House with plaque commemorating Hertha Ayrton, 41 Norfolk Square

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 5 Apr 2025

This house, which now appears to belong to Brunel University, bears a blue plaque with the inscription: HERTHA AYRTON 1854-1923 Physicist lived here 1903-1923 Hertha Ayrton was born Phoebe Sarah Marks in Portsea, Hampshire, in 1854. She was supported in her ambition to study mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge, by its co-founder, Barbara Bodichon, and by George Eliot, both of whom supported her financially. In 1899, Hertha became the first woman member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and in 1906 she was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on the electric arc and on sand ripples. Hertha lived at this house with her husband, the electrical engineer William Ayrton, remaining here after his death in 1908. She subsequently developed the Ayrton Fan, a hand-cranked device for expelling poison gas from trenches on the Western Front, and also cared for hunger-striking suffragettes, including Emmeline Pankhurst, at her home, which was under police surveillance at that time. See the English Heritage site https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/hertha-ayrton/ and Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertha_Ayrton .

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