husband. (Lichfield Mercury – 2nd December 1904)

Leo and Rosa Grindon in 1898

As a woman in the middle of the 19th century, Rosa was not permitted to attend university. (4) Nevertheless, she did become a very learned person especially knowledgeable in the fields of Botany and English Literature (particularly Shakespeare’s Plays). With opportunities to gain a degree still being very limited Rosa, like many other women of the period, availed herself of alternative option offered by St. Andrew’s University, Scotland – the Lady Literate in Arts or L.L.A.

The L.L.A. was established in 1877 and in 1888 Rosa gained this qualification in Botany, Political Economy, and Physiology. The Bristol Mercury of 6th August 1888 listed all the successful candidates for the award by place the exam was taken. Rosa is included in the list for Cheltenham, which has led to a misconception that she attended the famous Ladies College in the town (which many of the other entrants at Cheltenham had).

On 8th August 1893, Rosa married Mr. Leopold Hartley Grindon at Christ Church, Lloyd Street North, Moss Side, Manchester. She was his second wife; his first wife, Elizabeth née Wright who had married at St. James Church, Birch in Rusholme, Lancashire, almost 50 years to the day previous, on 8th August 1843, had but recently died during the September quarter of 1892. Rosa was 45 years old and her husband 30 years her senior at 75.

 Leo H. Grindon was born in Bristol on 28th March 1818, the son of Joseph Baker Grindon, a solicitor and long-term Coroner of Bristol, but came to Manchester as a young man in October 1838. He became a confirmed “Mancunian” and provided great service to his adopted city. Initially working in the city’s cotton industry, first in a warehouse and then as a cashier, he later developed his love of nature and science, especially botany, into an academic and teaching career. One of the many posts he held during his long life was as a lecturer in botany at The Manchester Royal School of Medicine. He amassed a large collection of plant specimens, which now form a significant part of the Botanical exhibits in Manchester Museum and was a prolific writer on a wide variety of subjects. 

  Frontispiece (designer unknown) of The Manchester Flora    

A largely self-taught man himself he was keen to support the growth of adult education and especially to pass on his love and knowledge of the area’s flora. To this end he held lectures at the Mechanics Institute and Manchester’s Athenaeum Club as well as being the leading light and Honorary Secretary of The Manchester Field Naturalists and Archaeologists’ Society.

The esteem and affection with which he was regarded by the citizens of his adopted city is shown by the lavish party thrown in his honour at Manchester’s Town Hall to celebrate his 80th birthday on Monday, 28th March 1898. The Manchester Evening Chronicle of the following day reported the event in detail. Mr. Grindon received a cheque for £500, £100 of it being a government grant with the remaining £400 comprising of contributions of nearly 300 subscribers. 

Following her husband’s death, on 20th November 1904, Rosa dedicatedly championed his legacy. She wrote frequently to the Manchester Press and held many lectures promoting proposals for clean air and advocating that the council should invest in parks and gardens. 

 

The Garden Gate, 2024

Rosa was also a great lover of Shakespeare’s plays of which she was a recognised authority; a major work “Shakespeare’s Plays from a Woman’s Point of View was published posthumously in 1930. 

She was pivotal in celebrating the tercentenary of The Bard’s death, a particularly difficult task as the anniversary occurred dead in the middle of the First World War in 1916. 

A combination of Rosa’s two great loves, a centrepiece of the celebration was the creation of a ”Shakespeare Garden” in Platt Fields Park, Manchester which would only include plants and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s works.

A committed suffragette, as an alternative to refusing to complete it at all which was the policy of many suffragists, she chose to complete the 1911 census and, in the section requesting details of occupation she entered “Lecturer & Suffragette”.   

The Shakespeare Garden - Platt Fields, 2024

Among Rosa’s other accomplishments was the formation of the Manchester Ladies Chess Club at a meeting in 78, King Street, Manchester on 25th September 1900. Rosa served as its first president. She had previously, in April 1896, been elected the inaugural president of the Manchester Ladies Literary Club.

 A frequent correspondent with newspapers on a variety of topics, she is also known to have penned a biography of her father under the title “Home Memories of William Elverson of Stapenhill”. Rosa also corresponded with the remarkable Helen Keller the blind and deaf social reformer in the United States.

 On 6th May 1923, Rosa died in Cecil Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, a home she had shared with her husband and in which she had hosted numerous meetings and garden parties. She left a total of £3,980-12s-1d. (almost £200,000 in today’s value) of which £1,000 was bequeathed to Manchester City Council for the Shakespeare Window (5) 

Rosa &  Leo's grave,2004

After a few small bequests she wished the residue to be used to publish her lectures. Her large collection Shakespearean memorabilia was donated to Manchester Libraries. A “Mrs. Leo Grindon Prize at the Royal Manchester College of Music". (Staffordshire Sentinel-20th July 1948) was founded in her honour.

Rosa was buried alongside her husband in this grave, B 899 in the consecrated (Church of England) section of Southern Cemetery, Manchester.

Pictures: - Leo and Rosa Grindon (1898) by Warwick Brookes m 73274 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Frontispiece (designer unknown) of The Manchester Flora https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19948672

Others from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

  1) John Cassidy was an Irish born Sculptor best known for his large bronze statue of Edward VII in Whitworth Park on Oxford Road, Manchester.

  2) Alice later married John Vallance’s eldest son, John Daniel. The family’s wealth can be measured by John Daniel’s estate when he died in 1939 which was assessed at a total of £63,586- (equivalent to £3,420,372)

  3) John Emmot Barlow became the Liberal M.P. for Frome in Somerset and was later knighted and created a Baronet.

  4) After obtaining a supplement to its Charter, The University of London became the first institution in the U.K. to allow women to take degrees.

  5) Rosa’s will was contested, and this in part led to a delay in the construction of Manchester’s Central Library.

While writing this piece I have found a number of others have posted parts of her story on the web. I have endeavoured to avoid being tempted to copy directly from that source wherever possible I looked for the original source. This is for two reasons; one is such copying is unethical, the other is the risk that any errors in such would be thus perpetuated.