Elizabeth Cadbury

Dame Elizabeth Mary Cadbury, DBE (née Taylor; 24 June 1858 – 4 December 1951), was an English philanthropist and wife of George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer.

Born in Peckham Rye, London, she was one of ten children of the Quaker company director and John Taylor (d. 1894) and his wife, Mary Jane Cash (d. 1887). She grew up in an affluent family background. Her parents were active temperance crusaders, and enthusiasts for the adult education provided by mechanics' institutes.

She and her sister Margaret were educated privately in Germany, and Elizabeth then attended North London Collegiate School from 1874–76. In 1876 she passed the senior Cambridge University examination in ten subjects, but did not enter higher education. On leaving school she did social work in the London docks and Paris, as well as teaching at the Sunday school of her Quaker meeting.

In 1888 she married George Cadbury, then a widower with five children. They had six children together as well: Laurence John, George Norman, Elsie Dorothea, Egbert, Marion Janet and Ursula.

She and her husband played a great role in the development of Bournville and opened the 200th house there herself. In 1909 she opened the Woodland Hospital, which became the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. She also built The Beeches, to provide holidays for slum children. She chaired the Birmingham school medical service committee and worked energetically to provide medical inspection in schools. From 1941 to 1948 she was president of the United Hospital in Birmingham. Throughout her life she campaigned for the education and welfare of women as a convinced but non-militant suffragist.

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