Alice Mary Gordon

Alice Mary Gordon (22 October 1854 – 18 June 1929) was a British author and writer on the aesthetics of domestic electricity. During her life she was known by her husbands' names, making her Alice Gordon or Mrs J E H Gordon as well as Alice Butcher, Mrs John Butcher and Lady Danesfort. Early life Alice Gordon was born Alice Mary Brandreth in Shimla, India in 1854 to Edward Lyall Brandreth (1823 - 1907) and Louisa Marriott (1826 - 1897). Her father was in the Indian Civil Service, finishing his career as a Member of the Legislative Council for India and later serving as a Justice of the Peace in Middlesex. She was their only child. Her parents settled in England in 1870, but Gordon returned before that date to live with her maternal grandparents in Liverpool and then in South Kensington, London. In 1867, she met the poet and novelist George Meredith, who would go on to be a lifelong friend and correspondent, encouraging her to pursue her interest in writing. It is said that Meredith's character Cecilia Haskett in Beauchamp's Career (1874–75) is based on Gordon. Alice Gordon On the 11 April 1878, she married the electrical engineer James Edward Henry Gordon and quickly took a close interest in supporting his commercial electrical activities until his sudden death on 3 February 1893, whereupon she returned to writing on other topics. They had three children, Dorothy Frances, Peter Christian and James Geoffrey Gordon. It was through collaborating with her husband that she became interested in electricity. James Gordon had studied this topic at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge under James Clerk Maxwell, and the couple's first marital home in Dorking was adapted to extend such work. As she later wrote: 'Our early married life was spent in the country, where we owned a large laboratory and a small house attached. In those days I was bottle-washer and laboratory assistant to my husband'. When they moved to London, their home became a kind of salon for those of a technical mind with an interest in developing the uses of electricity and they moved in well-connected social circles; in 1882 Mrs Gordon was presented to Queen Victoria. While her husband became a significant figure in the metropolitan electrical schemes, Gordon became part of a movement to promote the domestic use of electricity, using her own home in Kensington as a showcase.