Constance Flower

Constance Flower, Baroness Battersea (née de Rothschild; 29 April 1843, Piccadilly, London – 22 November 1931, Overstrand), also known as Lady Battersea, was a society hostess and philanthropist in London who established the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children (later subsumed by Jewish Care) in 1885 and was prominent in the Temperance movement in the United Kingdom.

Biography Family Constance was the elder daughter of Sir Anthony and Lady Louise de Rothschild. She had a younger sister, Annie Henrietta (1844–1926), who married the Hon. Eliot Constantine Yorke (1843–1878), son of Charles Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke. They had no children, and in 1902, Lord Battersea was embroiled in a major homosexual scandal that was suppressed by the Balfour Government.

In 1888, Lord and Lady Battersea acquired two cottages at Overstrand, a village near Cromer, Norfolk, in order to create a holiday home. In 1897 their architect, Edwin Lutyens, rebuilt and joined the cottages to form a large mansion, The Pleasaunce. The extensive gardens were developed between 1902 and 1930 by Lord Battersea and his wife. Lord Battersea died in 1907.

Women's rights activism

Lady Battersea was engaged in the temperance movement, taking the pledge in 1894, and joined the British Women's Temperance Association. a distinctively Jewish association to shelter and support Jewish immigrants. The JAPGW turned Jewish women immigrants into British feminists, setting the groundwork for the future Union of Jewish Women. The JAPGW also set up the Industrial Training School which trained women to become domestic servants, matrons and home managers. She led the JAPGW until the early 1920s, participating in international meetings and coordinating international rescue operations. She remained on the executive committee until 1919, and was made Honorary President of the union after that date. Through her work, she was instrumental in the emergence of conscious Anglo-Jewish feminism.

Death and legacy Lady Battersea died in The Pleasaunce on 22 November 1931 on the anniversary of her marriage

Publications

The history and literature of the Israelites according to the Old Testament and the Apocrypha (with Annie Henrietta Yorke) (1870) (volume 1) & (vollume 2)