Item 0019 - Letter, from Violet Markham

Violet Rosa Markham was a writer, social reformer, campaigner against women's suffrage and administrator. She grew up near Chesterfield, the daughter of Charles Markham, part owner of the profitable Markham Collieries and Markham & Co. When a friend of her late father died in 1901 Violet inherited enough money to live an independent life and devote her wealth to causes she supported, as well as to buy her own house in London. Her mother was a daughter of Sir Joseph Paxton, designer of the Crystal Palace, the centrepiece of the 1851 Great Exhibition.