Details

Name

Elizabeth Kerr Holms-Kerr

Brief Biography

1872 - 1954, British / Scottish

Description

Elizabeth Kerr Holms-Kerr was the wearer of items in Glasgow Museums' dress collection. She was born Elizabeth Kerr Holms on 16 October 1872 at Kirkland Villa, Bellahouston, Glasgow, the fourth child and second daughter of Robert Kerr Holms (1844-1910), and his wife, Margaret Ralston. Robert, who shortly changed their surname to Holms-Kerr, was successful stockbroker and partner in Holms-Kerr and Hedderwick of St George's Place and the Glasgow Stock Exchange. Within a few years after Elizabeth's birth the family split their time between 27 Park Circus, Glasgow, and Underbank in Largs. Like several other wealthy men in Glasgow, Holms-Kerr owned a number of yachts and the family participated in a variety of social events in Glasgow and Largs. A portrait of Elizabeth and her older sister, Margaret, by Robert Cree Crawford was exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1890 and 'Mr, Mrs and the Misses Kerr-Holmes' were listed among the attendees of the Lord Provost's Ball in 1892.

Margaret, married Harry Hope, the son of James Hope of Eastbarns, Dunbar, a well-known agriculturalist, in 1897. A few years later, Elizabeth married Harry's older brother, John Deans Hope (1860-1949), on 29 March 1899 at Park Church, Glasgow. John Deans Hope, a chartered accountant and later stockbroker, was elected MP for West Fife in 1900. The Census for 1901 records John and Elizabeth living at Ashfield House, Dunbar, with their son, William, aged one and four domestic servants. Ten years later they were recorded living with their daughter, Margaret, aged seven, and four domestic servants at Bellevue, Haddington. Soon after Hope was returned to Parliament as the MP for Haddingtonshire at a by-election. In 1918 Hope became MP for Berwick and Haddington. During his twenty-four years in Parliament Hope did make a single speech, although he worked on ten Parliamentary Commissions. As a result, he was not put forward as a candidate in the 1922 General Election. William, their son, died in 1927. The following year their daughter Margaret Lois Hope, married John Alfred Valentine Butler (1899-1977), a physical chemist known for the Butler-Volmer Equation. John Deans Hope died 13 November 1949. Elizabeth died a few years later, aged 81, on 9 July 1954. Both were buried alongside William in St Mary's Parish Church, Haddington.