Susila Anita Bonnerjee

Other names: 

Susie

Locations

Bedford Park, Croydon London, CR0 2BS
United Kingdom
51° 23' 10.824" N, 0° 2' 58.7364" W
Hamilton Road, Ealing London, W4 1AL
United Kingdom
51° 29' 23.0532" N, 0° 16' 7.7952" W
Newnham College, Cambridge , CB3 9DF
United Kingdom
52° 12' 0.6336" N, 0° 6' 26.0028" E
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City of birth: 
Calcutta
Country of birth: 
India
Current name city of birth: 
Kolkata
Current name country of birth: 
India
Date of death: 
25 Sep 1920
Location of death: 
Lahore, India (Pakistan)
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1874-1918 (with spells in India during this period)

Location: 

'Kidderpore', 8 Bedford Park, Croydon, London (family home from c. 1890)

43 Hamilton Road, Ealing, London (location of her home and private practice)

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About: 

Susila Bonnerjee (known as Susie) was the daughter of W. C. Bonnerjee and his wife, Hemangini. Born in India, she first moved to England as a child and lived in the family house in Croydon. Her parents travelled between England and India frequently with the intention to educate all their children in England. Susila attended the Croydon High School for Girls and then gained admission to Newnham College, Cambridge in 1891 (as her sister had). Susila was awarded a second class in her Part 1 exams in 1894. She then joined the London School of Medicine for Women, and was attached to the Royal Free Hospital. Susila gained her MB degree in 1899.

A little later she returned to India and worked in Calcutta and at the St Stephen's Mission at Delhi. After her father's death in 1906, Susila took up research work at Cambridge. She was Demonstrator of Physiology in Balfour Laboratory, Newnham College, 1910-12, and was in private practice at Ealing for five years. In 1911 she became Secretary of the Indian Women’s Education Association, which was involved in raising funds to educate Indian women in England in methods of teaching. During the war, in 1915, she went to Calcutta but returned to England in early 1916. She left for India again in 1918 due to declining health and died in September 1920 in Lahore.

Connections: 

W. C. Bonnerjee, Janaki Agnes Majumdar (sister).

Through the Indian Women's Education Association: Countess of Minto (President), Lady Lyall and Princess Sophia Duleep Singh (Vice-President), Maharani of Cooch Behar, B. Bhola-Nauth, Sarala Ray, Lolita Roy.

Involved in events: 

Indian Women's Education Association's promotion of Kumar Sambhava or The Coming of the Prince, Court Theatre, March 1912

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Reviews: 

Obituary by Harihar Das,  Britain and India 1.9 (Oct-Dec. 1920), pp 360-1

The Times (28 Feb. 1912)

Secondary works: 

Burton, Antoinette (ed.), and Majumdar, Janaki Agnes Penelope, Family History (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

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Archive source: 

London School of Medicine for Women Archives, Royal Free Hospital Archives Centre, London

Newnham College Archives, Newnham College, Cambridge

Sir William Wedderburn mentions Miss Bonnerjee in a letter to Mrs Fawcett, 25 Feb 1916, 7MGF/A/1/162, The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University