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Early Life of Alice Stopford Green:
[edit]Alice Stopford Green was a well-known historian who was born in 1847 in Kells, County Meath in
Ireland. She was the daughter of Edward Adderly Stopford and had eight siblings. Her father became
Rector of Kells and Archdeacon of Meath in 1844. He was appointed by his father Edward Stopford
who was the Bishop of Meath in 1844. Her older brothers served the Empire by joining the Army, the
Navy, commerce and the colonies. And her younger brother went on to build railways in Africa.
Alice stayed with her family in Ireland until her father passed away in 1874. As a result of his death
Alice and her family moved to Chester, England. Her father had moved to Dublin before his death to
work in the politics of reorganising the Church after Disestablishment.
Alice had a network of family members throughout London and she stayed with her cousin Stopford
Brooke. Now living in London with her cousin, Alice was open to new people in the city. She was
introduced to JR Green, an unsuccessful academic who would later continue on to becoming an
important historian from his post as a parish clergyman first of all and then later as an established
author of the acclaimed book ‘Short History of the English people’. This book was published in 1874
and it set standards in historical writing by bringing social and cultural factors.
In 1880, Green worked on ‘The Making of England’ and ‘The Conquest of England’. He had wedded
Alice by this time and they spent six years married in a happy, creative relationship. She worked as
an apprentice historian with him picking up his methods of work. In 1883, Green died of an acute
illness that left Alice in despair. But she was determined not to give into the grief and let herself be
taken over by it. ( repeat stuff)
After the death of her father, Edward Adderley Stopford, the family moved to London, where here
cousin, Stopford Augustus Brooke, had built up a number of relationships with important
intellectuals around London, England. Through him, Alice met her husband John Richard Green, they were
married in June 1877. They were married until 1883, when he died due to an illness in his lungs.
John was a well-respected and published English historian and during John and Alice’s marriage, she
helped him write some of his publishing’s. As a result of her marriage to John and her cousin’s
network, Alice met a lot of England’s leading historians and intellectuals of that era. She gained a
reputation as an intellectual and robust conversationalist. After her husband’s death, her house
became a meeting place for scholars, politicians as well as social and political activists. Londoners
such as Florence Nightingale and Winston Churchill visited her house.
Her first work was published in 1888, a book titled Henry the Second, she went on to have 6 more
books published before her death. She also had many writings about women’s rights in newspapers
like the Times, although she was a signees of the ‘Appeal against Women’s Suffrage's’.
In the 1890’s she started getting involved in political issues. During this time period Alice met the
British explorer and scientific writer, Mary Kingsley, together they form the African Society. This
society helped finance the setting up of the West African Mail, they also invited many African chiefs
and elders to London. This and the publication of ‘the Journal of African Society’ sparked discussion
on Africa and the British colonialism policies over there, especially in South Africa which both Alice
and Mary were strongly opposed to.
Through this work, Alice met Roger Casement. Casement wrote a letter to Green, he said that the
West African desire for independence, particularly in Congo where Casement had worked and
documented crimes against natives by the colonists, should appeal to every Irish person.
It wasn’t just Casement who got her interested in Irish nationalism, her husband encourage her
sympathies to the cause, also the rise of the Gaelic League.
Her most influential work was ‘Irish Nationality’, published in 1911. It was said to be the most
influential work in shaping the ‘mind’ of Ireland early on since Thomas Davis’ essays. According to
the Yorkshire Post, in February 1911, Green was the most important Irish writer of that time period.
In 1918, Green moved back to Ireland, she moved into a house on St. Stephens Green, again like her
home in London, her home became a She moved to Dublin in 1918 where her house became an
intellectual center for scholars around Ireland.