Elizabeth Anne Finn - Later Life

Later Life

The Finns made plans to return to England in 1863, eventually leaving on 14 July with Jewish bodies sending several petitions to the Queen not to remove their benefactor (James Finn) but to no avail. They spent the next three years visiting friends and relations, finally settling in Hammersmith. Hames Finn, suffering from poor health, died in 1872 aged 66. In 1875, Elizabeth Finn was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury to act as translator for the Patriarch of the Ancient Syrian Church whilst he pursued a mission to England to support the claims of his parishioners on the coast of Malabar. A two week visit extended to an embassy lasting seven months that indulged the appetites of senior churchmen, politicians including William Ewart Gladstone, Lord Salisbury and Queen Victoria for religious enquiry and disputation. Elizabeth Finn would repeat this task in 1908 and 1909 for the Bishop of Syria who had succeeded as Patriarch having himself accompanied the mission in 1875.

Finn continued to lecture on Biblical subjects in the Assyrian Room of the British Museum and retold her experiences in Jerusalem in support of the Survey for Exploration of Palestine at fundraising meetings to build on the legacy of the Jerusalem Literary Society.

In 1882 Elizabeth Finn, then 57, launched the Society for Relief of Distressed Jews to provide support for Russian Jews facing severe persecution during violent pogroms. Sir John Simon, a leading member of England's Jewish community was moved to testify to 'Mrs Finn's extraordinary knowledge of his people and astonishment that a Christian should take such an interest in his afflicted people'.