Mabel Murray Hickson, née Mabel Greenhow (2 February 1859,

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up Ar ...

– 12 November 1922, Esher), was an English writer of short stories. She was born into a medical family with roots in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. Her father was Judge William Thomas Greenhow (1831-1921) and her grandfather was

Thomas Michael Greenhow Thomas Michael Greenhow MD MRCS FRCS (5 July 1792 – 25 October 1881) was an English surgeon and epidemiologist. Career Greenhow was the second son of Edward Michael Greenhow, an army surgeon of North Shields, Tynemouth. He was a medica ...

, co-founder of the city's Eye Infirmary and

Newcastle University Medical School Newcastle University School of Medicine is the medical school at Newcastle University in England. It was established in 1834 in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and served as the College of Medicine in connection with Durham University from 1851 ...

. He worked at the Newcastle Infirmary, later renamed the

Royal Victoria Infirmary The Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) is a 673-bed tertiary referral hospital and research centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with strong links to Newcastle University. The hospital is part of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Tru ...

, for many years and was instrumental in its expansion in the 1850s. On the death of her mother Marian née Martineau in 1864 (by her own hand) when she was a toddler, Mabel was taken into the home of her paternal aunt Frances Greenhow (1821-1892) and her husband Francis Lupton (1813–1884). The

Lupton family The Lupton family in Yorkshire achieved prominence in ecclesiastical and academic circles in England in the Tudor era through the fame of Roger Lupton, provost of Eton College and chaplain to Henry VII and Henry VIII. By the Georgian era, the ...

was a prosperous mercantile dynasty in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

; Francis was not only a manufacturer, but a banker and magistrate, and chairman of the finance committee of the Yorkshire College of Science, later the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. His wife Frances was the niece of writers and reformers Harriet and Dr James Martineau; her entry in the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' focuses on her pioneering work expanding opportunities for female education, not least in co-founding

Leeds Girls' High School Leeds Girls' High School (LGHS) was an independent, selective, fee-paying school for girls aged 3–18 founded in 1876 in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It merged with Leeds Grammar School in 2005 to form The Grammar School at Le ...

. Mabel grew up at the

family seat A family seat or sometimes just called seat is the principal residence of the landed gentry and aristocracy. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families to ...

of Beechwood, a

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, a village just outside Leeds. She was raised alongside her cousins Francis Martineau, Arthur, Charles, and Hugh, all of whom contributed to the eminence of the city from Victorian times through to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She married Robert Murray Hickson in 1884 (he died aged 29 in 1885).Hicksons found in Yorkshire
/ref> After publishing a short novel, ''A Latter-Day Romance'', in 1893, Hickson became a prolific contributor of stories to periodicals of the 1890s. Upon her second marriage in 1896 to Sidney Austyn Paul Kitcat (a first class cricketer, who played county cricket for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and club cricket for Esher), she became Mabel Greenhow Kitcat, though she continued to write under the name Mrs Murray Hickson.

Works

*''A Latter-Day Romance'', 1893 *''Shadows of Life'', 1898 *''Concerning Teddy'', 1899

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hickson, Mabel Murray 1859 births 1922 deaths English short story writers