Harriet Findlay

Life Harriet Jane Backhouse was born in County Durham, the only daughter of banker Sir Jonathan Backhouse, 1st Baronet (1849–1918) and Florence Salusbury-Trelawny (1845–1902), daughter of John Salusbury-Trelawny. She had five brothers; her eldest, Edmund Blackhouse, was a prominent scholar, and two others, Sir Roger Backhouse and Oliver Backhouse, had distinguished careers in the Royal Navy. In 1929, she founded the Portobello Toddler Hut, the longest-running community-operated nursery school in the United Kingdom.

She was active in Scottish politics becoming a Justice of the Peace in Edinburgh in 1926 and being elected president of the Scottish Unionist Association in 1927. She chaired the management board of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary during the Great Depression.

Personal life Harriet Backhouse married Scottish newspaper proprietor Sir John Ritchie Findlay, 1st Baronet (son of John Ritchie Findlay and Susan Leslie) on 9 July 1901. They had three sons and two daughters, including: