Miss Julia Gaskell

Julia  was the youngest   daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell,  born in 1846  and died in  1908 at the Gaskell home on Plymouth Grove. In its obituary the Manchester Guardian  said that she “had the eager sympathy, wit, and communicative quickness  that made good talk possible;  ardently interested in letters, painting,  the theatre, music above all, she criticised  and took  sides  with knowledge  and gusto, and often from a point of view that, like her manner  and her personal charm , brought to mind the special fragrance of that age of the great Victorians  in which her childhood had been passed.“

She was one of the founder members of the Manchester Social  Club in Lower Mosley Street  and was also  involved with  the Manchester and Salford Sick Poor and Private Nursing Institution and  the Manchester Art Museum s well as many other causes. She was also very found of mountain climbing and was friends with Edward Whymper, the  well-known mountain climber and the first man to climb the Matterhorn.  She was survived by her older sister.