Augusta Webster
Augusta Webster, born Julia Augusta Davies on January 30, 1837, in Poole, Dorset, England, was a notable Victorian poet and advocate for women's education. The daughter of a vice admiral, she grew up surrounded by literary influences, particularly from her maternal family, which included prominent literary figures. Webster's educational journey included attendance at the Cambridge School of Art, and she briefly studied at the South Kensington Art School, where her expulsion for a perceived unfeminine act highlighted the societal constraints of the time. After marrying Thomas Webster in 1863, she began publishing under her own name and gained recognition for her feminist perspectives, especially in her dramatic monologues, which drew inspiration from Robert Browning.
Relocating to London to enhance her career, she became involved in literary criticism and playwriting, with works that included the historical novel for children, *Daffodil and the Croäxaxicans*. Throughout her life, Webster actively participated in feminist causes and served as head of the Chelsea Division of the London School Board. Despite struggling with health issues, she continued to write until her death on September 5, 1894. Although not widely recognized during her lifetime, Augusta Webster is now celebrated as one of the significant female writers of the Victorian era, contributing to the discourse on women's rights and education.
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Augusta Webster
- Born: January 30, 1837
- Birthplace: Poole, Dorset, England
- Died: September 5, 1894
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Augusta Webster was born Julia Augusta Davies on January 30, 1837, at Poole in Dorset, England. She was one of the six children of George Davies, a vice admiral who eventually retired from his distinguished naval career in 1851 to become chief constable of Cambridge. Her mother was Julia Hume Davies, the fourth daughter of Joseph Hume, a clerk at Somerset House whose close friends included Charles Lamb, Wiliam Hazlitt and William Godwin, all three of whom were regular visitors at his house in Bayswater. It was presumably from her mother’s side of the family that Webster inherited her literary and reformist interests.
The Davies family moved around a great deal while George Davies was in the navy, residing from 1844 to 1848 in Banff Castle in Scotland and then moving to Penzance, England. Webster attended school in both towns and traveled to Paris and Geneva, Switzerland, once the family had settled in Cambridge, where she enrolled at the Cambridge School of Art. She transferred briefly to the South Kensington Art School in London but was expelled for whistling, an action considered so shockingly unfeminine that she subsequently reported, in tongue-in-cheek fashion, that the incident had almost caused a serious setback to the then- controversial cause of female education.
Webster’s elder sister, Louisa, married the mathematician Isaac Todhunter. Her younger brother Gerald, who became master of Charterhouse School, published widely on the subjects of arts and sports. Webster’s first publications were issued under the pseudonym Cecil Home, but she began to use her own name after marrying Thomas Webster, a fellow of Trinity College, on October 10, 1863. She gave birth to their only child, Margaret, the following year and then went from strength to strength as a poet. Her feminist opinions became increasingly evident in her work, especially in some of the dramatic monologues featured in Portraits, whose literary models were provided by poet Robert Browning. In 1870, she persuaded her husband to give up his law practice in Cambridge and move to London to enable her to further develop her career.
In London, Webster was taken under the wing of writer Theodore Watts-Dunton and regularly contributed criticism to The Athenaeum and other literary journals. She also branched out into playwriting, although one of her plays, In a Day: A Drama, published in 1882, was not produced until 1890, when her daughter played the leading role. She returned to prose fiction in Daffodil and the Croäxaxicans: A Romance of History, a significant historical novel for children. Throughout the 1870’s and 1880’s she participated in conferences on various feminist causes, especially the improvement of women’s education, and she was elected head of the Chelsea Division of the London School Board.
However, her health was poor, she suffered frequent bouts of pleurisy, and she often had to winter in Italy. She died on September 5, 1894, at her home, Springfield, in Kew Gardens Road in London, and she was buried on September 8 at Highgate Cemetery. Her husband survived her by nearly twenty years. Although she was not regarded as a major poet in her own day, Webster has since been recognized as one of the foremost Victorian female writers.