Adele Meyer

Adele Meyer, Lady Meyer (née Levis; 1855–1930) was a British campaigner for social reform. She was the editor of a suffrage journal and a philanthropist to good causes including an early school for mothers in London.

Adele Meyer
"Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children" by John Singer Sargent
Born
Adele Levis

1855
London
Died1930
NationalityBritish
Spouse(s)Sir Carl Meyer
Childrentwo

Life

Adele Meyer was born in Belsize Park in London in 1855 into a Jewish family. She married the wealthy banker Carl Meyer in 1883. She deprecatingly described herself as a social worker and she did visit the poor. Adele Mayer however was able to fund operas.[1]

Adele Meyer and her two children were models for an award-winning painting by the American painter John Singer Sargent. The painting shows Mrs Carl Mayer in luxurious surroundings giving minimal attention to her son Frank and daughter Elsie Charlotte. It was exhibited in 1896.[2]

She was on the more active wing of the suffrage movement. She supported women refusing to pay their taxes on the grounds that they had no vote. From 1906 she was a member of the NUWSS serving on their executive committee and becoming editor of their journal "The Common Cause".[1]

A lesson on the cradle at a School for Mothers

In 1907, she funded a School for Mothers on Charlton Street, London, and served as its vice-chair alongside Alys Pearsall Smith.[1] This provided a model for infant welfare centres, bring together a range of services focused towards reducing infant mortality.[3]

In 1910 her husband was knighted and she became Lady Meyer.[1]

She was a founder and funder of the London hostel that became Queen Mary College.[1]

Lady Meyer died in 1930.[4]

References
  1. Ellen Ross (2007). Slum Travelers: Ladies and London Poverty, 1860-1920. University of California Press. pp. 53–56. ISBN 978-0-520-24905-9.
  2. Mrs Carl Meyer and her children Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, JSSGallery, Retrieved 21 April 2016
  3. Davies, Sue (30 May 2014). "The St Pancras School for Mothers". Wellcome Library. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  4. Adele Meyer, OxfordDNB, Retrieved 21 April 2016
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