George Bernard Shaw championed several prevalent issues, including gender equality, women’s rights, and fairer treatment of the working class. During his time as a political figure in England, Shaw served on the London City Council. He also joined the newly-founded Fabian Society (1884) and drafted their first manifesto. [1]
On 1 June 1898, Irish playwright and thinker George Bernard Shaw married Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend, a wealthy Irishwoman and champion of women’s rights.
Shaw was an Irish playwright with a range of works incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory. He wrote more than 60 plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923).
Shaw and Charlotte Payne-Townshend first met in January 1896 through friends and began an unconventional courtship. They both believed in the idea of “free love” and rejected the traditional conventions of marriage. A couple of years later, Shaw’s health broke down and he was nursed by Charlotte in a house in the country. Shaw, concerned that this might cause scandal, agreed to their marriage and the ceremony took place on 1 June 1898 in a private ceremony at the registrar’s office in Covent Garden. The bride and bridegroom were both aged forty-one. There were no children of the marriage, which it is generally believed was never consummated; whether this was wholly at Charlotte’s wish, as Shaw liked to suggest, is less widely credited.
Despite their unconventional approach, George and Charlotte were devoted partners for over 40 years. Charlotte was a major influence on Shaw’s work and was an active participant in his intellectual and artistic pursuits. She also supported his political activism and helped to fund his socialist and feminist causes. Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The couple remained committed to each other until Charlotte’s death in 1948. In 1950, when Shaw died, their ashes were mixed, then scattered along footpaths and around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden. In his autobiography, Shaw referred to Charlotte as his “wife” and “comrade,” and he dedicated several of his works to her.