Agnes Anne Strutt

A carte-de-visite portrait of Agnes Anne Strutt.

Born Agnes Anne Ashton, her father was Edward Ashton of West End, Prescot, Lancashire. On 15 September 1846 she married the wealthy cotton manufacturer and philanthropist George Henry Strutt (1826-1895) at Belper in Derbyshire.

The Strutt family had been cotton manufacturers at Belper since the time of Jedediah Strutt (1726-1797). In 1870 George Strutt converted a building in Belper into a cottage hospital for convalescent mill workers and in 1885 he donated £1000 to an endowment fund for the Derbyshire Hospital for Sick Children. He donated a fire engine to the town of Belper in 1889. The people of Belper paid for a fountain to be placed in the centre of their market place to thank Strutt for his support but the fountain was never connected to the water supply and has never worked.

Photographed on 18 February 1862 by Camille Silvy of London.