Ada Wallas or Ada (or "Audrey") Radford (10 December 1859 – 12 October 1934) was an English writer and teacher.

Life

Wallas was born in Plymouth in 1859. Her father was George David Radford who was a partner in a drapers in Mannamead. Her mother Catherine Agnes had ten children and Wallas was the

penultimate Penult is a linguistics term for the second to last syllable of a word. It is an abbreviation of ''penultimate'', which describes the next-to-last item in a series. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultima. For example, the main ...

. Her non-conformist and close knit family sent her to Plymouth High School for Girls and then on to

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millice ...

to study mathematics. She then taught for a year at

Wimbledon High School Wimbledon High School is an independent girls' day school in Wimbledon, South West London. It is a Girls' Day School Trust school and is a member of the Girls' Schools Association. History Wimbledon High School was founded by the Girls' Publ ...

before returning to Devon. She moved back to London in 1893 having kept house for her brother. She had a private income and she also was now a published writer after pieces had appeared in ''

The Yellow Book ''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...

'' and the ''

Westminster Gazette ''The Westminster Gazette'' was an influential Liberal newspaper based in London. It was known for publishing sketches and short stories, including early works by Raymond Chandler, Anthony Hope, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, and Saki, ...

''. On 18 December 1897, she married the socialist

Graham Wallas Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 – 9 August 1932) was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Biography Born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, Wall ...

. The following year they had a daughter . May had to be cared for when having diphtheria in 1910 and flu in 1917 when she too was at Newnham College. May obtained her doctorate at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

, which her father had founded. She later went to lecture at Newnham. In 1898, Ada contributed poems to her brother

Ernest Radford Ernest William Radford (1857–1919) was an English poet, critic and socialist. He was a follower of William Morris, and one of the organisers in the Arts and Crafts Movement; he acted as secretary to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. He w ...

's publication ''Songs in the Whirlwind'' using the name Ada Radford. Her literary work waned after marriage; her first work after marriage was a children’s book ''The Land of Play'' published in 1906. According to historian Gillian Sutherland, Her work took on somewhat less radical matters after marriage though she remained invoked in community matters through involvement in mothers’ and school organisations. In 1929, she published ''Before the Bluestockings'' which included biographies that she had previously published. In the same year she published her early reminiscences under the title ''Daguerreotypes''. Wallas died in her house in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in 1934.Gillian Sutherland, ‘Wallas , Ada (1859–1934)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, April 201
accessed 26 Jan 2017
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallas, Ada 1859 births 1934 deaths 19th-century English women writers 20th-century English women writers Writers from Plymouth, Devon English women non-fiction writers Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge People educated at Plymouth High School for Girls English biographers Women biographers