Angela Burdett-Coutts: A Most Remarkable Woman Quiz

Answer: Banking

The original Coutts' Bank was founded in 1692, and survives today as a London-based private bank. In 1837, Angela inherited her grandfather's fortune when her step-grandmother died. In today's money, it would have been equivalent to around £130 million, making her reputedly the richest woman in Britain at the time.

Answer: Martin Chuzzlewit

The dedication reads: "To Miss Burdett Coutts this tale is dedicated with the True and Earnest regard of the author."

Answer: Homeless women

Urania Cottage opened in 1847 as a "Home for Homeless Women", and was a model of its sort. In practice, the majority of inhabitants were women who been forced by circumstances to work as prostitutes, and whom both Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts agreed needed to be given a second chance. It was very much a pet project of Dickens, with his partner providing mainly financial support.

Answer: The Duke of Wellington

Shortly after inheriting her fortune, she met and became close friends with the Duke of Wellington. In 1847, when she was 33 and he was 78, she asked him to marry her. The Duke felt that the difference in their ages was rather too great, and turned her down.

Answer: Sewing school

The decline of the silk trade in the Spitalfields area of East London put many women out of work. By enabling them to learn a new trade, Angela Burdett-Coutts gave them the means to carry on earning a living, typical of the practical nature of her philanthropy.

Answer: Denmark

Denmark, not being part of the British Empire, was not a beneficiary of Baroness Burdett-Coutts' philanthropy. She did, however, endow bishoprics in Adelaide and Cape Town, and founded that of New Westminster in British Columbia.

Answer: Freedom of the City of London

Angela Burdett-Coutts received many honours in recognition of her philanthropic work. In 1871, Queen Victoria granted her a peerage, ennobling her as Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield. The granting of the Freedom of the City of London came the following year.

Answer: The future King Edward VII

The work of Angela Burdett-Coutts was recognised and appreciated by many influential and powerful Victorians, from Queen Victoria downwards. The Queen's eldest son, the future Edward VII, was himself an admirer.

Answer: She married a foreign national

Under the terms of her grandfather's will, Angela was supposed to forfeit all of her inheritance if she married a foreigner. In 1881 she did just that, marrying her American secretary. After much legal wrangling, she was allowed to keep two-fifths of the income from her inheritance until the date of her death. She lived into the twentieth century, dying in 1906 at the age of 92.

Answer: Edna Healey

Edna Healey was the wife of Denis Healey, a prominent Labour politician who held a number of Ministerial positions, most notably Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974-79.

Cherie Blair (wife of Prime Minister Tony) wrote an autobiography entitled "Speaking for Myself". Denis Thatcher (husband of Prime Minster Margaret) was a successful businessman but not a published author. Nigella Lawson has of course written many cookery books, and is the daughter (not wife) of another ex-Chancellor, Conservative politician Nigel.