Lady Catherine Courtney of Penwith
Recently I have been researching Lady Catherine (Kate) Courtney of Penwith for Liskeard museum to write a brief biography of her and her husband Leonard and their relationship with Emily Hobhouse.
Leonard Henry Courtney (1932-1918), 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith and MP for Liskeard (1876 – 1900)
Leonard Courtney was born on the 6th of July 1832 in Penzance, Cornwall. He was the eldest of nine children born to John and Sarah Courtney. John was a banker at Bolithos’ Bank in Falmouth. Sarah camefrom St Mary’s in The Isles of Scilly but had been sent to Penzance at an early age to work.
At school, Leonard had been recognised as a gifted student. However, at the age of twelve, he left school to work alongside his father at the bank. He received tutoring from Dr Willan, an ex-Cambridge man. Leonard excelled at the bank and studied hard in his spare time. He could often be found in the Penzance library, which he spoke fondly of in later life.
At the age of thirteen, Leonard bought the book Elements of Morality by Jonathan Dymond, the author of which was a Quaker known to the family. The book ignited his interest in the Quakers, who at that time were well established in Cornwall. This interest would influence him and remain with him for the rest of his life.
In 1851, at the age of nineteen, Leonard won a scholarship to St John’s College in Cambridge. Between1872-1875, he was professor of political economy at University College London. He was also president of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall (1881-1882). Dr Willan remained a counsellor and friend through the anxieties and triumphs of his university career, and he lived to see his beloved pupil become an honoured and influential figure.
In December 1876, Leonard was elected a Liberal MP for Liskeard and Bodmin. In 1900, his attitude towards the South African War compelled his retirement. Leonard wasn’t afraid to speak out about his radical beliefs, favouring pacifism over confrontation. This made him unpopular at the time of the risingimperialism in Great Britain. He was known as a stubborn fighter for principle. He resigned as Financial Secretary to the Treasury having found out that the government’s Reform Bill (that extended voting rights to all male householders in 1884) held no recognition for the scheme for proportional representation, to which he was deeply committed. He also refused to support William Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill that granted Ireland limited self governance in 1886. Despite strong views, Leonard remained respected in the House of Commons and was elevated to a peerage in 1906, becoming Lord Courtney of Penwith, a name he took from his birthplace.
Catherine (Kate) Courtney (1847-1929), Baroness Courtney of Penwith
Catherine Potter, known as ‘Kate’, was born at Gayton Hall in Herefordshire on the 4th of April 1847. She was the second of nine daughters to businessman Richard and Lawrencina Potter. Kate’s younger sisters included the social reformer Beatrice Webb, and Margaret Hobhouse who married Emily Hobhouse’s cousin, Henry.
Kate was mainly educated at home by tutors. At the age of 18, she strived for independence and resisted her parents attempts to marry her off. She left home at the age of twenty-eight. Thanks to a small allowance granted to her by her parents, Kate went to London to work for Octavia Hill, a well-known social worker. Kate was in her element and was soon organising East End Boys Clubs and worked for promoters of London settlement work improving slums.
Soulmates
Kate first appears to have met her future husband Leonard Courtney at a dinner party in 1877; in her journal she writes: ‘(…) I was told he was an important man on the Times; but I don’t remember much about that meeting’.* She recalls, however, later in 1878, having a conversation with a friend at a dinner party about an article denouncing a manifesto in the Times when a voice at her elbow uttered quietly, ‘That’s a pity, for I wrote it’. Kate laughed and Leonard was formally introduced. Leonard commented afterwards that ‘the honest laugh struck him.’ Their friendship began, and eventually they married on March 15th, 1883. Kate was thirty-six and Leonard was fifty-one.
They moved into their home in 15 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Kate writes of her new busy life including parliament work and visits around the country. She becomes an ardent journal writer and much of her life with Leonard is recorded in her journals that are kept at the Women’s section in the London School of Economics (LSE).
Kate became Leonard’s soulmate and an essential source of support over 35 years of their marriage, especially when Leonard became nearly blind by 1888. Despite fertility treatment, they had no children, and Leonard’s peerage became extinct upon his death on 11 May 1918, at the age of 86.
Peacemakers
Under Leonard’s influence Kate became a suffragist and liberal Unionist, having relinquished her previous charity work to support her husband’s career. In 1899, they founded the South African Conciliation Committee.
The Courtneys were accused of being ‘Pro-Boers’ and received many threatening letters; Kate was also called ‘pro-Hun’ after the WW1. In 1899, Kate joined the armistice campaign of Emily Hobhouse, showing her support for negotiations to end both wars. She also aligned herself with Jane Addams’ attempts to negotiate peace during WW1 with the help of neutral nations.
Kate and Leonard first met Emily Hobhouse in 1898, upon Emily’s return from America. They had family connections and friends in common, and remained ‘intimate lifelong friends’. **
In January 1919, Kate hosted the first meeting of the Fight the Famine Committee at her home in Cheyne Walk, during which the foundations of The Save the Children Fund were laid. Kate campaigned for ending the blockage of Germany and in 1920 wrote to the Daily Newspaper: ‘Somebody must begin to be good if the better world we were promised is ever to come’.
Kate died in Cheyne Walk in 1929 and is buried at Chelsea Old Church.
*All quotes in the paragraph come from Life of Lord Courtney by G. P. Gooch (1920)
**Emily Hobhouse: A Memoir, compiled by A. Ruth Fry (1929)
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