Helen Gladstone (1849–1925) was the youngest daughter of Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone. She came to Newnham as a student in 1877 and stayed on as Principal’s Secretary and then Vice-Principal of Sidgwick Hall.
Helen Gladstone thrived at Newnham, where she was known for her sweet character and sound judgement. In 1886 she turned down the chance of becoming the first Principal of Royal Holloway College, suspecting that they simply wanted ‘a Gladstone’. Instead, she decided to care for her elderly parents, and later, with Octavia Hill, helped to found the Women’s University Settlement, Southwark.
The portrait was given to Newnham by ‘Students and Friends’ of the College in 1889, with Helen’s sister Mary Gladstone being one of those who contributed to the fund. The first artist considered was Hubert von Herkomer, famed for his 1885 painting Hard Times. However the commission was subsequently awarded to William Blake Richmond, an influential figure in the Arts & Crafts movement. Richmond is best known as a portrait painter, and Newnham’s art collection also includes his earlier portrait of Anne Jemima Clough, as seen in the first slide of this exhibition.
Alongside his artistic career, Richmond was also an environmental activist, being an early campaigner for clean air in London. He was frustrated by the low light levels in winter caused by air pollution, which he described in a letter to the London Times as darkness ‘comparable to a total eclipse of the sun’. In 1898 he founded the Coal Smoke Abatement Society, one of the first environmental NGOs in the UK, now known as Environmental Protection UK. He published numerous articles and gave public lectures on the dangers associated with coal smoke.