ABSTRACT
Modern scholarship generally makes passing reference to Louisa Twining either in the context of philanthropy, the poor law, workhouse nursing or women's history with the focus on the changing public and private lives of middle-and upper-class women. This chapter is part of an attempt to retrieve and examine her life comprehensively, with the focus on her so-called retirement years. Louisa Twining was born in 1820 and grew up in London. During her twenties she attended bible classes given by the Christian Socialist, Frederick Maurice, in his home, as well as attending a course of his lectures on moral philosophy at his newly opened Queen's College. Twining was Lady Superintendent of two Homes during her forties and fifties. The Workhouse Visiting Society's Industrial Home and the St Luke's Home for Epileptic and Incurable Women, which was a base for some nurse training and towards the end of Twining's management offered accommodation to female art students.
