A Liverpool Exemplar - Jane Brandreth Holt

Jane Holt

Jane Brandreth Holt was born in Liverpool in 1867 the daughter of ship owner Alfred Holt and his wife Catherine Long. After Catherine's death in 1869, Alfred Holt married her cousin, Frances Long in 1871. Alfred Holt was one of six brothers, born to George Holt and his wife, Emma and in 1866 he and his brother Philip founded the Alfred Holt and Company, later to become Blue Funnel Line, and the Ocean Steam Ship Company which owned and operated the majority of the company's vessels.
His daughter Jane was awarded a first class honours in Chemistry from University College, Liverpool in 1891 and later was the first President of the Women Students' Representative Council in Liverpool and later a member of the Liverpool Education Committee.

In 1893 she married the University’s eminent natural scientist William Abbott Herdman CBE, son of Robert Inerarity Herdman RSA and Emma Catherine Abbott, in Toxteth Park Registry Office. They had a son George and daughter Emma. After their son George died at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the couple endowed a Chair of Geology in his name. They also funded the Chair of Oceanography.

The role of women in the University of Liverpool's history is often overlooked, so the Victoria Gallery & Museum had an exhibition, 'Benefactresses - Women of the Holt Family' which ran from November 2018 to April 2019. The exhibition turned a spotlight on Jane Brandreth Holt, Emma Holt and Eva Melly, who were patrons of the University in its early years. The three women were cousins and all part of the Liverpool-based Holt family whose wealth stemmed from their merchant and shipping businesses. The trio used their privileged position to support study at the University, especially for women.

Emma Holt

Jane's cousin, Emma Holt (1862 – 1944) also had a long involvement with the University of Liverpool beginning as a student in its early years when it was known as University College. She was an only child and inherited a substantial fortune in 1896 on the death of her father, George Holt Junior, a merchant and ship owner. Emma used her wealth to continue the family tradition of patronage for the University with a particular interest in the welfare and advancement of women students. As well as financial support, she became a Governor of the University, a life member of the University Court and was a member of the University's Council from 1909 to 1934.

Miss Eva Melly

 
Mary Eveline Melly (1854 – 1937), known as Eva, was related to the Holt family through her maternal aunt. Eva's father, George, who was a merchant, ship owner and Liberal MP. Eva used her position as a woman of comfortable means to support women into higher education. Along with her cousin, Emma Holt, Eva helped to establish residential accommodation for women studying in Liverpool called University Hall which opened in 1899. Eva, who was one of seven children, remained single and shared a house with one of her brothers on Chatham Street in Liverpool. She was great-aunt to the Liverpool-born singer and writer George Melly (1926 – 2007).

Jane Brandreth Holt died on the 7th of November 1922 at Croxteth Lodge, Ullett Road, Liverpool aged 55. Following Jane's death, William funded new geology laboratories in her memory, now the Jane Herdman Building for environmental sciences. 

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/04/a-liverpool-exemplar-james-nugent.html