Jane Adelaide Rose Doyle

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Jane Adelaide Rose Doyle

Jane Adelaide Rose Doyle aka Ida (16 march 1875 - 1 july 1937) was the 8th child of Charles Altamont Doyle and Mary Josephine Foley, and the 6th sister of Arthur Conan Doyle.

She was married to Nelson Foley in 1895, and had two children, Percy Fitzgerald Foley (1898) and Innes Cliffe Foley (1902).

After the death of her husband, she worked as a teacher at Cheltenham Ladies' College (1909-1915) and then opened her own school, Granville House in Eastbourne.



Photos


Arthur Conan Doyle about Ida

In a letter to his mother (july 1899), while Ida was aged 24 :

« Ida is looking a different girl since she came here. Never in my life have I seen such a change in a woman. She looks so girlish & fresh, whereas she was thin and bothered looking before. »

In his autobiography Memories and Adventures (1923), Arthur Conan Doyle mentioned his sister :

« No promotion had come to my father, and two younger children, Innes, my only brother, and Ida, had arrived to add to the calls upon my mother. »


Innes Doyle about Ida

In a letter, Innes wrote:

« She is doing all sorts of wonders. [...] She got a certificate which allows her to teach science in a national school and to buy 32s worth of books and send the bill to the government. »


Chronology

1875

  • 16 march : Birth at 2 Argyle Park Terrace, Edinburgh. Sponsors : James Doyle (uncle) and Jane H. McKenzie.


1881

  • April : She was living with her mother, sisters and brothers at 15 Lonsdale Terrace, Edinburgh

1883

  • She moved to Masongill, North Yorshire, with her mother and her two sisters Connie and Dodo.

Undated

  • She was graduate of Edinburgh University.

1894

  • December : She was engaged to Nelson Foley, a cousin of her mother Mary Doyle. Ida was 19 and Nelson 44. In a letter, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about the engagement : « [Nelson] is of course much older than she, but he is a very exceptionally fine fellow in every way. »

1895

  • She moved to her husband's home in Gaiola Island, Posillipo, Naples, Italy.

1898

1902

  • April-May : Arthur Conan Doyle stayed with his sister Ida and her husband in Gaiola, Italy.
  • 5 december : Birth of her second son, Innes Cliffe Foley.

1909

  • 3 january : Her husband, Nelson Foley, died, aged 58, from tuberculosis in London.
  • May : She had taken up teaching and obtained a post at Cheltenham Ladies' College in the charge of the Foreign Class. [1]

1911

1913

1914

  • July : She left Cheltenham Ladies' College to take the Headship of a private school, Granville House, at Eastbourne. [2]

1918

  • 3 january : Ida was present at Kingsley's baptism at St. John's Church, Eastbourne.

1920

  • November : She received £500 and jewelry from the Clara Boulnois' will.

1928

1937

  • 1 july : She died from cancer, aged 62, at The Horns, Hankham, Westham, Sussex.






  1. CLC Magazine (Autumn 1909).
  2. CLC Magazine (Autumn 1914).