SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: An Indian family that settled in Croydon in the 1870s included brilliant, hard-working daughters who played a part in the struggle for women’s rights. By DAVID MORGAN
Women campaigners: Taken in 1913, this photograph shows Dr Susie Bonnerjee, left, with her sister Nellie, right
The brass plaque on the north wall of Croydon Minster, dedicated to Dorinda Neligan, attracts much interest from educationalists and those who are interested in the suffragette movement.
One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1874, Neligan was the first headmistress of Croydon High School, a role that she held for 27 years. Always an advocate for women’s rights, she was, in her later years, an active member of the suffragettes, attending protests at the House of Commons and having a silver teapot seized because she refused to pay local taxes.
During her time as headteacher, Neligan would visit some of her pupils and their families and take tea with them. One of her hosts was the Bonnerjee family.
Dorinda and her sister Annie were frequent visitors to the Bonnerjee’s house in Bedford Park.
Dorinda Neligan’s influence on the Bonnerjee daughters was such that when Susila grew up, she too, became a leading figure in gaining suffrage for women. She was one of the few Indian women to be part of that movement in this country.
Susila, always known as Susie, was born in India in 1872 and was sent to be educated in England with her siblings. Her father was WC Bonnerjee, the first president of the Indian National Congress and a prominent lawyer in Calcutta, modern-day Kolkata. He was a passionate believer in education for girls as well as for boys.
Inspirational: Dorinda Neligan’s works, as a teacher and suffragist, continue to be admired. Note the ivy border – the symbol of Croydon High School
In the summer of 1874, Bonnerjee’s wife Hemangini took their three children on a boat for England. Susie was just 18 months old, her sister Nellie nearly three and her brother Shelley just four. Their father was too busy in his work to accompany them, as well as maintaining his income to pay for the family’s English sojourn. As a family travelling by ship without a male relative, Mr Bonnerjee made arrangements for them to have an escort.
Dr Godeve Chakravati was given the task on board the ship but, as it turned out, he was useless. According to Mrs Bonnerjee, he was an awful snob and didn’t want to associate with an Indian woman whose English was very poor. Dr Chakravati virtually ignored her.
Thankfully, Mr Bonnerjee had also arranged for P&O agents in each stopover port to go on board and assist the family in whatever way they required, and this had worked well.
After arriving in England, the family made their way to the Wood family, whom the father had engaged to act as hosts before they could make more permanent arrangements. The Wood family lived at 8 Harcourt Road, Anerley.
It was not long before the Woods moved to 44 Lansdowne Road in Croydon and their lodgers, the Bonnerjees, went with them.
Those early days in this country were difficult. Susie’s sister Janaki later wrote in her memoirs that the Wood family were often unpleasant to them, their sons using racial slurs against their lodgers. Another sister, Nellie, years later told people that she bore the marks on her head of being pushed under an iron bed that cut her head open.
Such incidents occurred when the Bonnerjee children were left alone with the Woods, either when their mother returned to India in 1875 after the birth of her second son, or in 1878 when she returned in anticipation of the birth of her next child. “What was remarkable,” wrote Janaki in her memoir, “was that mother held no grudge against the Woods, always treating them well.”
The 1880s saw the Bonnerjee family frequently travelling between England and India. A new family home was established in Kolkata in 1884, at 6 Park Street, “in the very best part of the city”, Janaki wrote. If sea miles had been established back then, the Bonnerjees would have clocked up enough points for some special purchase or a deluxe holiday, as they made yearly visits in both directions.
Congratulations: the formal notice that Susie Bonnerjee had passed her medical exams
In the spring of 1888, Mr Bonnerjee decided that his wife should move to England permanently so all their children could get an English education. The Woods wanted to get rid of Lansdowne Road, so the Bonnerjees took it over, “lock stock and barrel” while they looked for a suitable place to buy. When their father arrived in Croydon that year, as he usually did for the Pujah holidays, they bought 8 Bedford Park and turned it into a model Victorian residence.
It was an enormous property with 10 bedrooms. A bathroom was added with two more toilets on the first floor and an extra wing built on to the house contained a billiard room and a smoking room.
It was during Mr Bonnerjee’s visits that the conversations with Dorinda Neligan became most interesting. Bonnerjee admired her stance on women’s rights and together they saw many similarities between the Irish and Indian political scenes, both being of a liberal persuasion and supporters of William Gladstone.
This was the environment in which Susie grew up, taking her studies very seriously and being talented enough to win a place at Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1891. Newnham had only been founded 20 years earlier as a college run by women for women. She studied for the natural sciences tripos before joining the London School of Medicine for Women in Bloomsbury and training at the Royal Free Hospital. She gained her Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1899.
New Dr Bonnerjee went back to India for her first medical position. She joined the Cambridge Mission to Delhi, an Anglican Missionary initiative led by Cambridge graduates based in St Stephens College and Hospital in the city. Medical work was just one of its aims.
Another was to support Indian Liberation Movements. A later member of the mission team, Rev Charles Andrews, became a friend and associate of Mahatma Gandhi.
During her stint with the Mission, Susie Bonnerjee was sent to Karnal, about 75 miles north of Delhi. While she was working there, and being the only doctor available, the area suffered an epidemic of plague. Working constantly, day and night, she became so exhausted that her health was never the same again.
Susie went from Karnal back to Kolkata, where she tried to start up her own medical practice. She was thwarted in her efforts, though, by the fact that she was brought up in England and by her poor knowledge of local dialects. Her health was still weak, too. Family members in Kolkota also proved less supportive than she thought they would be in helping her to achieve her goal in gaining the medical position she sought.
Formidable gathering: the Church League for Women’s Suffrage in Brighton in 1913. Susie (bottom row, third from right) and her sister Nellie (bottom right) were prominent figures in the radical organisation
Dr Bonnerjee returned to England. However, she found it hard to get a medical practice to accept her in this country, too. English doctors wanted to have professional partners who didn’t have an Indian background, her sister wrote.
She went back to Cambridge as she managed to get a job in the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women. She became a Demonstrator of Physiology from 1910-1912. That pleased her greatly, as she was back, teaching a new generation of Newnham students.
After this employment, Susie worked in a private practice clinic in Ealing, on Hamilton Road where she lived.
It was about this time that Susie became involved with the suffrage movement. She became the chair of the Ealing branch of the Church League for Women’s Suffrage. The CLWS were decidedly more militant than the NUWSS, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. This was a step away from Newnham’s emphasis on peaceful methods of campaigning.
A recent discovery of a photograph of a Church League for Women’s Suffrage from Brighton, dated 1913, has proved to be a remarkable find. Not only was Susie pictured at the front of the photo, wearing her delegate badge, but her sister Nellie was there, too.
Susie was able to secure a job in a Bristol hospital in 1915. The chronic shortage of doctors because of the Great War brought opportunities for women to step into the vacancies. Susie became a house surgeon for six months and her sister remarked how pleased she was to have landed a job she so desired.
Her health, however, continued to deteriorate.
The passing of the Woman’s Suffrage Act in 1918 must have pleased Susie, although she knew there was more work to do. She left England for India later that year so that a warmer climate might be better for her health, but in 1920 she died in Lahore, aged just 47.
Always passionate about education, back in 1911 she had become the secretary for the Indian Women’s Education Association. Always striving to improve the lives of women, she left money in her will for a scholarship for Indian women to come to England and train to become teachers.
Susie was a Croydon schoolgirl, passionate about learning, about fairness and equal rights. She shone a light for others to follow. Miss Neligan, her old Headteacher, would have been proud.
David Morgan, pictured right, is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Tufnell sparked complaints and compliments in Queensland
- Addiscombe artist who brought vivid colour to children’s books
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
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