Ethel Pearson

Dame Ethel Maud, Lady Pearson, DBE (née Fraser; 3 November 1870[1] – 10 April 1959) was a British humanitarian who was active in charities to aid the blind.[2]

She was born in Hampstead, London,[3] the daughter of William John Fraser of Herne Bay, Kent,[4] an engineer, and his wife Jane.[5] On 3 June 1897, she married, as his second wife, the publisher Arthur Pearson, who was created a baronet in 1916.[2]

She became heavily involved in St Dunstan's Hostel for the Blind, the home for blinded soldiers that her husband, who became blind himself, founded in 1915. For these services, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1920 Birthday Honours.[6]

She was also a vice-president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). She founded the Blind Musicians Concert Party, which enabled musicians who had been blinded in the war to earn a living for themselves, as well as bring in funds for St Dunstan's and the RNIB. By 1920, it had raised an estimated (equivalent to £4,046,000 in 2019). Following her husband's death in 1921 she succeeded him as president of St Dunstan's and held the position until 1947, when she was succeeded by their only son, Sir Neville Pearson.[2]

Lady Pearson died on 10 April 1959, aged 89, at her home at 17 Eresby House, Rutland Gate, Knightsbridge, London.[7]

Footnotes
  1. Lady Ethel M Pearson in the 1939 England and Wales Register
  2. "Lady (Arthur) Pearson, D.B.E.". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 13 April 1959. p. 14.
  3. 1901 England Census
  4. Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage ... Dean & Son, limited. 1931. p. 602. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  5. London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906
  6. "No. 31931". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1920. p. 6318.
  7. Staff (13 April 1959). "Deaths". The Times. London, England. p. 1. PEARSON.—On April 10th, 1959, at her home in Eresby House, Rutland Gate, peacefully, after a long illness, Lady Ethel Maud Pearson, D.B.E., widow of Sir Arthur Pearson, Bt., G.B.E., founder of St. Dunstan's, and dearly loved mother of Sir Neville Pearson, Bt.
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