Alice Ann Cornwell (1 January 1852 – 7 January 1932) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

goldmining industrialist and newspaper proprietor. She made her fortune from gold and floated her company on the London Stock Exchange. She was a confident business person investing in several companies including owning the

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

Life

Cornwell was born in

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

in 1852 to Jemima and

George Cornwell George Cornwell was a British railway engineer and building contractor working in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Among his prominent works, were the Hawthorn Railway Bridge built in 1861, with a sp ...

. She and her family emigrated to New Zealand when she was nine. Her father was an engineer. Her first marriage was with the much older John Whiteman. He was a politician and publican. This marriage resulted in a legal separation before she left for England, but it was not ended until Whiteman died. Her fortune was made when she returned from England after education at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

to Australia. Her father was a successful engineer who was then prospecting but he was not making a profit. Cornwell studied his ground and convinced others that a major find lay beneath his land. Shafts were created where she had indicated and gold was reputedly found within 30 centimetres of where she had said it would be. In 1886 she returned to London as a reputed millionaire, although this may have been an exaggeration. Despite not being able to enter London's club's because of her gender she floated the "Midas Mine" on the London Stock Exchange. Moreover she also created the British and Australian Mining Trust and Investment Company. The purpose of this company was to allow people to invest money directly in Australian mines. Cornwell bought the

in 1887 from Colonel

George FitzGeorge Colonel George William Adolphus FitzGeorge (24 August 1843 – 2 September 1907) was a British soldier and a great-grandson of King George III of the United Kingdom. Early life Colonel FitzGeorge was born on 24 August 1843 in London. He was th ...

, an illegitimate member of the Royal Family. Her purpose was to promote her new company and it was a gift to her lover Frederick Stannard (‘Phil’) Robinson. In 1888 her friend

Fergus Hume Ferguson Wright Hume (8 July 1859 – 12 July 1932), known as Fergus Hume, was a prolific English novelist, known for his detective fiction, thrillers and mysteries. Early life Hume was born in Powick, Worcestershire, England, the second ...

wrote a novel, "Madame Midas" about a "Mrs Villiers" which was obviously based on Cornwell. Cornwell sold the "Sunday Times" in 1893 to Frederick Beer, who already owned ''

Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in co ...

''. Beer appointed his wife,

Rachel Sassoon Beer Rachel Beer (''née'' Sassoon; 7 April 1858 – 29 April 1927) was an Indian-born British newspaper editor. She was editor-in-chief of ''The Observer'' and ''The Sunday Times''. Early life Rachel Sassoon was born in Bombay to Sassoon David Sas ...

, as editor. Cornwell's estranged first husband died in 1893Bush Advocate cited by earlyphotographers
Volume IX, Issue 729, 19 January 1893, Page 2 and she took Robinson's in 1894. Robinson was judicially separated from his wife Sarah, rather than divorced, and never legally married Cornwell. He assumed the name Frederick Stennard Robinson and Alice assumed the name Mrs Ann Stennard Robinson. They had an illegitimate daughter, Myrtle Dorothy Robinson. Cornwell died in 1932 in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornwell, Alice Ann 1852 births 1932 deaths People from West Ham English industrialists New Zealand business executives People from Victoria (Australia)