Miss Olga Hertz another story from Tony Goulding

Last month Andrew Simpson posted a story of the work of this remarkable woman which prompted me to research her background.

Olga Hertz was born in Glasgow on 19th November 1851 the fourth of the four daughters of Theodor Hertz and his wife Mary Amelia (née Steinthal).   Her father was a wealthy iron merchant (1) who was born in Hamburg, Germany; her mother was born in Eccles, Lancashire in 1825, the daughter of German immigrants Ludwig and Ernestine Steinthal. By the mid-1840s the Steinthals had returned to Germany as it was in Hamburg, Germany that Olga’s parents married on 4th March 1846.

Theodor Hertz died in Glasgow on 15th May 1872. Following her bereavement his widow, Mary Amelia returned to her home city of Manchester, with her three unmarried daughters. (2)  In the first instance they lived next door to her brother Henry Michael Steinthal at Oak Mount, Oak Drive, Fallowfield in a property owned by Sir Joseph Whitworth, the fabulously wealthy engineer and philanthropist. In November 1886 the family moved to 49, Palatine Road, Withington, Manchester and this was to remain Olga’s home for the next 60 years. She was still living at this address when she died on 27th December 1946. Her estate was valued for probate at £62,956 -12s- 8d. (the equivalent today would be £2,142,439).

Due to her family’s extreme wealth Olga never had to seek paid employment, however she did work tirelessly on several public bodies. The Manchester Rate books of the mid 1880s record her as the secretary of the Ardwick and Ancoats District Nurses Home on Ardwick Green, Manchester. It was, however, her work as a Poor Law Guardian for the Chorlton Union detailed in Andrew’s piece for which she is best remembered. As part of this work Olga set sail from Liverpool on 3rd June 1909 aboard the Laurentic bound for Montreal, Quebec, Canada to check on the welfare of some of the children sent there by the Chorlton Union as part of the British Home Children scheme. Olga’s feminism was manifested in the demands that women should take full part in public bodies. In this capacity she often shared a platform with Margaret Ashton the first woman to be elected as a councillor for Manchester City Council. The two women likely became friends; the1921 census return further suggests this was the case as it shows Olga as a visitor at Margaret Ashton’s residence, Church Aston Manor, Newport, Shropshire.

  Two of Olga’s maternal uncles remained in England and became prominent Manchester citizens. The already referred to Henry Michael Steinthal was a textile and general merchant with interests in Bradford and Manchester and a director of The Manchester Fire Assurance Company.  He was variously in business partnerships with his brother-in-law Theodor Hertz and both his son Edgar Frederick and his son-in-law Frederick Francis Benjamin Zimmern. In his retirement he moved to Scarborough, Yorkshire where for a time he had a “tile and floor cloth” manufacturing business. He died at Myra Lodge, Alexandra Park, Scarborough on 3rd January 1905.

Henry Michael was also active in public life serving on a variety of civic bodies; he was a "visitor" to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, a member of the Royal Manchester Institution the precursor of the city's Art Gallery and one of the three joint treasurers of Indian Mutiny Relief Fund.

The “Hollies” as a convent school. 1959

His home, “The Hollies”, Oak Drive, Fallowfield, Manchester later became a Catholic Convent School also called “The Hollies”

 The second uncle was Rev. Samuel Alfred Steinthal who as a Unitarian minister was for a time assistant to Rev. William Gaskell (Elizabeth Gaskell’s husband) at the Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchest

The original Cross Street Chapel circa 1835

At the elections for Manchester City Council in October 1908 which saw Margaret Ashton returned for the Withington ward Rev. Steinthal was the seconder of her nomination.

Pictures: - The Hollies 1959 (m65697) from Manchester Libraries, Information, and Archives, Manchester City Council. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Cross Street Chapel circa 1835 from Wikipedia in the public domain.

Notes: -

1) The family’s wealth is indicated by their entry in the 1861 census showing they employed 6 servants.

2) Olga’s three older sisters were, Louisa Elizabeth, who married in Scotland prior to the family’s move to Manchester, Alice Ernestina, and Amelia Theresa.

Like Olga neither of the last two ever married.