Ada Chesterton

Ada Elizabeth Chesterton (; 30 June 1869 – 20 January 1962), also known by her pseudonym John Keith Prothero, was a British socialist, journalist, and philanthropist. Her best known work was In Darkest London.

Life Chesterton was born in Dulwich in 1869. She was working in Fleet Street at the age of sixteen. She was known for writing under pseudonyms including John Keith Prothero. She met Edith Nesbit, Havelock Ellis, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Beatrice Webb, Eleanor Marx, Edith Lees and Annie Besant as a result of joining Edward Pease's Fabian Society.

She had a lifelong relationship with Cecil Chesterton who was also a journalist and the brother of G. K. Chesterton. The pair appeared together on 7 January 1914 in King's Hall, Covent Garden, when, as "Miss J. K. Prothero", she played Princess Puffer in the mock trial of John Jasper for the murder of Edwin Drood. Cecil acted for the defence, G. K. Chesterton was Judge and George Bernard Shaw was foreman of the jury.

They married in 1916, before he left to be a soldier during the First World War. She went to work with her brother. Her husband survived being wounded but he eventually became sick with nephritis. Chesterton travelled to his bedside just before he died and she was the only family member at his funeral. She worked at the drama critic for her brother-in-law's journal G. K.'s Weekly and in 1941 wrote a biography about "The Chestertons".

She created the Cecil Houses, known today as Central & Cecil Housing Trust, which provided accommodation for women who no place to stay. They were funded thanks to the publicity that her living in poverty books created. The houses were named for her late husband. St. Teresa 1928 The Love Game: A Comedy in Three Acts 1926 (West End 1931) My Russian Venture 1931 Women of the Underworld 1932 Young China and New Japan 1933 Sickle or Swastika? 1935 This Thy Body, An Experience in Osteopathy 1937 I Lived in a Slum 1938 What Price Youth? 1939 The Chestertons: By Mrs. Cecil Chesterton 1941 Salute The Soviet 1942