Rosalind Frances Howard, Countess of Carlisle (20 February 1845 – 12 August 1921), sometimes known as The Radical Countess, was a British aristocrat and campaigner.

Rosalind Howard was the daughter of Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley

Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley

Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley PC , known as The Lord Eddisbury between 1848 and 1850, was a British politician.-Background:...

.

She married George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle

George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle

George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle , known as George Howard until 1889, was an English aristocrat, politician and painter.-Background and education:...

, with whom she had six sons and five daughters.
They moved in the pre-Raphaelite artistic and Liberal political circles; Lord Carlisle was an active Liberal MP

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 from 1879. Their many friends included William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

 and Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...

.

Rosalind Howard was involved in several causes, including women's suffrage

Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

 and the temperance movement

Temperance movement

A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...

 in Britain

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

. She served as a model for Lady Britomart in George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

's play Major Barbara

Major Barbara (play)

Major Barbara is a three act play by George Bernard Shaw, written and premiered in 1905 and first published in 1907.-Setting:*London*Act I: Lady Britomart's house in Wilton Crescent*Act II: The Salvation Army shelter in West Ham...

.

External links

• NPG 6206; Rosalind Frances Howard, Countess of Carlisle at www.npg.org.uk Portrait held by National Portrait Gallery