| The Lady Mount Temple | |
| Birth Name: | Georgina Elizabeth Tollemache |
| Birth Date: | 1822 |
| Death Place: | 17 October 1901 |
| Nationality: | British |
| Spouse: | William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple |
| Children: | 1 |
| Parents: | John Richard Delap Tollemache Lady Elizabeth Stratford |
Georgina Elizabeth Cowper-Temple, Lady Mount Temple (née Tollemache; 1822 – 17 October 1901) was an English religious enthusiast, humanitarian, and animal welfare campaigner. She was the second wife of William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple. Lady Mount Temple was active in the Temperance Movement and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was a co-founder of the Plumage League.
Lady Mount Temple was born Georgina Elizabeth Tollemache on 8 November to Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache and Lady Elizabeth Stratford. One source says she was probably born in 1821.[1] Her father, whose original surname was Halliday, assumed by royal license the surname and arms of his mother, Lady Jane Tollemache, who was the daughter and co-heiress of Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart.[2] Her mother was the daughter of John Stratford, 3rd Earl of Aldborough.[3] She was the sister of John Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache.[3] Lady Mount Temple was a close friend and distant cousin of Constance Lloyd, the wife of Oscar Wilde.
Lady Mount Temple was one of the leaders of the Torquay Anti-Vivisection Society.[4] She also co-founded the Plumage League.
She was active in the Band of Mercy, whose first president was her husband, and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[4] Lady Mount Temple was also involved in the Temperance Movement.[4]
In 1903, a birdbath with a bronze statue of Lady Mount Temple, designed by Arthur George Walker, was erected in Babbacombe.[4] [5] A horse trough near the Torre railway station is also dedicated to her.[4]
Lady Mount Temple became a vegetarian in 1876 and a vice-president of the Vegetarian Society in 1884.[6]
On 22 November 1848, she married The Honourable William Cowper, son of the 5th Earl Cowper.[3] She and her husband had no natural children, but adopted a daughter named Juliet Latour Temple, in 1869.[7] [3] In 1880, her husband was elevated to the peerage as Baron Mount Temple.
Lady Mount Temple was a friend of the writer John Ruskin, the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and the suffragist Frances Power Cobbe.[3]
She lived at Babbacombe Cliff and also owned properties in Ireland.[4] [3] She died in 1901.[4] After her death, part of her estate was bequeathed to the Church Army and to the Victoria Street Society of Protection of Animals from Vivisection.[3]