Partner Emma Cons
Queer Places:
Chippen's Bank House, Hever Ln, Edenbridge TN8 7ER, UK
Ethel Gertrude Everest (1855 - March 21, 1916) was an associate of Emma Cons, and friend of Lilian Baylis. She provided financial support for the founding of Morley College in south London. The woman with whom Emma Cons went on to share her life was Ethel Everest. Beginning around 1882, Cons stayed at Surrey Lodge increasingly frequently.
Ethel Gertrude Everest was born in Paddington, Middlesex, the third child of Colonel Sir George Everest (1790-1866) and Emma Wing (1823-1889). Sir George Everest was a British surveyor and geographer who served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843. He is best known for having Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, named in his honour. Ethel had the following siblings: Emma Colebrook (1849-1852), Winifred Crew (1851-1910), Lancelot Fielding (1853-1935), Alfred Wing (1856-1928), and Benigna Edith (1859-1860). Only Lancelot had children and both of those died without issue so direct family line ended in 1935.
Ethel Everest was a well-educated single woman of independent wealth. She and Emma Cons divided their time between Surrey Lodge and Everest's country home, Chippen's Bank, in Hever, Kent. Romantically or companionably, Emma Cons and Ethel Everest lived together from 1882 to Emma's death in 1912. This was accepted by all and not thought of as anything but two middle-ages, like-minded, philantropic maiden ladies finding companionship, a not uncommon situation in Victorian Britain.
Emma Cons died at Chippens Bank, Ethel Everest's home in Hever. Student recalled after Emma Cons' death how she and Ethel Everest invited them down to Chippen's Bank for weekends in the country. After Cons' death, Lilian Baylis accorded Ethel Everest a widow position, leaving funeral arrangements to her and raising no objections when Cons' ashes where scattered at Chippen's Bank. Baylis also reluctantly yielded to Everest's intense opposition regarding the biography of her aunt which Baylis had proposed writing, feeling free to publish it pnly after Everest's death.
She died March 21, 1916, in Sevenoaks, Kent.
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