Louise Creighton

Born Louise von Glehn in Sydenham on July 7, 1850, she came from a large, intellectually lively family with German, Scottish, and Baltic connections. She married the historian and churchman Mandell Creighton in 1872, and their life together took her through Oxford, Northumberland, Cambridge, Peterborough, and London as his career advanced.

She wrote historical works herself and later became the biographer of her husband, but her public reputation reached far beyond literary work. Contemporary accounts describe her as a woman of strong personality and intellectual gifts whose most sustained efforts were devoted to church work at home and overseas.

Louise Creighton also became closely associated with the campaign for women’s greater participation in public and religious life. After her husband’s death, she remained an active and influential presence, especially in church and reform circles, until her death in Oxford on April 15, 1936.