Olive Christian Malvery

Olive Christian MacKirdy

Purley, Surrey

1898–1914

Olive Christian Malvery was born in Lahore in 1871 and baptized on 19 September 1874 in Lahore. Her parents were Thomas Barber and Jessie Malvery and she was of ‘Anglo-Indian’ ancestry (mixed British and Indian descent). Her father died in 1896 and in February 1898 she arrived in England to study at the Royal College of Music.

In order to support her studies, Malvery embarked on a career as reciter, telling stories about Indian legends and performing Indian poems set to music, as well as writing fiction for journals and magazines. She also gave lectures and taught elocution.

In 1905 she married Archibald Mackirdy in the parish of Westminster. She was 23 and he was 48. Mackirdy was the American consul to Muscat and they had met during a trip to America.

Malvery became well known as a journalist and author in early twentieth-century London. While some commentators were interested in her ethnic background, Malvery was interested in the condition of London’s poor. In 1904 she went undercover as a photojournalist for Pearson’s Magazine. She disguised herself and worked as a flower seller, a barmaid, a factory girl and a homeless woman so that she could learn how these women were treated. Her 1906 book The Soul Market brought attention to the plight of people living in poverty and she used the money from some of her publications to fund hostels for homeless women in London. Malvery was a supporter of women’s suffrage, although initially she had been opposed to their campaigns, and is recorded as having contributed to suffrage collections. She was also a member of the Church League of Women’s Suffrage.

In 1914 Malvery became the founder and editor of a newspaper, Mackirdy's Weekly. Malvery died in October 1914 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery alongside her husband, who had died in November 1909. They had two daughters and one son.