Violet Van der Elst (4 January 1882 – 30 April 1966) was a British entrepreneur and campaigner best remembered for her activities against the death penalty.
Biography
She was born Violet Anne Dodge, the daughter of a coal porter and a
washerwoman
A washerwoman or laundress is a woman who takes in laundry. Both terms are now old-fashioned; equivalent work nowadays is done by a laundry worker in large commercial premises, or a laundrette (laundromat) attendant.
Description
As evidence ...
, she herself worked as a
scullery maid. In 1903, she married Henry Arthur Nathan, a civil engineer 13 years her senior. She developed cosmetics including Shavex, the first brush-less
shaving cream
Shaving cream or shave cream is a category of cream cosmetics used for shaving preparation. The purpose of shaving cream is to soften the hair by providing lubrication.
Different types of shaving creams include aerosol shaving cream (also kn ...
and became a successful businesswoman. After her first husband died on 15 November 1927, she married Jean Julien Romain Van der Elst, a Belgian who had been working for her as a manager but was also a painter.
Having amassed a huge personal fortune she purchased
Harlaxton Manor
Harlaxton is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the edge of the Vale of Belvoir and just off the A607, south-west from Grantham and north-east from Melton Mowbray.
History
A ...
, in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
, England in 1937. She restored the house, having renamed it Grantham Castle, and had it wired for electricity.
She gained publicity from her vocal campaigns against
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, and stood three times, unsuccessfully, as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
candidate to be a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
. Firstly she fought the
Putney constituency at the
1935 general election, coming third. Then she stood for
Southwark Central in the
1940 by-election as an independent supporting the
National Government, coming third. And lastly, she contested
Hornchurch
Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed a l ...
at the
1945 general election
The following elections occurred in the year 1945.
Africa
* 1945 South-West African legislative election
Asia
* 1945 Indian general election
Australia
* 1945 Fremantle by-election
Europe
* 1945 Albanian parliamentary election
* 1945 Bulgarian ...
, coming fourth.
She lost most of her fortune through "obsessive litigation". She was forced to sell her country house and moved to a flat in
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End.
Toponymy
Knightsbridge is an ancien ...
, London, in 1959.
Publications
She wrote the book ''On the Gallows'' in 1937 as part of her efforts to eradicate the death penalty. In the same year she published a collection of 13 ghost stories, ''The Torture Chamber and Other Stories''.
Death and legacy
Largely forgotten, she died in
Ticehurst House Hospital, a lunatic asylum, in
Ticehurst
Ticehurst is both a village and a large civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The parish lies in the upper reaches of both the Bewl stream before it enters Bewl Water and in the upper reaches of the River Rother flowi ...
,
Sussex, on 30 April 1966, aged 84;
Ann Bell
Ann Forrest Bell (born 29 April 1938) is a British actress, best known for playing war internee Marion Jefferson in the BBC Second World War drama series '' Tenko'' (1981–84).
She was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, the daughter of John Forrest ...
.
References
Bibliography
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External links
The Incredible Mrs Violet Van Der Elst
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Der Elst, Violet
1882 births
1966 deaths
British anti–death penalty activists
English horror writers
English short story writers
People from Middlesex (before 1965)
Independent politicians in England