{{Short description|British writer and editor}} {{hatnote|Adelaide Manning is also a real name of Manning Coles}} {{EngvarB|date=July 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Adelaide Manning | image = Elizabeth Adelaide Manning.jpg | image_size = | caption = portrait at Girton College | birth_name = Elizabeth Adelaide Manning | birth_date = 1828 | birth_place = Bloomsbury, London, England | death_date = 10 August {{death year and age|1905|1828}} | death_place = Kensington, London | education = Bedford College and Girton College | parents = James Manning<br/>Clarissa Palmer | relatives = Charlotte Manning (step-mother) }}
'''Elizabeth Adelaide Manning''' (1828 – 10 August 1905) was a British writer and editor. She championed kindergartens. She was one of the first students to attend Girton College. Manning was active for the National Indian Association which championed education and the needs of women in India.
==Early life== Elizabeth Adelaide Manning was born in 1828. Her mother was Clarissa (born Palmer) and her father was the lawyer James Manning, who helped the Law Amendment Society decide to support changing the law relating to married women's property.<ref name=odnb/>
==Career== Manning was a founder member of the London Froebel Society in 1874 with her cousin Caroline Bishop. Bishop was advising the London School Board on the use of Kindergarten methods and Manning presented a paper on the same subject to the Social Science Association. The following year the Froebel Society became national.<ref name=odnb/> She was one of the first students to attend Girton College after she sat the entrance exam. Her stepmother Charlotte Manning (née Solly) was briefly the first mistress.<ref name=odnb/>
In February 1871, Manning and her stepmother started the London branch of the National Indian Association.<ref name=open>[http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/elizabeth-adelaide-manning Elizabeth Adelaide Manning], Open University. Retrieved 25 July 2015</ref> Her stepmother died the following month and Manning increasingly became the society's main proponent. She edited its magazine, whose title shifted from ''The Journal of the National Indian Association'' to ''The Indian Magazine'' in 1886, and then in 1891 ''The Indian Magazine and Review'', still under Manning's leadership.<ref name=open/>
In 1882, the NIA launched Medical Women for India, an initiative to train women doctors so that they could work in part on caring for women in India. (See Zenana missions.) The NIA also took an interest in students from India who were studying in Britain. Manning created a book of guidance called ''Handbook of information relating to university and professional studies etc. for Indian students in the United Kingdom''. Manning had an open house policy and she cared particularly for students from India. In 1888 Cornelia Sorabji contacted the NIA from India for assistance in completing university education.<ref name=mary/> This letter was championed by Mary Hobhouse and Manning contributed funds, as did Florence Nightingale, Sir William Wedderburn and others.<ref name=mary/> Sorabji arrived in England in 1889 and stayed with Manning.<ref name=mary/> Sorabji was the first woman to complete a law degree at Oxford and she kept contact with the NIA during her career.<ref name=mary>[http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/taxonomy/term/343 Mary Hobhouse], Open University. Retrieved 26 July 2015</ref>
In July 1904, Manning was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, first class, by the King for services to the British Raj.<ref name="Office1819">{{cite book|author=Great Britain. India Office|title=The India List and India Office List for ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2NPAAAAMAAJ|year=1819|publisher=Harrison and Sons|page=172}}</ref>
Manning died in London in 1905.<ref name=odnb>Gillian Sutherland, "Manning, (Elizabeth) Adelaide (1828–1905)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48424, accessed 25 July 2015]</ref><ref name=open/>
==Legacy== Manning left bequests to the NIA, The Froebel Society, the Royal Free Hospital and Charles Voysey's unorthodox church in Piccadilly.<ref name=odnb/> She left her medal and two thousand pounds (£2,000) to Girton College. A portrait of her (from a photograph) was given by Emily Davies to Girton College, and Manning also gave the college a portrait of her stepmother.<ref name="Stephen2010">{{cite book|first=Barbara|last=Stephen|title=Girton College 1869–1932|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZmebitQs_cC&pg=PA186|date=17 June 2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-01531-8|pages=186–}}</ref> In 1911 Indian writer Sukumar Ray wrote home to his parents about the NIA, which he described as "'MissManning's Association".
==References== {{reflist|30em}} ==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author|id=37826}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Adelaide}} Category:1828 births Category:1905 deaths Category:Early childhood education in the United Kingdom Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal Category:Writers from the London Borough of Camden Category:19th-century British writers Category:19th-century British women writers Category:Alumni of Bedford College, London Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Category:British magazine editors Category:British social reformers Category:Education reform Category:British India Category:British women magazine editors Category:People from Bloomsbury