Dorothy Una Ratcliffe

[4] As children they were encouraged to pursue an interest in literature and produced handwritten magazines of poems, essays and illustrations.

[2] In 1909, aged 22, Dorothy married Charles Frederick Ratcliffe at St Stephen's Church, Kensington having met him on a family holiday in the Isle of Wight.

The newly married couple moved into a home near to Brotherton's own at Roundhay Hall (now Spire Hospital) in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Divorce would have led to a scandal for Charles and his family so instead D.U.R focused her attentions on her social life and on helping Brotherton with his political career.

Back in the UK they purchased and renovated Acorn Bank near the Lake District,[5] renaming it Temple Sowerby Manor.

The couple were campaigning in Scotland during the Second World War to raise money for Greece when he was taken ill with a kidney complaint and never recovered.

[7] Alfred was a long-term friend of Dorothy's having met her in the hills near Kirkby Malzeard in the 1920s while she was still married to Charles Ratcliffe.

[8] After donating Temple Sowerby Manor to the National Trust, Dorothy and Alfred moved to Edinburgh where they lived at 42 Ann Street.

This coincided with the outbreak of the First World War and Dorothy campaigned and fund-raised alongside Lord Brotherton, encouraging men to volunteer.

[12] Ratcliffe's poetry has fallen out of fashion now, but during her lifetime she was described as a writer with "genuine not-to-be-questioned folk-feeling and instinct for folk-rhythms".

[3] Her donation of what she called her ‘Gypsy library’ formed the start of the university's Romany Collection and also included manuscripts and artwork.