In 1924 Dr Ethel Williams and her lifelong companion Frances Hardcastle chose to retire to a corner of Northumberland to a house that they had built together, Low Bridges at Stocksfield. Two extraordinary, determined and active women, who in many respects lived ahead of their times.
Ethel Mary Nucella Williams was born in Cromer, Norfolk, the daughter of a country squire and is the better known of the two ladies. She was physician, suffragist, pacifist and car driver. After qualifying as a doctor, which had included travelling to Vienna and Paris to obtain practical experience as women were not able to train in British hospitals, Ethel came to settle in Newcastle. In 1906, she became the first women in the city to open a general medical practice alongside Dr Ethel Bentham in Ellison Place, later moving to Osborne Terrace, Jesmond. She worked tirelessly to promote issues affecting health and wellbeing of women and children, especially amongst the poor. In 1917 she founded the Northern Women’s Hospital on Osborne Road (now the Nuffield Health Clinic). By the time she retired from general practice there were 14 women doctors’ in Newcastle. During the First World War, Ethel supported the pacifist aims of the International Congress of Women and highlighted the impact of naval blockades on starving refugees.
Ethel was a tireless advocate of women’s suffrage; she was an active member of the Suffragist movement (The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, NUWSS), believing that suffrage should be achieved through non-violent means. She went on to become the chair of the North East Society of Women’s Suffrage, and reportedly as the first woman in the north of England to own a car this came in very useful for organising marches and processions. Ethel was said to have ‘unflagging energy’; she spoke at rallies, attended demonstrations and was involved in marches, including one from Newcastle to London. In 2018 to mark the centenary of some women getting the vote, a ‘blue plaque’ was mounted on her former residence in Osborne Terrace to mark her many achievements.
Frances Hardcastle was born near Chelmsford, Essex, her father was a barrister and her maternal grandfather was Sir John Herschel the astronomer. Frances’ background was in mathematics, being a founding member of the American Mathematical Society in 1894 whilst studying at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. Like Ethel, she was also an advocate for women’s suffrage, joining the Cambridge Association for Women’s Suffrage whilst at Girton College, and later working as Honorary Secretary of the NUWSS until 1909 under Millicent Fawcett, supporting the non-violent stance. Like Ethel she supported the aims of the International Congress of Women, travelling to Zurich in 1919.
How and when exactly Ethel and Frances became acquainted is unclear, however, it was undoubtedly through their shared interest of women’s suffrage.
The Second Annual Report of the North Eastern Federation of Women’s Suffrage dated April 1912 records Dr. Ethel Williams as a member of the Executive Committee for Newcastle upon Tyne and Miss Hardcastle as Honorary Secretary; the address given for Frances is Osborne Terrace (no address is given for Ethel). The 1915 Annual Report records both ladies living at 3 Osborne Terrace, although Ethel was now ‘chairman’ and Frances added Treasurer to her duties.
On 18th June 1913, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle newspaper reported on a 50-strong suffragist walk from Newcastle to London with the aim of engaging “in propaganda work en route” to a larger gathering to be held at Hyde Park, London the following month. Ethel addressed the group before setting off, and then alongside Frances and Miss C.M. Gordon, organising secretary, they followed in a motor-car, probably Ethel’s own.
The Electoral Registers between 1918 and 1924 show Ethel and Frances registered to vote at 3 Osborne Terrace, Jesmond Ward, Northumberland; their right to vote recorded as ‘O’ meaning ‘occupational qualification’.
In 1924 they moved to Low Bridges, Stocksfield a house that was purpose built for them upon Ethel’s retirement from general practice. A copy of the architects’ plan for the proposed house has recently been discovered at Northumberland Archives. The property and its ‘famous garden’ was opened at a charge of 6d. to benefit Stocksfield Show in 1939; it was described as “by the side of a delightful natural dene with a running stream and many wild cherry trees. Full advantage has been made of this and rock plants and spring flowers clothe the natural slopes”.
The Newcastle Journal reported on 2nd December 1936 that Ethel and Frances attended a Women’s Club dinner to listen to the address by Mrs. Walter Elliot, wife of the Secretary of State for Scotland and sister-in-law of Mr. Asquith (former Liberal Primer Minister). The article describes them as founder-members of the Club, stating that Ethel worn raspberry lace and Frances burgundy velvet (the article gave almost as much detail of the dress of the attendees as it did the speech).
The 1939 Register, records the occupants of Low Bridges in Stocksfield as Ethel and Frances along with their private secretary Mabel Annie Burnip and two female domestic servants.
Frances died on 26th December 1941 at The Royal Hotel, Cambridge. The National Probate Calendar shows that she left her effects of £4,400 to Ethel and Mabel. The following year Ethel left Low Bridges; the Newcastle Journal reporting in August 1942 that she was moving “for what probably will be the duration of the war, though her plans for the future are as yet indefinite”. The uncertainty of the article is at odds with the direction and motivation that Ethel displayed in former years. Perhaps it was grief that drove her away, but she returned to Newcastle, volunteering to help with air raid casualties. The Electoral Registers for 1945 show Ethel and Mabel residing at 125 Osborne Road, Jesmond ward.
In 1945 Low Bridges was advertised to let in the Newcastle Journal, for ‘summer months’, possibly signaling a return. Ethel did return, her death in 1948 is recorded as being ‘at home’ in Stocksfield. In her will she left an estate of £31,659 Mabel was a beneficiary.
Mabel stayed in the area, living in Stocksfield before she passed away in 1984 at Riding Mill. Her estate of £128,893 was given mostly to charitable causes that undoubtedly both Ethel and Frances would have approved off. Two scholarship funds were set up, both in memory Ethel. The M.A. Burnip scholarship was established with funds from Mabel’s will for the general purposes of Newcastle University in memory of Dr. Ethel Williams. The Ethel Williams scholarship was created for graduates, male or female, of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London, to provide additional experience or research at home or abroad. Funds were also left for the upkeep of Ethel’s grave in Stocksfield. All of which points to an incredibly strong bond and relationship based on admiration and respect between Ethel and Mabel following Frances’ death.
In many of the articles Ethel and Frances are described as ‘lifelong companions’. Female homosexuality was not legislated against (attempts to introduce legislation in 1921 were abandoned due to the fear that drawing attention to it may encourage women to explore homosexuality), but undoubtedly would have been considered highly unusual at best. It would, however, be wrong to assume the sexuality of either woman or presume to know the exact nature of the relationship they shared; it is clear that their lifestyle would not have been considered the ‘norm’ for women of the time: it was a “long-term and obviously close relationship these two intelligent women had; both lived unconventional lives for the time, being similarly politically aligned and active, not getting married and having children, choosing to lead financially independent lives”.
REFERENCES:
Dr Ethel Williams (1863-1948)’, in Angels of the North Notable Women of the North East by Joyce Quinn & Moira Kilkenny, 2018
British Medical Journal, February 1921, 1948, p.369, accessed via https://www.bmj.com/archive/
https://www.ancestrylibraryedition.co.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-44872778
https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/articles/a-short-history-of-lgbt-rights-in-the-uk#
https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/ethel-williams/
https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/ (“National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. North Eastern Federation of Women’s Suffrage Societies”, annual reports 1912 and 1915.
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ (including newspaper articles from Newcastle Evening Chronicle and Newcastle Journal)
https://peoplepill.com/people/frances-hardcastle/
https://search.ncl.ac.uk/s/search.html?collection=neu-meta&profile=_default&query=burnip