Mrs Louisa Galton

A carte-de-visite portrait of Louisa Jane Galton (1822-1897), wife of the statistician, sociologist, anthropologist, proto-geneticist and eugenicist Francis Galton, from 1909 Sir Francis Galton.

Born Louisa Jane Butler in 1822 at Harrow in Middlesex, she was the daughter of George Butler, Headmaster of Harrow School from 1805 to 1829 and Dean of Peterborough from 1842 until his death in 1853.

In January 1853 she met Francis Galton and the two were married on 1 August 1853 at Peterborough Cathedral in Cambridgeshire. Their marriage produced no children.

The couple appear on the 1861 census living at 42 Rutland Gate in Knightsbridge. Also present on the night of the census were three servants, including a German footman and a cook. Francis Galton was still living at the same address at the time of his death in 1911.

Mrs Louisa Galton died on 13 August 1897 at the Hotel Chamalières, Puy-de-Dôme, central France. Her body was brought to England and she was buried in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels at Claverdon, a village in Warwickshire. Her husband was later buried in the same grave.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 10 July 1862.