Alice Mary Gordon

Alice Mary Gordon (c. 1855 – 18 June 1929) was a British author and writer on the aesthetics of domestic electricity.[1] Gordon was born Alice Mary Brandreth in Shimla about 1855 to Edward Lyall Brandreth and Louisa Marriott. Her father was a Justice of the Peace and Member of the Council of India. She was their only child. During her life she was known by her husbands' names, making her Alice Gordon or Mrs J E H Gordon[2] as well as Alice Butcher, Mrs John Butcher and Lady Danesfort.[3][4]

Alice Mary Gordon
Bornc. 1855
Shimla
Died18 June 1929
NationalityUnited Kingdom

Alice Gordon

She married the electrical engineer James Edward Henry Gordon in 1878 and took a close interest in supporting his commercial electrical activities until his sudden death on 3 February 1893, whereupon she returned to writing on other topics.[5] They had three children, Dorothy Frances, Peter Christian and James Geoffrey Gordon. It was through collaborating with her husband that Alice became interested in electricity: he had studied this topic at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge under James Clerk Maxwell, and their first marital home in Dorking was adapted to extend such work. As she later wrote: 'Our early married life was spent in the country, where we owned a large laboratory and a small house attached. In those days I was bottle-washer and laboratory assistant to my husband'.[6]

When they moved to London, their home became a kind of Salon for those of a technical mind with an interest in developing the uses of electricity. Mrs Gordon was presented to Queen Victoria. While her husband became a significant figure in the metropolitan electrical schemes, Gordon became part of a movement to promote the domestic use of electricity, using her own home in Kensington as a showcase. Specifically, in order to support her spouse's electrical lighting consultancy business she wrote a piece for the Fortnightly Review in February 1891, assisted into the world of journalism by her friend and mentor George Meredith, a long-time contributor to that periodical.

Alice's aim was to encourage wealthy middle class householders to consider adopting electric light in their homes at a time when electrical lighting was only available in some UK cities, and was greatly more expensive to run than gas lighting, oil lamps or paraffin lamps. Her Fortnightly Review piece titled 'The Development of Decorative Electricity' [7] presented electricity as an enjoyable luxury illuminant for the wealthy elite; Alice thus emphasized how carefully-applied decorative techniques could ensure that the often clinical qualities of early incandescent electrical lighting could be shielded from tired eyes.

In the same year, her approach of melding interior decoration with the new lighting opportunities led to a book Decorative Electricity (1891), for which she assumed the title of Mrs J.E.H. Gordon.[2][8] This demonstrates the depth of Alice's experience and expertise in domestic electric installation acquired from collaborating with her spouse, J.E.H.Gordon, writing with the authority of an engineer's spouse, although he is separately credited with a chapter on the then notorious 'Fire Risks' of electricity. The book's line-drawing illustrations by Herbert Fell elegantly portray a rich array of suggestions for how (implicitly female) householders should light each room of the house electrically, including the servants' quarters. These suggestions borrowed eclectically from various cultural sources: a Cairo or a Pompeii lamp were recommended for the hallway and staircase; dragon pendants and Venetian glass for the dining-room, with cupids and Carton-Pierre brackets advised for the lady's boudoir. A chapter on 'Shops and Public Buildings' condemned the use of harsh overhead lighting that Alice reported made many women feel uncomfortable by casting dark shadows under their eyes. Decorative Electricity closes with a chapter on 'Some Personal Experiences' which how closely and painstakingly Alice collaborated with James Gordon, often acting as his deputy, confidante and translator for the Gordon consultancy business.

Her expertise became known nationwide and a second (cheaper) edition of Decorative Electricity was published in 1892,[2] listing many positive reviews from newspapers - except for the hostile responses journals linked to the gas industry, and with many advertisers in the outer pages clearly seeking to target the decorative electric lighting market. She latterly worked with Agnes Clerke and Mrs Humphry Ward to ensure the representation of women writers in The Woman's Building at the Chicago Exhibition in 1893.[9][8][10][11] After James Gordon died in a horse riding accident that year, Alice returned to journalism again writing, for example, on 'Women as Students in Design' in 1894.

Alice Butcher

She later married John George Butcher, 1st and last Baron Danesfort on 9 April 1898, and later adopted the title Lady Butcher when he was knighted. When he was elevated to Baron Danesfort on 19 February 1924, Gordon became Lady Danesfort. She was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, and as a result of her long family-connections to George Meredith.[12][3][13][14] wrote her Memories of him in 1919. She died on 16 June 1929 in London.[15][3]

Bibliography
  • Decorative Electricity, 1891
  • Eunice Anscombe, 1892
  • Women as students in design, 1894
  • Memories of George Meredith, 1919

References and sources
  1. Houghton, W.E.; Slingerland, J.H. (1989). The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-8020-2688-0. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  2. "Decorative Electricity" (PDF).
  3. "Person Page". Main Page. 1901-02-01. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  4. "Person Page". Main Page. 1901-02-01. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  5. Gordon, Alice (1894). "Women as Students of Design". Fortnightly Review. new series 55: 521–27.
  6. Gordon, Alice (1891). Decorative Electricity. London: Sampson Low, Marston. p. 156.
  7. Gordon, Alice (February 1891). "The Development of Decorative Electricity". Fortnightly Review. 49: 278–84 – via Archive.org.
  8. Gooday, G. (2015). Domesticating Electricity: Technology, Uncertainty and Gender, 1880-1914. Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-31401-1. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  9. "Person Page". Main Page. 2015-03-22. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  10. Henson, L.; Cantor, G.; Dawson, G.; Noakes, R.; Shuttleworth, S.; Topham, J.R. (2017). Culture and Science in the Nineteenth-Century Media. The Nineteenth Century Series. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-94684-1. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  11. "Decorative Electricity, by Mrs. J. E. H. Gordon: Alice Mary Brandreth Butcher, Mrs. James Edward Henry Gordon , illus Herbert Fell". Internet Archive. 2016-10-23. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  12. Zhulin, Denis Larionov & Alexander. "Book Armorial families : a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour (Volume 1) by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies online for free (page 75 of 256)". Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  13. Atkinson, Damian, ed. (2014). The Selected Letters of Alice Meynell: Poet and Essayist. EBSCO ebook academic collection. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 316. ISBN 978-1-4438-6356-8.
  14. Terry, R. C., ed. (1996). Robert Louis Stevenson: Interviews and Recollections. University of Iowa Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-87745-512-7.
  15. "Lady Danesfort". The Guardian. 18 June 1929. p. 12.
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