From the Shropshire Star 24 March 2007 Weekend p.5:
Aussie Author Tells of County Heroine
A linkup over thousands of miles between a Shropshire researcher and an author in Australia has borne fruit with a new book about a little-known Shropshire heroine of the women's movement.
The book Red Cactus by Alan Pert is a biography of Anna Kingsford, a multi-talented woman of Victorian times who died of TB in 1888 at the age of 41. She is buried at a spot overlooking the River Severn at Atcham.
Born Annie Bouns, in 1867 she eloped with Algernon Kingsford, and married him. In 1869 he became curate of Atcham. The following year she was baptised a Roman Catholic, to avoid the duties of a clergyman's wife. Later Algernon became a rector at Pontesbury, and she began to study medicine in London.
Among her achievements, she campaigned against vivisection, lectured for vegetarianism, and became president of the British Theosophical Society. She founded the hermetic Society in 1884. Her spiritual writings have influenced many people, including Mahatma Ghandi.
In writing the book, Pert, who lives in Sydney, was given vital help by Mrs Sue Poulson, from Muxton, Telford. While doing some research in the 1871 census for Atcham she came across an entry for Algernon Kingsford, the curate of Atcham.
"It caught my eye because the name Kingsford is one of the names I've been researching for a long time," said Mrs Poulson. Her research led her to Anna Kingsford's Grave at Atcham, where she noticed her name had M.D. after it, showing she was in the medical profession. Going to the internet to find more, she discoverd that Alan Pert was researching in the same area, which led to her contacting him to find out what his interest was.
He asked if she could help in taking some photographs and also doing some research in the archives. "It was me who discovered that Algernon changed his surname on his remarriage," said Mrs Poulson." Algernon took the surname of his new wife, Catherine Burton of Longner Hall, near Shrewsbury.
Red Cactus: the Life of Anna Kingsford has been published in Australia but Mrs Poulson says it is available in Britain from Gothic Image Publications, Glastonbury. UK distributor: psypioneer@aol.com
Comment by author: Anna's friend, the journalist Florence Fenwick Miller, wrote that Anna told her she joined the Roman Catholic Church to avoid the duties of an (Anglican) clergyman's wife.But at the same time Anna wrote sermons for husband! Anna was not a shirker, she was destined for higher things.
