Bell, Laura (1829–1894)
Bell, Laura (1829–1894)
Irish missionary and courtesan who worked with Prime Minister William Gladstone to aid London prostitutes. Born in 1829 in Antrim, Ireland; died in 1894 in England; married Augustus Frederick Thistlethwayte, in 1852.
Calling herself "a sinner saved by grace through faith in the Lamb of God," London's pre-eminent courtesan spent her declining years as a social missionary, working to save London's prostitutes and preaching with a zeal and eloquence that drew large crowds. Laura Bell, the daughter of the respectable bailiff to the Marquis
of Hertford, worked in a Belfast shop before becoming one of Dublin's most fashionable courtesans. In 1850, she moved to London where she was known as the "Queen of London Whoredom," turning heads wherever she went. In 1852, she married the eccentric Augustus Thistlethwayte, who, in spite of his reputation as an officer and a gentlemen, had the unusual habit of summoning his servants by firing a pistol at the ceiling. Around the time the marriage reportedly began to unravel, Bell is said to have been suddenly swept away with religious fervor. She gained respectability as an evangelical preacher, who, through her work with Prime Minister William Gladstone, aided London prostitutes. Bell continued her charitable deeds until her death in 1894.