Violet Van der Elst

Violet Van der Elst (1882-1966) was born Violet Dodge, in Surrey, England. The daughter of a coal porter and a washerwoman, she herself worked as a scullery maid. She became a successful businesswoman by developing Shavex, the first brush-less shaving cream.

In the 1930s she married Jean Van der Elst, a Belgian painter.

Having amassed a huge personal fortune she purchased Harlaxton Manor, in Lincolnshire, England.

She earned notoriety from her vocal campaigns against capital punishment, and stood three times, unsuccessfully, as a Labour Party candidate to be an M.P. She wrote the book "On the Gallows" in 1937 as part of her efforts to eradicate the death penalty. In the same year, she published a collection of 13 ghost stories, "The Torture Chamber and Other Stories".

Her campaigning, her behaviour, and unsuccessful political career reduced her fortune, forcing her to sell her house and move to a flat in Knightsbridge, London, in 1959.

She died in 1966, penniless and largely forgotten, the year after capital punishment was abolished in UK law.

References

*Harlaxton Manor publicity materials
*"The Incredible Mrs. Van der Elst" by Charles Neilson Gattey, Leslie Frewin Ltd, London, 1972
*"On the Gallows" by Violet van der Elst, Doge Press, 1937
*"The Torture Chamber and Other Stories" by Violet van der Elst, Doge Press, 1937