Caroline Thain
Actress Dame Ellen Terry by Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson
- Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
From intrepid adventuring to fighting for equality, smashing stereotypes and helping to change society as they went, these 10 Herts wonder women richly deserve their places in history. There are many more to choose from but those profiled here include parachuting lifesavers who bounced back from paralysis, pioneering police officers and feminists leading the way in sport, the arts and engineering.
Dame Ellen Terry
One of the most famous leading ladies of the Victorian era, Dame Ellen Terry was particularly celebrated for her Shakespearean heroines, such as Portia and Beatrice. A young talent and beauty, she left the stage for a while after she married the pre-Raphaelite artist George Frederic Watts aged just 16 (an 1864 painting of her by Watts is in the National Portrait Gallery). He was 31 years older and the marriage only lasted 10 months before she returned t