Louisa Grace Robertson-Aikman (née Hargreaves)
(1840-1912), Wife of Frederick Robertson Aikman; daughter of Robert HargreavesSitter in 1 portrait
Frederick Robertson Aikman; Louisa Grace Robertson-Aikman (née Hargreaves)
by Camille Silvy
albumen print, 4 March 1862
NPG Ax57072
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Trizia Wells
16 June 2018, 11:46
Louisa Grace Hargreaves was a great grand-daughter of Thomas Hargreaves, b. 1771, who began life as a handspinner and went own to found Broad Oak Printworks in Accrington, the town's most important calico printing works. The firm employed Frederick Steiner who perfected the method of steam printing onto calico. He later went on to develop the popular Turkey Red with fellow chemist Frederick Gatty, who invented a method of permanently fixing khaki dye onto the cloth. Broad Oak Printworks grew to be a huge employer in Accrington. Production declined after WW2 and the works were closed in 1970. Louisa Grace contributed significant butterfly and beetle specimens to the natural history collection of the Oak Hill museum in Accrington. The museum was later transferred to Haworth Art Gallery, which today houses the largest Tiffany glass collection in Europe.
Sources include: Mrs. Grace Robertson-Aikman by Sandra Langan & June Huntingdon, Hyndburn Heritage Museum; R S Crossley, Accrington Captains of Industry (1930), pp. 199-201 ; http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1585141 Messrs. Hargreaves’ Calico Print Works at Accrington, and Recollections of Broad Oak, by Benjamin Hargreaves ISBN 78123025326, plus local plaques
Dr Geoffrey
17 November 2018, 16:49
Her husband was Colonel, then Captain Frederick Robertson Aikman VC, which he won for a victorious skirmish in the Indian Mutiny on 1st March 1858 when commanding 100 men of the 3rd Sikh Cavalry. I have his bookplate which will be published in 2020 by the Bookplate Society.