Baroness Burdett-Coutts

1814-1906

Angela Burdett-Coutts was born in London, England in 1814. In 1837 Angela inherited nearly two million pounds left to her by her grandfather a wealthy banker.

Socially aware, she used the money to improve the conditions of the sick and the poor. A close friend of Queen Victoria, she was President of the Ladies Committee of the R.S.P.C.A. In 1869 she and her friend Hannah Brown came to Edinburgh to see Greyfriars Bobby.

In addition to providing money for Bobby's memorial drinking fountain she helped the S.S.P.C.A. in it's fight to ensure that the city's working horses were treated humanely. She received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh in 1874 three years after being made a baroness. When she died in 1906 she was buried in Westminster Abbey.