Annie Pearson, Viscountess Cowdray

Annie Pearson, Viscountess Cowdray, GBE (née Cass; 4 June 1860 – 15 April 1932) was an English society hostess, suffragist and philanthropist. She was nicknamed the "Fairy Godmother of Nursing" due to her financial patronage of the Royal College of Nursing and her work to promote district nursing throughout England and Scotland. She served as the President of the Women's Liberal Federation from 1921 until 1923 and was also the Honorary Treasurer of the Liberal Women's Suffrage Union. She was the only woman to hold the office of High Steward of Colchester, serving from 1927 until her death in 1932.^[1]

The Right Honourable The Viscountess Cowdray GBE
Born	Annie Cass 4 June 1860 Bradford, Yorkshire, England
Died	15 April 1932(1932-04-15) (aged 71) Paris, France
Occupation	philanthropist
Spouse	Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray (1881–1927; his death)
Children	Harold Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray Bernard Clive Pearson Francis Geoffrey Pearson Gertrude Denman, Baroness Denman
Parents	Sir John Cass (father) Hannah Gamble (mother)

Marriage and family

Annie Pearson (née Cass) was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire on 4 June 1860 to Sir John Cass, a merchant and landowner from Yorkshire, and Hannah Gamble.^[2] In 1881 she married Weetman Pearson, a third generation building contractor and engineer who would run the global engineering firm Pearson and Sons, with major projects in England, Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Sudan. In the early 1900's Pearson would become an oil magnate, initially with his company Mexican Eagle Oil in Veracruz, Tabasco, and Campeche on the Mexican Gulf Coast.^[3] He also owned silver mines in Bolivia.^[2][4] He was created a baronet in 1894, raised to the peerage becoming Baron Cowdray in 1910, and Viscount Cowdray in 1917.^[5]

She and her husband donated Cowdray Hall to the city of Aberdeen.^[6][7] In 1919 they moved into Dunecht House.^[8]

The couple had four children:

• Gertrude Denman, Baroness Denman, who was influential in the development of education for women in rural areas.^[4]
• Harold Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray
• Bernard Clive Pearson (1887-1965), married Alicia, posthumous daughter of Baron Brabourne
• Francis Geoffrey Pearson (1891-1914), who died in battle, and is buried in the British Cemetery at Montreuil-aux-Lions. He is also recorded on the war memorial at Echt, Aberdeenshire.

Viscount Cowdray died in 1927.^[7]

Dunecht House

Philanthropy

Lady Cowdray was a patron of nursing and was associated with the Queen's Institute of District Nursing, establishing nursing services in rural parts of England and Scotland.^[9][10] She donated £100,000 to establish the Cowdray Hospital in Mexico City.^[11]

When the Royal College of Nursing was established in 1916, Lady Cowdray became the Treasurer and Chairman of the Tribute Fund Committee for the Nation's Fund for Nurses, fundraising for the creation of a Benevolent Fund for Nurses and for the endowment of the Royal College of Nursing.^[12] In 1921 she funded the rebuilding along Henrietta Street in London for a headquarters for the Royal College of Nursing.^[13] She decided to create a social club for nurses and professional women, founding the Cowdray Club in 1922, not far from the Royal College of Nursing.^[14] She purchased a house at 20 Cavendish Square from H. H. Asquith, and his wife Margot Asquith, for the club's headquarters.^[15] By 1923 the club had over 3000 members.^[16] The house, which Lady Cowdray helped lavishly furnish, could also be used on occasion as a gathering place by professional women who were not nurses or members of the College of Nursing at a slightly higher subscription and could serve reasonably priced meals.^[17]

Political career

Lady Cowdray was a feminist and supporter of Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. She was a member of the National Women's Liberal Federation, which had many local chapters, serving as a president of the National organization from 1921 until 1923. She was nominated and then formally elected in 1921 and 1922 to one-year terms. The constitution required that a President not serve for more than two years.^{[18][19][20][21][22]} In 1921 Lady Cowdray, as President of the National Liberal Women's Federation signed a petition pushing for a partial disarmament of England's military, though her sentiments paralleled many British citizens at the time, as a result of the hardships of WWI.^[23] In 1921, during Lady Cowdray's term as President, the Women's Liberal Federation adopted a resolution for the release of Irish prisoners that had been interned and held without trial and addressed the need to investigate the statements of authorities regarding the treatment of Irish prisoners in internment camps.^[24] Topics of interest for the National Women's Liberal Federation included but were not confined to free trade, temperance, war debt and disarmament, divorce law reform, housing, as well as legislation affecting women and children, education, industrial problems, electoral reform, and the organization of the Women's National Liberal Federation.^[25] She also served as the Honorary Treasurer of the Liberal Women's Suffrage Union, as suffrage was a major concern to women of the era.^[21] She was an early and deeply supportive member of the Women's Engineering Society.^[26][27] Her grand daughter, Anne Judith Denman, studied engineering at Cambridge University in the 1920s.^[28]

Lady Cowdray served as a burgess in Aberdeen.^[7] She was elected by the Borough of Colchester to succeed her husband as the High Steward of Colchester. Her husband, Lord Cowdray, Weetman Pearson, also served fifteen years as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament from Colchester.^[1] She is the only woman to have been High Steward of Colchester and held the office from 1927 until her death in 1932. Lord and Lady Cowdray donated Colchester Castle, which was at a slight risk of being demolished, to the Town Council of Colchester.^[1] The cost of purchasing the Castle was estimated at 8,000 pounds.^[6][29] Aberdeen's attempt to consolidate the city hospitals received a subscription of 25,000 pounds from Lady Cowdray in 1927, and a matching subscription from Lord Cowdray.^[6]

Lady Cowdray suggested the idea of old age pensions to the British government around 1900, and the concept was eventually legislated.^{[citation needed]} She also instituted a system of disability pensions in England initially provided at her own expense, which were also eventually adopted by the British government.^[1]

Personal life

Lady Cowdray was an avid art collector and patron of the arts.^{[30][31][32][33][34][35]} She commissioned the painting The Red Ruin by James Pryde.^[36] She was painted by John Singer Sargent and Sir William Orpen.^[37][38]

In November 1931, a thief broke into Lady Cowdray's home and stole £8,000 worth of jewellery from her granddaughter, Joan Pearson.^[39]

Lady Cowdray's great-grandson Iain Murray became the 10th Duke of Atholl. The duke's estate, Blair Castle, was in financial ruin at the time he inherited it. To protect it from being sold off, Lady Cowdray paid off the bank debt and gifted a large sum of money to her granddaughter Angela Pearson, the duke's mother, to set up The Blair Charitable Trust.^[40][41] Her financial contributions toward saving Blair Castle were covered on the BBC Two documentary film The Last Dukes.^[42]

She was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in January 1932.^[43]

Death and legacy

Family tomb of the Viscounts Cowdray

Lady Cowdray died on 15 April 1932 at the Hôtel Ritz Paris.^[7][44] She was buried at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and honoured in the Pearson memorial at Echt, Aberdeenshire.

On 2 June 1934, Queen Mary received £6,054 (equivalent to £543,000 in 2023) for the establishment of a memorial fund for Lady Cowdray.^[45]