- DBHB's great x2 grandmother.
- Born 1844, daughter of Thomas Nicholson, about whom very little is currently known.
- Married, in Calcutta in 29 May 1870, Col. John Edward Broadbent (1845-1931), Royal Engineer.
- Mother of Esther Broadbent (1873-1959).
- Lived at Woodhall Cottage, Longwood, Shimla, India.
- Died 7 July 1897, aged 53, at Murree, now in Pakistan. She died only 8 months after her daughter's marriage.
The Broadbents with friends in Shimla, India. Dora is standing holding a hat just behind the wheel, next to her husband (wearing a hat). Her only daughter Esther is seated with her hands on her legs at the bottom right. Taken in ~1887.
Dora with her son Theo at Woodhall Cottage, Shimla, India, in ~1887.
Two portraits of Dora, the latter painted in India.
Mentions in Emily's Memoir
"In September this year [1894] our Cecil was very happily engaged at Simla to the daughter of a very old friend, Esther Broadbent, child of Colonel Broadbent and of his wife, formerly Dora Nicholson whom we had known intimately in Calcutta between '65 and '70. Esther and her mother came home in November, and Esther soon found a place in our hearts after we met her at her uncle Sir William Broadbent's house in London." p108
"On October 21 [1896] Cecil and Esther were married at Murree, in India, by good Bishop Matthews of Lahore. Arthur was alas! the only one to represent the family, and he sent us a delightful account of that happy and festive occasion. Colonel & Mrs. Broadbent grudged nothing to their sweet and only daughter - and the Mother (our friend Dora Nicholson of early Calcutta days) quite accepted Cecil as a son, during the eight months she lived after this marriage - after which a sudden illness called her 'Home'*. After a brief honeymoon this young couple settled down in Multan to work there for two years.
(*In June, 1897. Two months later Colonel Broadbent having gone to the Malakand Campaign as Chief Engineer, Esther travelled to Barnes Court, Simla, residence of 'Uncle Willy' Mackworth Young, then Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, where Ted was born, on September 6th.)" p112
"When autumn came we began to look forward to the return of Cecil and his wife and son Ted - and were thankful when they safely arrived on Sunday evening November 13th. Cecil's calm and Esther's pluck carried them thro a long and anxious journey; and after six weeks quiet rest, dear Esther gave us twin-granddaughters, on December 27, who were christened in February '99, and called 'Dora and Joan'. They were a great joy to their dear Mother and me, tho' of course a great handful; and we were rejoiced to give them a home for three months, especially as Esther's own dear mother was gone aloft, and Colonel Broadbent had not then retired from Indian life, so they had no Home in England this year but ours." pp113-114
Children
With Col. John Edward Broadbent (1845-1931):
- Unnamed (b.&d.1871)
- Esther Broadbent (1873-1959).
- Major-General Sir Edward Broadbent (1875-1944)
- Rev. Harry Broadbent (b.1877)
- Col. Theodore Broadbent (1881-1952)