Louisa Hope Sinclair (née Stevenson; 21 March 1864-13 Oct 1950) was an early female conservationist.

Life

Stevenson was born on 21 March 1864, the fifth of six children of the Rev Dr

Robert Horne Stevenson Robert Horne Stevenson (27 October 1812 – 15 November 1886) was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1871/2. Life Stevenson was born on 27 October 1812 at Netherinch, Campsie, son o ...

and his wife Frances Cadell, daughter and coheiress of

Robert Cadell Robert Cadell (16 December 1788 – 20 January 1849) was a bookseller and publisher closely associated with Sir Walter Scott. Life He was born at Cockenzie, East Lothian, Scotland, the fifth son of John Cadell, a Laird of Cockenzie, and Marie ...

of Ratho. The family lived at 9 Oxford Terrace in the Learmonth district of west

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, close to

Dean Bridge The Dean Bridge spans the Water of Leith in the city of Edinburgh on the A90 road to Queensferry on the Firth of Forth. It carries the roadway, long and broad, on four arches rising above the river.H Coghill, ''Discovering The Water of L ...

. In October 1905 she married Alexander Garden Sinclair ARSA, a noted Scottish landscape and portrait artist. In 1917 she became the first female office-holder of the prominent

conservationist group the

Cockburn Association The Cockburn Association (Edinburgh's Civic Trust) is one of the world's oldest architectural conservation and urban planning monitoring organisations, founded in 1875. The Scottish judge Henry Cockburn (1779–1854) was a prominent campaigner t ...

, taking on the role of joint Honorary Secretary. The Sinclairs lived at 18 Ann Street, Edinburgh where Alexander died after a long illness in 1930. The couple had no children. Louisa gifted at least two of Alexander’s paintings to national and local institutions. In 1942 she donated a portrait called ''The Satin Dress'' to

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

Art Gallery and she bequeathed an agricultural scene called the ''Horses Harrowing'' to the

National Galleries of Scotland National Galleries of Scotland ( gd, Gailearaidhean Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the National Collections o ...

in her will. Louisa died on the 13 October 1950 and is buried in her parents' family plot near the centre of the northern 19th-century extension of

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

in western

alongside her husband.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, Louisa Hope 1864 births 1950 deaths Philanthropists from Edinburgh Burials at the Dean Cemetery