Isabella Elder

Early life, marriage and widowhood

Isabella Ure was born on 15 March 1828 in Glasgow's Gorbals, the only surviving daughter of solicitor Alexander Ure (1788–1830) and his wife Mary Ross. She had one older brother, John Francis (1820–1883). Her education is unknown. In 1857 Isabella married John Elder (1824–1869), a partner in marine engineers Randolph, Elder & Co. In 1860 the thriving business acquired a shipyard at Govan, and in 1868 became known as John Elder & Co. By the time John Elder died in 1869 it was regarded as one of the world's leading shipbuilders.

Isabella was now the sole owner of the business and ran it successfully for nine months until it was transferred to a partnership led by her brother. As a wealthy widow with no children, she now had time on her hands and began touring the continent for extended periods while also becoming a major philanthropist in her home city.

Philanthropy

During her widowhood Isabella lived at 6 Claremont Terrace, close to the University of Glasgow in which she took a keen interest. In 1873 she gave £5000 to support the Chair of Civil Engineering and in 1883 she provided £12500 to endow the John Elder Chair of Naval Architecture. The Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (now the University of Strathclyde) also benefited. When Queen Margaret College, the first college in Scotland to offer higher education to women, was founded she purchased North Park House in Glasgow's West End and gave it to the College rent free (1883). She also agreed to fund its medical school in 1890.

Although taught by university staff, women could not yet qualify for a degree. When the University Commissioners (Scotland) announced in 1892 that women would be accepted in universities, QMC became part of the University of Glasgow. It saw its first graduations in medicine in 1894 and in arts in 1895. Isabella remained concerned that if women were taught separately they would receive sub-standard teaching, and only agreed to North Park House being handed over to the University on condition that the teaching provided to women was equal to that of men. She was disappointed in the standard of lecturing, however, and refused to give the Principal more money in 1899 unless the original agreement was kept.

Isabella also undertook several philanthropic projects in Govan. In 1883 she purchased 37 acres near Elder's Fairfield Shipyard and created Elder Park, named in honour of her husband and her father-in-law, David. It opened in 1885 and for many years she paid for an annual display of fireworks there. Also in 1885, she set up a School for Domestic Economy where young women learned how to cook and perform other household tasks on a limited budget. In 1901, she provided the Elder Free Library and a villa for the Cottage Nurses Training Home and in 1903 she built and paid the running expenses for the Elder Cottage Hospital which she financed until her death.

Death

Isabella died at her home in Glasgow on 18 November 1905 of heart failure, gout and bronchitis. Her death certificate was signed by Dr Marion Gilchrist, the first woman to graduate in medicine in Glasgow, and on 22 November she was buried in the family tomb in Glasgow Necropolis. Her will left more than £125000 for charitable purposes including the Ure Elder Fund for Indigent Widows of Govan and Glasgow.

Tributes

The University of Glasgow awarded Isabella an honorary degree (LLD) in 1901. Its publication, The Baillie, described her as "a true woman, a wise benefactress of the public and of learning." In December 2015, the University named a building after her. She is also commemorated on the University's Memorial Quincentennial Gates and in a memorial window in Bute Hall, titled The Pursuit of Ideal Education, where she is pictured alongside Janet Anne Galloway and Jessie Campbell.^[2]

In 1906 a statue of Isabella, in bronze on a granite base, was erected in Elder Park surrounded by a memorial garden. She is shown seated and wearing her academic gown. The sculptor was Glasgow graduate Archibald Macfarlane Shannan (1850–1915) and the £2000 cost was raised by public subscription, much of it from the ordinary people of Govan who held her in high regard. It was the first statue of a woman (other than Queen Victoria in George Square) in the city and is still one of only three statues in Glasgow commemorating women. (The third is La Pasionaria on the Clydeside Walkway.) Isabella's statue is Category A Listed and the monument and memorial gardens were restored in 2010.

The life and work of Isabella Elder was examined as part of the Govan’s Hidden Histories project, and she also has her own Facebook Page.