Charlotte Edalji

Charlotte Edalji (née Stoneham)

Her English family was at the heart of British imperialism in India

Charlotte Edalji (née Stoneham) (1842-1924) was the daughter of the Vicar of Ketley in Shropshire and lived almost the whole of her life in vicarages. She had a fascinating ancestry, claiming that one of her family fought in the Crusades and that another distant relative was related to Katherine Howard, wife of Henry VIII. From the 17th century, members of the Thompson, Swan and Stoneham branches of the family were involved in British exploitation and conquest of India. Some stayed in Bombay itself for a period. She campaigned passionately to have her son declared innocent of the attack on a pony for which he was convicted in 1903. She wrote, among others, to the King and the Queen, and appeared on a platform alongside George Bernard Shaw.