Honor Brooke

Honor Florence Brooke (23 October 1861 – 3 July 1940) was a British writer, actor, and social reformer.

Early life and education Brooke was born on 23 October 1861 One of eight siblings, Brooke was the younger sister of the Unitarian minister and politician Stopford Brooke. Brooke was the maternal granddaughter of the politician Thomas Wentworth Beaumont.

Career Brooke performed regularly. She was described by The Illustrated London News as having "a most beautiful voice, clear and resonant as a bell, with faultless enunciation." The reviewer continued that "to hear her read or recite is an education". Her father had played a leading role in securing Wordsworth's former home, Dove Cottage, for preservation and memorial. Ellis' husband, Havelock Ellis, later wrote of Brooke's influence:I do not know how they met, but I know that Miss Brooke, with a self-sacrificing devotion and skill that called out Edith’s deep love, nursed her back to health, brought her into cheerful and cultured society—opening to her the charming refinements of the Brookes’ house in Manchester Square, a notable intellectual centre—and turned her renascent energies into channels of social work in the slums. In 1890 Brooke founded the Honor Club, intended to provide entertainment and respite for working women. Originally based in Fitzroy Square, the club later moved to 118 Great Titchfield Street, near to Oxford Street. Brooke led this initiative, inspired by her work and the poverty she witnessed among those in board schools. and on the committee of the Women's Protective and Provident League.

Personal life Brooke was the aunt of Somerset Stopford Brooke and Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, as well as the sister in law of T. W. Rolleston, L. P. Jacks, Leonard Leslie Brooke.

For 40 years from 1891, she lived with Agnes Valleris (Ellen Agnes Gooddy), a singer and music teacher. The two performed literature recitations along with musical accompaniment together for charity. She left £2,000 to the University of London for founding a scholarship in memory of her father, to be called The Stopford Brooke English Literature Scholarship; and £500 each to the West Ham Home and Hostel for Girls and the Canning Town Women's Settlement.