Partner Lois Twemlow

Queer Places:
41 Beaufort Gardens, Chelsea
Stanley House, 83 Mount Ephraim Tunbridge Wells
41-47 Hyde Valley, Welwyn Garden City AL7 4NE, UK
33-39 Hyde Valley, Welwyn Garden City AL7 4NE, UK
30-40 Turmore Dale, Welwyn Garden City AL8 6HS, UK

The Hon. Alice Coralie Glyn (November 5, 1866 - September 28, 1928) aka Alice Coralie Beaumont and Coralie Glyn, was an English author. She left a bequest of £25.000 to establish homes for working class women over the age of 60. The remainder of Glyn’s large estate had been left to her friend, Lois Twemlow.

She was born in 1866, the daughter of Vice-Admiral the Hon. Henry Carr-Glyn, Captain in Royal Navy, and Rose Mahoney or Mahonny. Her brother was the 4th Baron Wolverton, and she was related by marriage to Charles Kingsley. They lived in London in Chelsea at 41 Beaufort Gardens. While she married in 1889 Henry Lister Beaumont, only her maiden name is normally used, and later census records refer to her as a single woman of independent means. She was an avid worker for industrial workers and women's education. As an author, she wrote many articles and a novel in 1895, "The Idyll of the star flower: an allegory of life". The Idyll of the Star-Flower concerns the early-Christian quest of a Norseman for the eponymous flower, which will heal the world if found. A second ascience fiction novel, "A Woman of To-Morrow: A Tale of the 20th Century", was published in 1896. A Woman of To-Morrow is a Sleeper Awakes tale whose female protagonist is disturbed by evidences that in 1996 her sex has gained equality with men.

From the 1910s to the 1930s Alice was involved with the suffragette movement and was a strong supporter for women's rights. She set up "The Camelot Club" which opened on Sundays to help women socialise and to provide a hot meal. In the 1911 census Alice was a single boarder living at 82 Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells. She sadly died suddenly in Tunbridge Wells in 1928 for cause unknown. She left her small fortune to a working-class women's charity and her long-time partner Lois Twemlow. Alice provided for Lois Twemlow by giving her some personal iems, and the residue of the estate for life and then to Welwyn Garden City. Lois lived to the good age of 91, in 1949. It wasn’t till then that the capital was freed up. In 1951 The Alice Coralie Glyn houses were built.

The provision was to provide housing for ladies of over 60, of British Nationality, Protestants, who were in need, hardship or distress, who could live independently. Preference was given to those resident for 5 years or more in Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Welwyn and Tunbridge Wells. 10 of the bungalows were for one person each, but four had provision for two ladies or a mother and daughter to live together. The almshouses, comprising 14 bungalows in four blocks, were built in Hyde Valley and Turmore Dale, both in Welwyn Garden City, starting in 1951. The architects were Paul Mauger & Ptnrs. The plans and correspondence with the Building Inspectors are stored at HALS. The Alice Coralie Glyn Homes charity is still active, looked after by volunteer trustees. The properties are managed by the Welwyn Garden City Housing Association.


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