Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen
English children's writer, diarist and social activist (died 1895)
About Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen
Lived 1861 – 1895 (aged 33–34).
The Hon. Eva Mary Knatchbull-Hugessen (1861–1895) was an English children's writer, diarist, and social activist.
Life Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen was the second daughter of the politician and writer Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne and his first wife Anna Maria Elizabeth Southwell. Her younger brothers Edward and Cecil later succeeded as Baron Brabourne. Eva's diaries, written between 1873 and 1893, survive and are held at Kent History and Library Centre. Read alongside her father's diaries, they allow a reconstruction of affective dynamics in an upper-class Victorian family, and show her reaction to different aspects of her father's masculinity.
She was an early student at Newnham College, Cambridge, studying there from 1883 to 1886 and taking Part I of the Classical Tripos. She became a committee member of the Newnham College Club,
Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen was active in the Women's University Settlement in Southwark, helping to organize an annual loan exhibition of pictures at the recently founded Borough Polytechnic. According to her obituarist in The Times, "the hard work involved in these activities proved too much for Miss Hugesson's delicate health". She died at Lucerne on 23 October 1895.
Works 'Newnham College from Within', Nineteenth Century, Vol. 21, No. 6 (1887) The night-hawks. London & Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1890. A hit and a miss. London: A.D. Innes, 1893. The satellite and other stories. London: A.D. Innes, 1894.
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Important facts
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen?
English children's writer, diarist and social activist (died 1895)
When was Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen born?
Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen was born in 1861.
When did Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen die?
Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen died on 23 October 1895.
Sources & further reading
· Wikipedia: Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen
· DBpedia: Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen. https://biography.guide/eva-knatchbull-hugessen/
MLA: "Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/eva-knatchbull-hugessen/.
Chicago: "Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/eva-knatchbull-hugessen/.
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