Hannah Floretta Cohen OBE (1875-1946) was an English civil servant and philanthropist, [1] and the first woman to be president of the Jewish Board of Guardians. [2]
Cohen was born on 25 May 1875 in Kensington, London, the daughter of Conservative politician Sir Benjamin Cohen (1844-1909) and Louisa Emily Merton (1850-1931), both of whom were great-grandchildren of Levy Barent Cohen (1747-1808), of whom The Jewish Encyclopedia says that "Through the distinguished marriages which his children contracted, nearly all the leading Jewish families in England are connected with him". [3] She was educated at Roedean School and read classics at Newnham College, Cambridge(1894–97) and "grew up in an opulent Anglo-Jewish milieu in which it was accepted that members of the dominant families would assume the burdens of communal leadership". [1]
In 1937 she published Changing faces : A memoir of Louisa Lady Cohen by her daughter (Martin Hopkinson & Co.) [4] which her father's ODNB biographer described as "an engaging, if not always factually accurate, memoir of her family". [5]
In later life she was a member of the governing body of many organisations including Roedean and Newnham, Swanley Horticultural College, and the Jewish orphanage at Norwood. She did not marry, and died in Hindhead, Surrey on 21 November 1946. [1]
During World War I she worked first at the Home Office (1916-1917) and then at HM Treasury (1917-1920); she was one of the first women to hold a senior post in the British civil service, and was appointed OBE for her work at the Treasury. [1]
In 1900 Cohen was the first woman to be elected a member of the Jewish Board of Guardians, a charity established in 1859 to provide relief for poor Jewish immigrants, which continues today as Jewish Care. She became the first woman to hold the role of honorary secretary in 1925, vice-president in 1926, and president in 1930, until 1940. Her uncle Lionel Louis Cohen (1832–1887), her father, and her cousin Sir Lionel Cohen had all been previous presidents. [1]
Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, was a British banker and politician from the wealthy international Rothschild family. He was also a hereditary Baron of the Austrian Empire.
Roedean School is a private boarding and day school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sussex Downs, on a cliff overlooking Brighton Marina and the English Channel. It is widely regarded as the "Eton College" of all-girls boarding schools in the United Kingdom.
Thomas Francis Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe, 2nd Baron Fremantle,, known as Sir Thomas Fremantle, Bt, between 1821 and 1874, was a British Tory politician.
Katharine Elizabeth Whitehorn was a British journalist, columnist, author and radio presenter. She was the first woman to have a column in The Observer, which ran from 1963 to 1996 and from 2011 to 2017. She was the first female rector of a university in Scotland. Her books include Cooking in a Bedsitter (1961).
The Macdonald sisters were four English women of part-Scottish descent born during the 19th century, notable for their marriages to well-known men. Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa were the daughters of Reverend George Browne Macdonald (1805–1868), a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and Hannah Jones (1809–1875).
Arthur Cohen, was an English barrister and Liberal Party politician.
Lionel Leonard Cohen, Baron Cohen, PC, was a British barrister and judge.
Grace Eleanor Hadow was an author, principal of what would become St Anne's College, Oxford and vice-chairman of the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI).
Dame Louisa Jane Wilkinson, was a British military nurse and nursing administrator who served as Matron-in-Chief of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service from 1944 to 1948. She founded Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, and was also president of the Royal College of Nursing.
Levy Barent Cohen was a Dutch-born British financier and community worker.
Dame Albertine Louisa Winner was a British physician and medical administrator. After graduating from University College Hospital Medical School, Winner practised at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, and Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases.
Louisa de Rothschild, Lady de Rothschild, was an Anglo-Jewish philanthropist, and founding member of the Union of Jewish Women.
Judith, Lady Montefiore was a British linguist, musician, travel writer, and philanthropist. She was the wife of Sir Moses Montefiore. She authored the first Jewish cook book written in English.
Margaret Helen Read, CBE was a British social anthropologist and academic, who specialised in colonial education. She was one of the first researchers to apply social anthropology and ethnography principles to the education and health problems of people living in the British colonies.
Katharine Stephen was a British librarian and later principal of Newnham College at Cambridge University.
Barbara Joan Kahan OBE born Barbara Joan Langridge was a British social worker. She rose to chair the National Children's Bureau and to co-chair the Pindown Enquiry.
Katharine Mary Westaway was a British classical scholar and headmistress.
Louisa Wilkins OBE, also known as Mrs Roland Wilkins was a British writer and agricultural administrator. She was involved in the creation and recruitment for the Women's Land Army during World War One. She was an enthusiast for small holdings and after the war she inspired the creation of a small holding co-operative for women who had entered agriculture during the war.
Penelope "P.L." Lawrence aka Nelly was a British co-founder of Roedean School in Brighton with her half sisters, Dorothy Lawrence and Millicent Lawrence.