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MAKING WOMEN MAGISTRATES: FEMINISM,
CITIZENSHIP AND JUSTICE IN ENGLAND AND
WALES 1918 -1950
ANNE FRANCES HELENJLOGAN
A thesissubmitted in partial fulfilment of the requirementsof the Universityof
Greenwichfor the Degreeof Doctor of Philosophy
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J. '6w W. -
March2002 ABSTRACT
This thesis addressesthe subject of women magistratesin England and Wales from their introduction in 1919 and the work subsequentlyperformed by the early women JPs until the late 1940s. Surprisingly, despitethe great volume of work on women's history during the last few decades,historians have not researchedthis subject in detail. While only a handful of women have becomeprofessional judges in this country, many thousandshave sat in judgement on their fellow citizens as lay justices. This duty is both voluntary and unpaid but it is, along with jury service, a vitally important aspectof citizenship. It is arguedherein that this exerciseof citizenship through the magistracy was an ongoing concern of feminists and of women's organisationsin the period. Not only did the magistracychange women by making them equal citizens, but also women changedthe magistracy,by pioneering modern ideas in the work of the JP and presaginga new, quasi-professionalapproach. Part One examines the process by which women were brought into the lay magistracy. Chapter One locates the origins of the campaign for the appointment of women as JPs in the women's suffrage movement and demonstrates that the necessary legislation was largely uncontroversial. Chapter Two analyses the ongoing campaign by women's organisations and their allies to bring more women to the magisterial bench. Chapter Three explores the relationship between the emergence of a separate system of criminal justice for juveniles and the creation of women magistrates. Part Two seeksto establishto what extent the `woman magistrate' was a new category. Chapter Four analysesthe social backgroundsof the first women appointed as JPs. Chapter Five is concernedwith women's experienceof the magistracy,which is examined mostly through their own words. Chapter Six focuseson networks and organisationsof women JPs and the campaignsthey took part in, and arguesthat they adopteda distinctly feminist approachto their role. It is concludedthat - up to a point - the earlywomen JPs were a new type of magistrate,providing a templatefor futuredevelopments in the lay magistracyafter 1950. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 3
Abbreviations 4
List of Figures 5
Introduction 7
Chapter One - The Campaign for Women Magistrates 1910-1919 35
Chapter Two - Wanted: More Women Magistrates 70
ChapterThree - `A Suitable Personfor Suitable Cases' 101
Chapter Four - The First Women Magistrates 143
Chapter Five -'A Signal Success'? 180
Chapter Six - Beyond the Courts 228
Conclusion 272
Appendices 278
Bibliography 303
2 AKNOWLEI)GEMLNTS
My thanks arc due to librarians and archivists at several locations, especially at the Women'sLibrary in London(formerly the FawcettLibrary), the Modern
RecordsCentre at Warwick University and the GloucestershireCounty Record
Office. I also wish to thank the Magistrates' Association, who not only supplied me with accessto their library and coffee and biscuits but also with a warm and quiet room in which to work.
This thesis would not have been startedwithout the encouragementof my mother, who died before its completion. She also transcribedsome documentsfor me. My daughters,Clare and Ruth, helped compile the magistrates' databaseand
Brian has shown great forbearance.
Many thanks are, of course, due to my supervisorsat the University of
Greenwich, ProfessorAngela V. John and ProfessorMick Ryan, and to Dr. Paula
Bartley, Dr. Brian Harrison and Dr. Katherine Bradley who all answeredmy inquiries.
I receivedwelcome support from fellow PhD studentsat Greenwichwhen we met at the School of Humanities History Seminars. Finally, I wish to thank my studentson the BSc Social Scienceprogramme at the University of Kent at Medway (formerly
Mid-Kent College) for inspiring me to believe that I too could return to study.
r
' 3 ýý AIHIIREVIATIONS
IIRCS British Red Cross Society
BWTA British Women's TemperanceAssociation
GWMS GloucestershireWomen Magistrates' Society
HWMA Hampshire Women Magistrates' Society
JP Justice of the Peace
MA Magistrates' Association
NCW National Council of Women
NFWI National Federationof Women's Institutes
NFWW National Federationof Women Workers
NSPCC National Society for the Preventionof Cruelty to Children
NUSEC NationalUnion of Societiesfor EqualCitizenship
NUWSS National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
NUWW NationalUnion of WomenWorkers
NWCA National WomenCitizens Association
PAC PublicAssistance Committee
PLG Poor Law Guardian
PSMC Public Service and Magistrates' Committee (of NCW)
SEC Societyfor EqualCitizenship
SJC StandingJoint Committee
WCA Women's Citizens Association
WCG Women's Co-operative Guild
WFL Women's FreedomLeague
WI Women's Institute
4 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: photographof Mrs. C.D. RackhamJP, 1937 p. 6
Figure 2: table of women magistratesappointed p. 98
Figure 3: table of County magistratesin Kent, 1934 -5p. 99
Figure 4: table of County magistratesin Kent, 1950 p. 100
Figure 5: photographof Mrs. Geraldine Cadbury, 1919 p. 107
5 Figure 1: Photograph of Mrs. C. I). Rackham JP, 1937 INTRODUCTION
In 1918 British women were able to cast a vote in a General Election for the
first time. In the following yearwomen began to sit on the magisterialbench to pass judgement on their fellow citizens, another situation which was probably without ' precedentin Britain. Whereasonly a handful of women have becomeprofessional judges in England and Wales, many thousandshave sat as lay justices in courts that
handle over ninety per cent of criminal cases.Whilst the right to vote is just one
aspectof the role of a citizen in a modern liberal democratic society, it is has received
far more attention from both contemporariesand historians than other essential
aspectsof citizenship, in particular the right and duty to take part in the administration of justice. Yet, as Ruth Lister has pointed out `much of the political history of the
twentiethcentury has been characterised by battlesto extend,defend or give
substanceto political, civil and social rights of citizenship', battles in which women played`a centralrole'. The struggleby womento achieveequal citizenship on the magistrates'benches of Englandand Waleswas one such battle and is a centraltheme of this thesis.
This Introduction will place the battle in the context of the campaign for women'ssuffrage and will commentupon the applicationof feministprinciples to citizenship.The definition of `feminism' will be considered.This thesiswill be placedin the contextof publishedwork on the women'smovement in the periodafter the First World War and on the role of women in Britain's justice system. The principal sourcesresearched will be consideredand the structure of the thesis outlined.
' For details of probable precedentsfor women being mademagistrates, see Chapter One. 2 Ruth Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives,Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1997, p. 4.
7 Much hasbeen written on the prolongedcampaign by British womenfor the parliamentaryvote betweenthe first organisedsuffrage petition in 1866 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914,3and there have been thorough examinations of otheraspects of the women'smovement in this period,especially the campaigns for an equal moral standardbetween men and women. As SusanKingsley Kent has argued,these two issueswere not unconnected,but sprang from the samelate nineteenthcentury feminist analysis, which rejected the notion that the public and private were distinct spheres. For women like Millicent Garrctt Fawcett, who was not only Presidentof the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies(NUWSS) but also a prominent supporterof the National Vigilance Association (NVA), the vote was not an end in itself but a meansto an end, namely `the achievementof a nobler and truer relationship betweenthe sexes'5. Yet she was as aware as other feminists of the time that the vote would not by itself transform the position of women; a complex range of legal reforms were neededto ensurethat women had equal employment rights,equal access to divorceand the guardianshipof their children,and equal treatmentin the courtsof law. This in turn would not happenwithout the attainment of full citizenship:what was requiredwas not merelythe chanceto help decidewhich men governedthe country, but also the opportunity for women themselvesto become the makersand adjudicators of the country'slaws. A commitmentto the acquisition andexercise of full citizens' rights wasthus fundamentallyimportant to suffragists.
Some recent feminist commentatorsargue that the faith the women's movement of the 191Osand 1920splaced in statutory reform was misplaced, since
3 For example,Andrew Rosen,Rise Up JVomen!London, Routledge& Kggan Paul, 1974; Jill Liddington & Jill Norris, One Hand Tied Behind Us, London, Virago, 1978; SandraStanley Holton, Feminism and Democracy, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1986;Martin Pugh, The March of the Women, Oxford University Press,2000. For example,Sheila Jeffreys, TheSpinster and 11erEnemies, London, PandoraPress, 1985. 3 SusanKingsley Kent, Sex and Suffrage in Britain 1860-1914,London, Routledge, 1990,p. 14.
8 `feministshave had the opportunityto observethe limited usefulnessof law reform'. 6
Katherine O'Donovan has argued that liberal feminists tried to open up the public sphereto eliminate women's subordination while oppressionin the private spherewas 7 untouched. however, suchobservations are made with the benefitof hindsight.
Without legal changethere could be no improvement in the statusof women, whether in public or private. Ruth Lister has posedthe question whether the ideal of
`originally be citizenship predicatedon the exclusion of women, can reformulated ... to include (and not simply append)them'. 8 Feminists of the 1920swould have probably answeredwith a guarded `yes'. They were optimistic, although not excessivelyso. The believed that measuressuch as the Sex Disqualification
(Removal) Act (which permitted women to becomemagistrates, jurors, barristersand solicitors) would hastenthe acquisition of the full rights and responsibilities of citizensand leadto moreequal treatment under the law. But they wereby no means naive: they understoodthat to attain this goal would require a prolonged struggle. It wasto this battlethat manyformer suffragiststurned their attentionin the 1920s.
The importancethat the formersuffrage societies placed upon the active citizenshipof womenin general,and on their new rolesas magistrates and jurors in particular, can be ascertainedfrom the pagesof their publications and from their activities,both nationaland local. For example,The Vote,the paperof the Women's
FreedomLeague (WFL), carriedregular news items, editorials and features on these subjectsthroughout the 1920s. Indeed, Claire Eustancchas identified `citizenship' as
6 Julia Brophy & Carol Smart (eds.) Womenin Law: Explorations in Law, Family and Sexuality, London, Routlcdge, 1985, p. 15. Katherine O'Donovan, SexualDivisions in the Law, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985,p. 17. $ Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectivesp. 3.
9 key the WFL's The NUWSS, the a componentof political aspirations.9 which after
First World War adoptedits significantnew name,the NationalUnion of Societiesfor
Equal Citizenship (NUSEC), pursuedthe chimera of citizenship in both social and legalspheres. Whilst muchof the organisation'sstrategy in the 1920swas aimed controversially at improving the statusof motherhood,it neverthelesssponsored a
Summer School for women magistrates at Oxford in 192210and carried in its journal the Women'sLeader a seriesof articles about the work of magistrateswritten by Mrs. " Rackham,a prominent NUSEC executive member.
An examination of `grassroots'women's organisations,which hitherto have been largely neglectedby historians, confirms the view that active citizenship was of fundamentalimportance to their membersin the interwar years. Whereasthe former suffrage societies,such as the WFL and the NUSEC, experienceddeclining member- 12 ship in the 1920sand 1930s, other organisations,including Women's Citizens
Associations (WCAs), local National Council of Women (NCW) branches,as well as
Townswomen'sGuilds, Women's Co-operative Guild branchesand Women's
Institutes,continued to thrive until the middle of the centuryand, in manycases, beyond. Women's Citizens Associations were set up in 1918-9 with the intention of educatingwomen to make the most of their new civic rights and responsibilities and ensuringthat womenwere better represented on the local counciland magisterial bench. As this thesiswill show,organisations with extensivebranch networks, such asthe NationalCouncil of Women(NCW) andthe National Women'sCitizens
° For example,the WFL leader Mrs. Despardis quoted as seeingthe vote as a `symbol of citizenship'. Claire Eustance,'Dare to be Free! The evolution of political identities in the Women's Freedom League', University of York, D. Phil., 1993. 10 The Times,22 August 1922,p. 5. 11 SeeFigure 1. The articles, someunder the title `The Law at Work', appearedbetween 1923and 1930. 1= The NUSEC had 48 affiliated societiesfor equal citizenship in 1935. Its forerunner,the NUWSS had 478 affiliates in 1914. Martin Pugh, Women& the Women'sMovement in Britain, 2ndcd. London. Macmillan, 2000, p.242.
10 Association(NWCA) continuedto work over the next five decades,both locally and 13 nationally,to securean increasein the numbersof womenjustices and jurors.
Their ambitionsdid not stopat merelyachieving the replacementof male faceswith femaleones. As with parallelcampaigns to get morewomen into parliament (and the suffrage campaign itself) the objective was to changethe institutions themselves,in this casethe judicial system- both in its civil and criminal aspects. Veteransof the suffrage campaign were aware that justice was not sex-blind.
Their journals had reminded them for years how women, whether defendants, witnessesor plaintiffs, were dealt with in courts where all the official personnel- magistrates,judges, clerks, solicitors, barristers and police - were men. They perceivedthat, in caseswhere the evidence was deemedlikely to be of a sexual nature, the presiding justices often decided to clear the court of all women, leaving vulnerable young girls to give evidencewithout the support of anyoneof their own sex. They arguedthat courts frequently handeddown stiffer sentencesfor stealing thanfor wife beating.'4 They thoughtthat, aswomen, they wereparticularly well qualified to adjudicatein the new systemof juvenile courts(which wasdeveloping at this time) andthat they would be ableto usetheir experienceas wives in matrimonial proceedings.Their understandingas to how they would executetheir duties of citizenshipwas therefore profoundly gendered and influencedby contemporary ideologiesof sexualdifference. However,the stresswas notjust placedon the special expertiseof women,but on the rights andobligations conferred on themby that
1' NWCA to An undated leaflet (c. 1968) entitled `What Are We?' statesthat `we encouragewomen ... becomecouncillors, MPs and magistrates'(The Women's Library, NWCA archive). Not all WCAS were affiliated to the NWCA, some,mainly former NUWSS brancheswere affiliated to the NUSEC and somewere completely independent,notably the Cambridge WCA. 14 Votesfor Womenmade regular comparisonsof punishmentsin its columns in 1917 and The Voteran a featurebefore the First World War entitled 'The ProtectedSex'. For the latter seeJoan Lock, The British Policewoman: Her Story, London, Robert I late, 1979,p. 16.
11 'J_ý experience. To supportersof women magistratesit was essentialthat a `woman's view' should be heard on the bench.
In orderto changethe systemwomen needed influence in the wider world andso they did not remainwithin the confinesof exclusivelyfemale organisations.
For example, former suffragists, such as Miss Margery Fry and Mrs. Rackham,played an important part in the establishmentof the Magistrates' Association (MA). The meetingsand summer schools organisedby women's organisationsprovided the template for later attempts to improve the training of justices. This thesis will contendthat women magistrateswere catalystsfor some of the changesthat took place in the administration of summaryjustice in England and Walesasbetween 1920 and 1950, changeswhich were effected not only through the agencyof women-only organisations,but also through their co-operationwith other groups and individuals.
This examinationof womenmagistrates begins shortly before the appointment of the first women JPs in 1919. The admission of women to the magistrates' bench had, in fact, been proposedin evidence to the 1910 Royal Commission on the
Selectionof Justices,although the necessarylegislation was not passeduntil 1919.
This study ends in 1950 when new legislation (the Justicesof the PeaceAct 1949) came into force following another Royal Commission. At that point many significant changeswere made to the composition,work andtraining of the lay magistracy,for example,a statutoryretirement age was introduced.This thesisis thereforeconcerned with the creationof womenmagistrates and the work of thosewho wereappointed within the first twenty-five years that women were entitled to sit as JPs. By 1950 mostof the earlierappointees were already departing the scene,even before
"For example,changes in juvenile court composition and procedureand in the handling of matrimonial and domesticcases. SeeChapters Three and Six.
12 is England Wales retirement was made compulsory. The study restricted to and becauseScotland has a different legal systemand JPs play a different role within it.
FEMINISM AND CITIZENSHIP
This activity to promote the role of women in the administration of justice will be characterisedin this thesis as `feminist' in characterand inspiration. The words
`feminist' and `feminism' have multiple meaningsand `feminist' in particular has had very negativeconnotations placed upon it. Moreover, feminism can be regardedas a very broad church, capableof taking many different forms. For example, with regard to the 1920s,some historians have detecteda distinction between `old' or equalitarian 16 feminism and `new' or welfare feminism, although, as Carol Dyhousehas pointed 17 out, `such divisions... were by no meansclearly drawn'. Other analystshave sought to distinguish between `first wave' and `secondwave' feminism, a distinction which appearsto be largely chronological and is unsustainableboth in the light of evidence of the continued vitality of the women's movement in the twentieth century and in the natureof that movement.18 Further distinctions have been made between liberal,
Marxist and radical feminism, among many other strands.
I have chosento adopt very broad and inclusive definitions of `feminist' and
`feminism' asthey canbe ascertainedduring the periodunder consideration. As
Dyhouseremarks `feminists have seen themselves and canbe regardedas thosewho have identified a problem in the social relationships existing betweenmen and
16See Chapter Two. '7 Carol Dyhouse,Feminism and the Family in England 1880-1939,Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1989, Pi5. Maggie Ilumm arguesthat secondwave feminism `takesas its starting point the politics of reproduction,while sharing first wave feminism's politics of legal, educationaland economicequal rights for women'. This may appearto be a very fine distinction, given the admissionof so much sharedground. Furthermore,it is clear that 'first wave' feminists in the late nineteenthand early twentieth centuries,either in their `old' or its `new' forms, by no meansignored the 'politics of reproduction'. Maggie Humm, Feminisms:A Reader, London, Harvester Wheatsheaf,1992, p. 53.
13 women,deriving from an imbalanceof poweroperating in favourof the former'.19
To that I would add that feminists are people, male as well as female, who decide to do something,however small, to redressthat imbalance. 'Feminism' can be interpretedas a collectiveterm for the manystrands of ideologicalbelief, however inchoate,regarding the nature and position of women, held by those who can be identified as `feminist' according to the above criteria.
Thus the definition of `feminist' can be extendedto encompassindividuals and groups that have not traditionally been designatedas such, and even, post hoc, to some people who may have themselvespreferred not to be thus labelled, for example the first woman magistratein London, Gertrude Tuckwell20 Crucially, in the context of the presentstudy I have decided to characteriseindividuals such as Tuckwell as feminist. As Cheryl Law has for pointed out, `Tuckwell's political work women ... might be consideredby othersto identify her with the communitariansocialist mode of feminism', despite her own denial of the label in `the context of the protective/restrictivelegislation debate' of the mid 1920s.2'
Whilst it would be unrealisticto assertthat all the earlywomen magistrates were feminists (even self-denying ones) according to the above definition, it is notable that many saw it as their role to champion in some way the causeof women in the law courts. Moreover,as ChapterFour will demonstrate,a significantminority of womenappointed to the Benchin 1920had been active in the women'ssuffrage movement,and as mentionedabove, the formersuffrage societies continued to takean interest in the work of magistratesin the 1920s. However, support for suffrage cannot be taken as the only litmus test for feminism. Suffragism itself contained many
19 Dyhouse,Feminism and the Family, p.4. 20 Cheryl Law, Suffrage and Power: The Women'sMovement, 1918-1928,London, 1.ß. Taurus, 1997, 2,p. Ibid.4.
14 strandsand the division betweenthose who supportedthe call for votesfor womenon the sameterms as men and the adult suffragistshas particular significance. Some of the early socialist women magistrates,such as Margaret Bondfield and Mary
Macarthur,belonged to the latter groupyet they,like Tuckwcll, alsoworked to improve the lot of women in other ways. Equally, too narrow a definition of
`feminist' would also exclude the more conservative-mindedwomen magistrates, someof whom had actually opposedwomen's suffrage at some stage(although many uA later recanted) notable example is Violet Markham, who despite her belief in a
`biologically and culturally basedsex difference' was nevertheless`willing to fight 23 for middle class women's right to serve as magistrates' Therefore, the key test for individual women magistratesadopted in this thesis is an affiliation to any organisationthat can be regardedas belonging to the broadly based`women's 25 movement'24of the period, including bodies such as Women's Institutes,
Townswomen's Guilds, the Women's Co-operativeGuild, WCAs and the NCW, as well as the more overtly feminist organisationsof the day, such as the WFL, the
NUSEC,the OpenDoor Council andthe Six Point Group.
In a recent article Caitriona Beaumont has argued that the mainstream women's societiesof the 1930s,including the NCW, `felt compelled to negotiate a clearboundary between women's citizenship rights and feminism'. Neverthelessshe concedesthat they did so becauseof the `negativeportrayal of feminismand feminist
22 For exampleMrs. Louise Creighton, founding presidentof the National Union of Women Workers (NUWW, later renamedthe NCW). A signatory of the 1889 `Appeal' againstwomen's suffrage, Mrs. Creighton had changedher mind by the time of the 1906NUWW conferencein Tunbridge Wells. Sec DaphneGlick, The National Council of Womenof Great Britain: The First One Hundred Years, London, NCW, 1995, p. 13. Mrs. Creighton becamea JP in 1920. 2' JaneLewis, Womenand Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England, Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1991,p. 262 & p.296. 24 Both Cheryl Law and Martin Pugh have usedthis term in their book titles. I understandit to apply to the network of women's organisationsthat promoted and/or cared for the needsof women as women. u Maggie Andrews has claimed that the Women's Institute movementwas `the acceptableface of feminism' in the interwar period. Maggie Andrews, The Acceptable Face of Feminism: the IVomen's Institute as a Social Movement,London, Lawrence& Wishart, 1997.
15 26 societiesat the time'. Althoughsuch a boundarymay be perceivablein theory,it was frequentlycrossed in practice. In any case,any such boundary was largely rhetorical since citizenship was, and had been for some time, feminism's central project,a conceptenshrined in the titles of feministgroups. It wasalso dear to the heart of the NCW, an organisation that seemsto have been largely ignored, undervaluedand sometimeseven misinterpretedby historians??
The NCW has usually been regardedas a conservativeorganisation, to which the label `feminist' appearedinappropriate. The NCW was dominated by
`Establishment' ladies of the middle and upper classes,many of whom held views that to modem eyesmay seemsocially and even politically conservative,but this did not mean that they lacked commitment to the causeof women. Many were in fact active suffrage supportersin the years before 1918, most notably lady Seiborne(NCW president 1920-21). At the `grassroots' level too there was much overlap betweenthe membershipof local suffrage societiesand NCW branches. This thesis will be particularly concernedwith the NCW's Public Service and Magistrates' Committee
(PSMC)and will demonstratethat the PSMC,led for over a decadefrom the mid-
1920sby Mrs. Keynes, a redoubtableCambridge feminist, was unambiguousin its commitment to the practicalities of women's citizenship. Their feminism was not confinedto the achievementof equalityfor their own socialclass on the magistrates' benchbut encompassedconcern for womenwho appearedbefore the courtsand was 8 rootedin a clearunderstanding of the imbalanceof powerbetween men and women.
26Caitriona Beaumont'Citizens not feminists: the boundarynegotiated between citizenship and feminism by mainstreamwomen's organisationsin England, 1928-39', Women's1Yistory Review Volume 9, no.3 (2000) p.426. 27There are signs that historiansare taking more interest in the NCW than hitherto, and in other, more 'conservative' women's organisationsof the early twentieth century. See,for example,ibid. 28See Chapter Six.
16 So far, activity by women and their organisationsin the justice systemhas received little attention from historians, As Law remarked in her recent study
Suffrage and Power `using the militant phase[of the women's suffrage movement] as a yardstickfor all subsequentpolitical activity hasundermined a sincereportrayal of 29 women's participation' Additionally, as suggestedabove, the adoption of too narrow a definition of `feminist' with regard to the interwar period has createdan impression of decline that does not accommodatethe flourishing of many women's 30 organisationsat that time. In comparison with the suffragettesthe pressuregroup tactics of the interwar women's movement undoubtedly appearstaid and dull. Yet the suffragetteswere only ever a small part of the feminist movement. Moreover, in addition to their involvement in a range of women's organisations,women also took part in partypolitical activity, both beforeand after theywon the vote. Theyalso stoodfor election,to local councilsand as PoorLaw Guardians,an activity that was to leadmany on to the magistrates'bench.
The studyof British feminismbetween the First World War andthe late
1960sis not neglectednowadays as it was in 1984when Dale Spenderreminded her readersthat There's Always Been a Women'sMovement This Century. Studiessuch as Brian Harrison's Prudent Revolutionaries, JohannaAlberti's BeyondSuffrage and
Law's work, as well as copiousbiographical studies of individuals,have amply 31 illustratedits continuingforce. However,it is still too readilyassumed that feminism went into rapid declinein the interwarperiod as membershipof organisationssuch as
29 Law, Suffrage and Power p.2 30 JoanneWorkman has madea similar point in 'Wading Through the M ire: a Historiographical Study of the British Women's Movement Betweenthe Wars', The University of. SussexJournal of Contemporary1listory, Issue2, April 2001. 31 Dale Spender,There's Always Been a i{'omen's AlovementThis Century, London, PandoraPress, 1984; Brian I larrison Prudent Revolutionaries,Oxford, OUP, 1987;Johanna Alberti, BeyondSuffrage: Feminists In Mar and Peace 1914-1928,London, Macmillan, 1989. Among the many biographiesthe following standout: DeborahGorham, Vera Drfttain: A Feminist Life, Oxford, Blackwell, 1996; Sheila Fletcher,Afaude Royden, Oxford, Blackwell, 1989;and JohannaAlberti, Eleanor Rathbone,London, Sage, 1996.
17 the NUSEC fell. SusanKingsley Kent arguesthat `by the end of the 1920s,feminism as a distinct political and social movcmcnt had bccomc insignificant. 32
However, as Pat Thane has remarked,one should not judge the achievements of interwarfeminism by impossiblestandards. The view that `thepreviously active and united movement becamesplintered, divided, less publicly and dramatically efective'33 in the decadeor two after 1918 has been modified to a great extent by 34 recent research. Not only had women and their organisationshave to come to terms with their new citizenship, they had to do so at a time of great political uncertainty and insecurity both within Britain and throughout the world. Researchhas shown that 35 many women sought their new political role within the establishedpolitical parties, whilst a few turned to new extreme groupings. 6 Others decided to make the peace 37 movement their top priority at a time of heightenedinternational tension None of theseactivities reduced their commitmentto activecitizenship - or to feministideals
- rather, they representednew avenuesin which to expresstheir commitment.
Thus formersuffragists did not vanishafter the vote waswon but were working both in women-onlybodies and in a variety of mixed organisations-
32 SusanKingsley Kent, Alaking Peace: The Reconstructionof Gender in Interwar Britain, New Jersey, Princeton University Press,1993. 13 Pat Thane, `What Difference Did the Vote Make?' in Amanda Vickery (ed.) Women,Privilege and Power: British Politics, 1750 to the Present, California, Stanford University Press,2001, p.253. 34Ibid. Seealso J. Alberti, `Keep the Candle Burning: Some British FeministsBetween Two Wars' and Martin Pugh `The Impact of Women's Enfranchisementin Britain' in C. Daley & M. Nolan (eds.) Suffrage and Beyond,New York University Press, 1994. 35For example,Pamela Graves, Labour Women: Womenin British Working Class Politics 1918-19, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994; G. E. Maguire ConservativeWomen: A History of WomenIn the ConservativeParty 1874-1997,London, Macmillan, 1998. 36 For women'sinvolvement in extremeright wing organisations,sec Julie Gottlieb Feminine Fascism: Womenand Britain's FascistAlovement, 1923-1945, London, 1. B. Taurus,2000; R. M. Douglas, FeministFreikorps: The British VoluntaryWomen Police, 1914-1940, Westport, Connecticut, Praeger, 1999. Douglasargues that the involvementof formersuffragette and leader of the unofficial Women's PoliceService (WPS) Mary Allen in fascistmovements was entirely consistent with her feminist principles. 7 Jill Liddington's The Road to GreenhamCommon: Feminism and Antl-Militarism in Britain since 1820, SyracuseUniversity Press,1989, Part Two examinesthe involvement of suffragistsand other feminists in the peacemovements during and after the First World War. Seealso Alberti, Beyond Suffrage.
18 including political parties and the Leagueof Nations Union - in ways that continued to be informed by their core feminist beliefs. Women's involvement in the magistracyneeds to be seenas a further, hitherto neglected,example of active citizenship.This studywill demonstratethat the Magistrates'Association and the penal reform groups can be addedto the list of organisationsin which women practiced their commitment to citizenship in the interwar years. The acquisition of citizens' rights by women in 1918-19channelled the efforts of politically active women into working out the practical applications of citizenship through a variety of organisations. Feminists coupled this with their continued support for achieving 38 greaterequality of the sexes.
This thesis will also argue that the achievementof equal citizenship for women in the magistracywas a crucially important project of the women's movement acrossEngland and Wales in the decadesfollowing the partial enfranchisementof women in 1918. Yet it has hitherto receivedscant attention, even from those historianswho haveargued that the women'smovement remained alive andwell after 39 the endof the First World War. For example,in concentratingon the periodup to the achievementof equalvoting rights in 1928,Cheryl Law mapswhat sheregards as
`fundamental the the aspectsof the movement's work, ... pursuit of political and economicpoweri40 but her studybarely touches on the strugglefor equalityin the legalsystem. At the sametime sheidentifies considerable continuity in the women's movement through the First World War and into the 1920sand characterisesthe
`women's movement' as a broad basednetwork of organisationslinked together by
3" For example,the campaignto extend the franchiseto younger women. SeeLaw, Suffrage and Power, Chapter9. 39 Generally, only passingreference has been madeto the appointmentof women magistrates,for exampleAlberti's commentthat `the appointmentof the first women magistrateswas another symbol of successfor the women's movement,and one which gave statusand some power to a few women'. Alberti, BeyondSuffrage. p.98 40 Law, Suffrage and Power, p.2.
19 41 formal affiliations, overlapping mcmbcrshipsand a common pool of spcnkcrs
Both thesefeatures, the continuity and the network, arc also important themesin this
thcsis.
The clementof continuitystems from both the organisationalcontext and from
the activities of individuals. Although the Women's Social and Political Union had
departedfrom the British feminist sceneby 1918,other suffrage societies,notably the
NUWSS and the WFL, carried on the fight for women's rights with both these
organisationstaking a great interest in the opportunities presentedto women by their
inclusion in the Commissionsof the Peacefrom 1920. Together with the NCW, they
were among the bodies which made recommendationsto the Lord Chancellor's
Women's Advisory Committee as to suitable candidatesfor the magistracyand at a
local level NUSEC branches(some of whom had turned into or mergedwith
Women'sCitizens Associations)42 continued to be activein putting forwardthe
namesof women to local advisory committees in the 1920s. Despite its changeof
namethe NCW canalso be seenas providingan clementof continuity:the PSMC,the
key NCW committeefor magistrates,was foundedbefore the First World War and its
key personnelcontinued to be active for sometime afterwards.
However, there was inevitably organisational changeas well as continuity,
notablythe growthafter the First World War of Women'sCitizens Associations,
Women'sInstitutes and later,the Townswomen'sGuilds. WCAs, which wereformed
from 1918 onwards, were the direct descendantsof local suffrage groups. So far they
have received comparatively little attention from historians, yet there is evidenceof a widespreadnetwork of branches,which were active at least until the 1930s. As well
41Ibid., p. 3. 42 For examplethe Cardiff NUWSS branch becamethe Cardiff and District WCA in 1921. SeeKay Cook and Neil Evans,' "The petty antics of the bell ringing boisterousband"? The women's suffrage movementin Wales' in Angela V. John (ed.) Our Mother's Land, Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1991.
20 as suggestingnames for appointmcnt as magistratcs,they promoted women as local governmentcandidates, some of whom were elected on the WCA platform. Whilst
WCAs were undoubtedly middle class organisations,at least some of them were in contactwith branchesof the Women'sCo-operative Guild (WCG), which together with the Railway Women's Guild also put forward the namesof working class 43 women for inclusion in the Commission of the Peace. The WCG had already establisheditself as a recruiting organisation through which working class women enteredlocal government. In the interwarperiod it suppliedmany of the Labour women nomineesfor the magistracy. Chapter Six will map the work of some of these organisationsin relation to the magistracy and the emergenceof new groupings, notably the societiesof women magistratesand the mixed Magistrates' Association.
The secondmain sourceof continuityis the activismof individual women, both in existingroles and in the new spheresthat wereopening up. The typical woman magistrateof the 1920swas in her forties with at least twenty yearsof active life on the benchin front of her. Born in the 1870s,she reached adulthood in the era 44 of `theNew Woman andmaturity when the suffragemovement was at its height.
Whetheror not shewas a supporter- activeor passive- of that movementshe could not fail to have been affected by it. Most probably (although not inevitably) from a middle classbackground45, she would havebeen imbued with essentiallyVictorian 46 valuesof serviceto the communityand a genderedconcept of citizenship. She
" Namesof women recommendedto the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee for appointmentin London which were not successfulwere forwarded to the Lord Lieutenant for further considerationby the local advisory committee. They include women recommendedby WCG, WRG and Labour Party branches,and ones recommendedby WCAs. London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) LCC/LCTY/69. " For an examinationof the stateof feminism in the 1890sand the stereotypeof the 'New Woman', see David Rubinstein,Before the Suffragettes: Women'sEmancipation in the 1890s,Brighton, Harvester,1986. A minority of the early women magistrateswere from working class backgrounds,see Chapter Four. 46 The conceptof `genderedcitizenship' in this period is examinedin relationship to the work of Mary ward, Violet Markham, Beatrice Webb and others by Jane Lewis in Womenand Social Action. Ward, Markham and Webb were among the first women to be mademagistrates in Englandand were
21 4i i might havehad access to the new educationalopportunities available to middleclass
girls suchas the high schoolsor evenattended one of the women'suniversity
colleges. Undoubtedly she would have performed some sort of war service in the
years1914 -18. Shewas old enoughto vote in 1918and hadprobably been a member
of some sort of women's organisation, perhapsan NCW or NUWSS branch, a local
WCA or a Women's Institute, or a religious or welfare organisation such as the
Mother's Union, Girls' Friendly Society or RescueAssociation. She might be a temperanceactivist and was highly likely to have servedas a Poor Law Guardian or local councillor. This first generationof women magistratescontinued to servetheir local communities until the SecondWorld War, and in some casesfor longer still.
Their approachto the work continued to be shapedand informed by their earlier experiencesand fundamentalattitudes. Although by no meansall of them could be describedas `feminist' by historians (and perhapsfewer still would have applied that label to themselves)47they neverthelessperceived that women had an important and essentialrole to play in Britain's justice system (similar to the role many of them had alreadyplayed in local government)and were aware of their statusas pioneers in engagingwith the practicalities of citizenship.
Law's secondpoint, the importance of networks, is also evident in a study of the earlywomen magistrates. I havealready referred to the myriadorganisations with which they frequentlyconnected. Brian I larrisonhas demonstrated with regardto moral reformpressure groups in the ninetccnthcentury the overlappingmembership of differentorganisations linking causesthat at first sight might appearunconnected.
Evenapparently rival organisationswhich operatedin the samepolicy areawere appointedto the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee,although Ward took no active part due to her ill-health and deathearly in 1920. " Law, Suffrage and Power, p.4 gives the exampleof Gertrude Tuckwell who denied that she was a feminist in 1926although `her work for women and political allegiancemight be consideredby others to identify her with the communitariansocialist mode of feminism'.
22 48 shown to sharemembers, attitudes and techniques,differing only in minor respects
With regard to women and the magistracy, there were not only the obvious links betweenthe former suffrage organisationsand the NCW, but the connectionsof the women'smovement to penalreform groups,a connectionwhich operatedmost effectively in securing changesto the juvenile court system in London in 1920-21 in the teeth of well organisedopposition from the legal profession. 9 In addition to organisationallinks, there is evidenceof friendship networks among women magistrates.As Liz Stanleycommented on her researchinto the friendshipnetworks of Olive Schreiner `connectionsbetween feminist women' were wide extcnsivesoand
`feminist organisation' was much more complex than the formal structuresmight suggest51
WOMEN MAGISTRATES AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
This thesiswill endeavourto showthat whilst the connectionbetween feminismand reform of thejustice and penalsystems may not be immediately apparent,it wasvery real. My intentionis to demonstratethat not only did the magistracychange women, but alsothat womenchanged the magistracy,although the changesstopped short of the transformation some feminists may have desired. The earlywomen magistrates contributed directly or indirectly to severaldevelopments in the administrationofjusticc from the early 1920sto the late 1940s. I shall arguethat althoughthey madeup only a small minority of the magistracy,some of themwere not content merely to be passiveadministrators of a man-madesystem but were
"Brian Harrison `StateIntervention and Moral Reform in NineteenthCentury England' in Patricia Hollis (ed.) Pressurefrom Without, London, Edward Arnold, 1974. "See ChapterThree. S0 Liz Stanley `Feminismand Friendship: Two Essayson Olive Schreiner', Studies In Sexual Politics 8, University of Manchester,1986, p.9. 31Ibid. p.45
23 actively involved in its reform. This activity was probably confined to a relatively
small group of people, but their Was were widely and efficiently disseminated
through meetings,conferences, summer schools and the network of women's
organisationsto a much largeraudience. Of course,by no meansall the earlywomen
magistrateswere `progressive' penal reformers (there is evidencethat at least some of
them held very traditional views on issuessuch as sentencingand corporal
punishment)but there was an identifiable group whose interestscombined feminism
with penology.Additionally, the majority of thosewomen JPs, whose views can be
ascertainedfrom fragmentaryhistorical evidence,seem to have taken their new
obligations as citizens very seriously, and therefore at least tried to acquaint themselveswith relevant policy developments.
So far the impact of women as administrators of justice in Britain has not been examinedor commentedon in greatdepth. Feministwriters suchas Carol Smartand
Katherine O'Donovan have tended to concentrateon women as subjectsof the law, exploringfor examplethe waysin which Britain's family law upholdspatriarchy.
Alison Morris and HelenaKennedy have examined women's role in relationto criminaljustice, but with the emphasison defendantsand legal professionals,in 52 Kennedy's casewriting from personalexperience as a barrister. Although it is over eightyyears since women were admitted to the magistracythere has been no 33 thoroughhistorical study of their work. Therehas been some sociological research, but generallythe experienceof this largenumber of women(nowadays about half of the country's JPs are women) has been overlooked. The apparentsignificance of their work is perhapsreduced by the fact that it is voluntary and without remunerationand
32 Alison Morris, Women,Crime and Criminal Justice, Oxford, Blackwell, 1987; 1lelenaKennedy, Eve WasFramed, London, Chatto & Windus, 1992. 33 Notably by Anne Worral, 'Sisters in Law? Women Defendantsand Women Magistrates' in Pat Carlen & Anne Worral (ed.) Gender, Crime and Justice, Milton Keynes, Open University Press,1987.
24 lacksthe powerand glamourassociated with a high statusprofession or a parliamentarycareer. But even nowadaysthe letters `Ji" carry some prestige,and in the early twentieth century being placed on the commission of the peacewas regarded asan honourcomparable to a knighthood.54
Histories of the magistracytend to take a `Whig' approachto the subject whereby it is viewed - taking into account its imperfections - as a great British institution. The authors of textbooks on this subject are more often than not people who have worked within the systemas barristers,officials in the Lord Chancellor's
Departmentor as JPs.55 Therefore they tend to take a rather benign, insider's view which is reinforced by the longevity of the institution (over six hundred years) and the slow pace of change. In Volume Two of his detailed work on the History of the
Justice of the Peace Sir Thomas Skyrme describesthe transformation of the JP from administrator to judge between 1888 and 1945. The chapter is divided into subsections,for example on `Women as Magistrates', `the Magistrates' Association',
`Matrimonialand Affiliation Proceedings',`Juvenile Courts' and `Treatmentof
Offenders',but thesedevelopments are treated separately. S6 This thesiswill contend that thesewere not isolatedmatters, but wereconnected. Moreover, these changes in the role of magistratesin the 1920-1950period were in part contingent on and promptedby the introductionof womento the magistrates'bench.
Studicsin the devclopmcntof pcnalpolicy also sccmto undcrestimatcor ignorethe involvementof women. Whilst thereis recognitionof the role of nineteenthcentury individuals such as Mary Carpenterin `child saving' and Elizabeth
34 Michael King & Colin May, Black Alagistrates,London, CobdenTrust, 1985,p. 24. " For example Frank Milton, author of The English Magistracy, Oxford, OUP, 1967was a metropolitan magistrateand deputy chairman of I tertfordshire Quarter Sessions. Sir Thomas Skyrme, a barrister, was Secretaryof Commissionsfor Englandand Wales from 1948 until 1977. "6 Thomas Skyrme, History of the Justice ofthe Peace Volume2, Chichester,Barry Rose, 1991, Chapter V[.
25 Fry in the reformof prisonconditions, there has been little analysisof the contribution made by women to the developmentof policies, for example probation, in the early twentieth century. In his study of the origins of modern pennlity, David Garland
identifiesthe developingtradition of socialwork asone of four major influenceson " penal policy in the late nineteenthand early twentieth centuries, but this tradition is treated by Garland in a genderneutral way, even though it was largely shared by the voluntary work of women. When the importance of women's voluntary social work has been acknowledged,it is sometimescrudely portrayed either as unwarranted
intervention, by underemployedmiddle class women, in the lives of working class
families or as the exerciseof bourgeois social control. As Jane Lewis and others have argued,this interpretation is simplistic and a distortion of the motives and methodsof the social workers, as well as a misreading of the working class family and its
responsesto their initiatives.58 This thesiswill demonstratethat, whatevertheir motiveswere, some women (not all of whom weremiddle class)were already
involvedin socialwork which broughtthem into regularcontact with the courtsof law, for exampleas voluntaryprobation officers or in court rotas,before they were permittedto be magistratesor lawyers. A few hadalready begun to developideas relatingto the treatmentof offendersand other matters. 59 Thus they werebetter able to become`active citizens' after 1920,working with like-mindedpeople to achieve the changesthey sought. To achievethese objectives they wereable to utilise the networksthat they alreadyhad in place,including women's organisations, mixed pressuregroups and friendship networks.
" David Garland, Punishmentand Welfare,Aldershot, Gower, 1985. 31 lane Lewis, 'Women in late nineteenthcentury social work' in Carol Smart (cd.) Regulating Womanhood Linda Mahood, Policing Gender, Class and Family, London, UCL Press,1995 also offers a nuanced,albeit Foucaultian,interpretation of the work of 'child savers'. 59 For exampleMiss Adler, whosepamphlet on juvenile courts and probation was published in 1908, and Mrs. Barrow Cadbury. SeeChapter Three.
26 SOURCES
As John Tosh has pointed out, what a historian `can actually achieve is 60 determinedin the first instanceby the extent and characterof the surviving sources'.
Thereare severalmain typesof primaryhistorical source on which this thesisis based:official governmentsources, private papers,records of women's and magistrates'organisations, newspapers and journals, and autobiographies.
No archive is a completely unproblematic entity, but its contentsarc `the products of the chancesurvival of some documents... [and] the products of the professionalactivities of archivists'. 61 The official governmentsources in the Public
Record Office are no exception. However, they mainly came into existencein responseto the day-to-day problems and challengesof governmentrather than with an eye to posterity. Therefore they are a good sourceof what Arthur Marwick calls
`unwitting testimony';the evidence`which historiansfind very useful,but which the originator of the document is not conscious...for it would be known anyway, or taken for granted,by contemporaries. Similarly, the large volume of government reports on aspectsof the criminaljustice systemthat appearedbetween the warswere inspiredby contemporaryproblems and offeredcontemporary solutions. However, they often conformed to the style and solutions that were expectedof them by the commissioningdcpartmcnt. It is evident,for cxamplc,that the HomeOffice was receptiveto moderate,incremental proposals for reformand modernisation, for examplein the dcvclopmentof juvenile courtsand probation. Inevitably, these sourcesare a productof the societyand the governmentalsystem in which and for which they were produced.
'0 John Tosh, The Pursuit of ilistory, 3`dedition, l larlow, Pearson,2000, p.36 61 Richard J. Evans,In Defenceof h istory, London, Granta, 1997,p. 87 62 Arthur Marwick, The New Nature of h istory, Basingstoke,Palgrave, 2001, p. 174
27 Privatepapers of individualsproved equally problematic. In somecases their
survivalis largelyaccidental; in others,for examplewhere a detaileddiary is kept
over a number of years,they are more likely to be an intentional record. In either case
the evidencethey provideis largelyself-selected and, in somecases, positively
egotistical. This tendencyis far greaterwhen the subject is a woman achieving
prominencein territory formerly occupied exclusively by men. A large part of the
GertrudeTuckwcll Collection in the TUC Library consistsof a typescript of
Tuckwell's unpublished memoir, written towards the end of her long life.
Understandably,it follows autobiographicalconvention, focusing on her public work 63 and many achievements. Conversely,some private sourcestell us little about the
subject's public life. The diaries of Hilda Runciman were a fascinating record, but
contained almost nothing about her work as a magistrate. In general, I found private
papersto be of limited use for this enquiry, as they tendedto exist only for the more
well known of the early women magistrateswho usually had achieved prominence in
anotherfield and,like Runciman,appeared to havenot ratedtheir work asa JP
particularlyhighly. Nevertheless,private papers did includesome material that
offereduscful insights,not leastthe ncwscuttings kcpt by Tuckwcll.
The recordsof women's and magistrates' organisationsarc of central
importanceto this study. Archivesstudied included those of the NationalUnion of
Societiesfor EqualCitizenship (NUSEC), the NationalCouncil of Women,the
GlouccstcrshireWomcn Magistratcs' Socicty (GWMS), the IIampshirc Womcn
Magistrates' Association (IIWMA) and the Magistrates' Association (MA). In the
caseof the MA, I only had accessto published sources,the annual reports and their journal, TheMagistrate. In the caseof the recordsof the two local organisations
63 For a more detailed critique of auto/biographicalsources, see Chapter Five.
28 survivalwas presumably accidental; there is fragmentaryevidence of similar bodies elsewherein the country,but only in Gloucestcrshireand Hampshirewere rccords presentedto the local archives. Therefore it is impossible to assesshow representativethe womenmagistrates in theseareas were of their colleaguesacross the country. Moreover, the records consist mostly of minute books, which convey a rather bland impression of the organisation's activities. Only rarely do they provide a glimpse of the controversiesand differences of opinion that must have emergedin the meetings. For example, the GWMS minutes only once recordeda formal vote, over the proposal to support the sterilisation of `the mentally unfit'. Even when `a lively 64 discussion' took place over corporal punishment no vote actually took place.
However, the greatestdanger in utilising the recordsof interestedgroups is an over-identification by the researcherwith the organisationsthat producedthem. It is therefore essentialto consult sourcesthat arc external to theseorganisations and their concerns. In addition to the journals of interestedparties, such as the WFL's organ, 65 The Vote, the NUSEC's Women'sLeader and the NCW's Occasional Papers, 1 have madeuse of nationaland local newspapers.The Times was in the periodunder study regardedas the `newspaperof record' and it was undoubtedly the paper that was regularly read by magistrates. Moreover, JPs themselvesused its correspondence sectionto expresstheir views: severalimportant debates about the magistracyand its futuretook placein the columnsof TheTimes during the periodstudied. The evidenceit providescan therefore be regardedas of particularsignificance.
'4 GCRO 06156/1 & 2: GWMS minutes, 14 April 1931 &4 April 1939. 63Later NCWVNews.
29 THESIS STRUCTURE
`Making WomenMagistrates' is divided into two parts,each devoted to the
exploration of one of the meaningsof the title. The first part, `Bringing Women to the
Bench',critically examinesthe processby which womenwere introduced into the lay
magistracy. The first chapter analysesthe campaignby feminist organisationsand
their allies for the introduction of women JPs and the passageof the Sex
Disqualification (Removal) Act in 1920, which made the appointment of women to
the benchpossible. The origins of the campaignwill be locatednot only in the
demandsof feminists for equal citizenship but also in concernsfor a single standard of treatmentof men and women before the law. It will be contendedthat the concessionof the principle of women magistrateswas relatively uncontroversial in
1919 in comparison to other aspectsof the legislation, partly becauseof the party political situation and partly becausebeing a JP was (and is) a voluntary, unremuneratedactivity.
Of course,passage of legislation is one thing, while its implementation is another.There is evidencethat evenparliamentary backers of the legislationin 1919
(suchas the Lord Chancellor)did not envisagethe appointmentof morethan a handful of women magistrates,at least in the short term. Chapter Two, `Wanted:
More WomenMagistrates', therefore is devotedto the long term, ongoingcampaign of women'sorganisations, particularly (though not exclusively)the NCW, for the appointmentof morewomen magistrates. In the sameway that the numberof women
MPs can be taken as a litmus test for political equality, so the issueof numbersand proportions of JPs was vital to the exercise of equal citizenship in the courts of justice, especially at a time when there were so few women in the legal profession. The enthusiasmwith which women's organisationsapproached the task of pressing for the
30 appointmentof more women magistratesuntil the outbreak of the SecondWorld War belies the impression of feminist quiescencein this period.
Inevitably, one sphereof court work in which women magistrateswere seenas in especially useful was in the running of the new juvenile courts. The final chapter
Part One, `A Suitable Personfor Suitable Cases',explores the symbiotic relationship betweenthe introduction of women magistratesand legislative and administrative 66 changesto the handling of court casesinvolving children and young people.
Feminists, often knowingly, used women's supposedlygreater understanding of and empathywith children to justify the appointment of women magistratesand their utilisation in juvenile courts, an argument that government found hard to refute. It will be arguedtherefore that a new, genderedcategory of magistrate,the `woman magistrate' was thereby created.
In Part Two, `A New Kind of Magistrate?' this new creation will be subjected to further critical examination. Chapter Four will addressan aspectthat has attracted much comment, particularly from critics of Britain's systemof lay justice, namely the list social composition of the magisterial Bench. Taking the Lord Chancellor's of women appointed as JPs in 192067as the main (albeit somewhatunrepresentative) sample,the early women magistratesas a group will be analysedaccording to their class, political beliefs, age, education etc. Chapter Five, `A Single Success?' explores their experiencesas magistrates,mainly through their own commentsand observations. It concludesthat there was not a single stereotypicaltype of women magistrate,but rather that women adopted a whole range of approachesto their tasks on the Bench, albeit with some featuresin common. The final chapter, `Beyond the
66For instance,the Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Act of 1920 and the Children and Young Person'sAct of 1933. There were also various recommendationsto justices in the form of dome Office Circulars. 67These appointments were madethroughout Englandand Wales, excluding the Duchy of Lancaster for which the Lord Chancellor was not responsible.
h, 31
: ý7 Courts',analyses the work of womenmagistrates' organisations and networks and the campaignsthat they mounted. In contrast to the range of individual approaches,it will be arguedin this chapterthat womenmagistrates' organisations adopted a distinctiveapproach to the issuesthat concernedthem, an approachthat canbe characterisedas `feminist'. It further arguesthat the activities of women magistrates and their organisationsin the three decadesafter the First World War pointed a way towards the emergenceof a new type of lay magistratein the secondhalf of the twentieth century, a magistratewho was trained, informed and aware of developments in penal policy.
This thesis will demonstratethe enthusiasmand energy with which so many women approachedtheir new role as citizen justices in the years after the introduction of women magistratesin 1920. For contemporaryfeminists in particular, the promotion of women within the justice systemwas a project of major importance.
Although women could exercisetheir rights as citizens in the ballot box, only a few stoodfor or wereelected to parliamentor a local authority. The propertyrules prohibitedmost women from becomingjurors until the 1960s.68 But by the endof
1934 over three thousandwomen had been appointed asjustices of the peaceand were able to undertakethe duties of citizenship in a court of law. The magistracywas uniqueas the only part of the traditionally`public' and male-dominatedlegal realm that wasquickly openedto significantnumbers of women. Womenmagistrates were in a positionto put into practicefeminist ideals. Theyhad the potentialto makea real differenceto the administrationof justice. The extentto which they realisedthat potentialwill be identified,along with the factors(including contemporary
" The unsatisfactoryrules regarding eligibility for jury service were a continuing concern for women's organisations. Mrs. Keynesmounted a campaignon behalf of the PSMC in the early 1930sand discussionswere still underway in the 1950sand early 1960s.
32 Wth in constructions of gcndcr and class). which nssistcd changc and continuity the magistmCy.
33 PART ONE
BRINGING WOMEN TO THE BENCH CHAPTER ONE
THE CAMPAIGN FOR WOMEN MAGISTRATES 1910 -1919
It may seemsurprising today that womenfirst took their placeon the
magisterial bench less than eighty years ago. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act which statedthat "a person shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from being
appointedto or holding any civil or judicial office or post" becamelaw on Christmas
Eve 1919 and its Royal Assent was followed immediately by an announcementfrom the Lord Chancellor that sevenwomen were to be addedto the Commission of the
Peace: Lady Crewe, Lady Londonderry, Mrs. Lloyd George, Miss Elizabeth Ilaldane,
Miss Gertrude Tuckwell, Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mrs. Humphry Ward. On New
Year's Eve the first woman to sit on a Bench was Mrs. Ada Summers(Mayor of
Acton and thus ex officio Justice of the Peaceand Chairman of the Bench). By mid -
JanuaryMiss Tuckwell had taken the oath as the Metropolitan area's first female
Justice and in April Mrs. Lloyd George appearedon the PorthmadocBench as the first womanJustice in Wales.'
This chapteris in two parts. Following a brief introductionsetting out the legal position of women before 1919 in relation to magisterial office, the first part tracesthe origins of the campaignfor the introductionof womenmagistrates, locating it largelywithin the feministmovement. It alsoexamines critically the arguments advancedin favourof this innovationin the yearsbetween 1910 when the Royal
Commission on Justicesof the Peacerejected the suggestionthat women be appointed and 1919 when Parliament approved the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act. The secondpart tracks the legislation that enabledthe creation of women magistrates,
The Times24 December 1919,1 January 1920,15 January 1920 and I May 1920. analysesthe argumentsof both supportersand opponentsand accountsfor the relatively uncontroversial nature of this step.
TIIE ELIGIBILITY OF WOMEN FOR MAGISTERIAL OFFICE
The office of Justice of the Peaceoriginated in England in the twelfth or thirteenth century. The duties of incumbents,mainly local gentry and knights who were `keepersof the Peace', were describedin an Act of 1327 (which did not create the office but merely gave it a statutory footing) as `bonesBentz ct Icux... a la garde de la further Act 1361 them England pees'.2A of charged -'in every county of ... assignedfor keeping the peace,one Lord and with him three or four of the most worthy of the county' - with `power to restrain the offenders, rioters and all other barrators(exciters of quarrels) and to pursue,arrest, take and chastisethem according to their trespassand offence'. Not only was the role of theseworthy individuals thus extendedfrom `keepers' to `justices' of the peace,but also over the years administrativefunctions were added to judicial ones. Therefore,until the growthof electedlocal boardsand councils in the nineteenthcentury, their functionswere intimately bound up with the governanceof the locality. Late medieval and Tudor monarchsmust have regardedthis as such an effective method of local administration that it wasextended to Walesin the sixteenthcentury following the Act of Union.
Whetherthe earlyjustices were exclusively male is a moot point. Thoughthe word magistrate is derived from the Latin for `master' it is inadvisable to put too much emphasison linguistic gender distinctions when discussing medieval times. It is clear that justices were personswith power and influence in the community (Lords,
2 EstherMoir, TheJustice of the Peace,l larmondsworth,Pelican, 1969, pp. 16-17. 3 Quotedby Milton, The English blaglstracy, p. 4. Sir ThomasSkyrme concurswith this view. `Someof the Norman expressionswhich appearin early statutessuch as "gentz" or "persones" might be interpretedas including both sexes'. Skyrme, history of the Justices of the Peace Volume2, p.232.
36 Barons,Knights etc. ) who werein possessionof suchstatus that a womanwas unlikely to acquire. In 1919 civil servantswere unsure whether there was a historical precedentfor women magistratesand disagreedas to whether it was necessaryto legislate before women could be addedto the Commission of the Peaces The
Glasgow Herald also pointed out that `some authorities are of the opinion that the
Lady of Berkeley and Nikola dc la Ilaye held offices of the Peaceand it is quite certain that the latter was Sheriff.
Writing in 1932 the barrister Helena Normanton outlined severalprecedents for women JPs including Lady Margaret, Countessof Richmond, mother of Henry 7 VII, the Lady of Berkeley during Mary I's reign and a woman named Rouse(sic. ). It is unclear what Normanton's historical sourceswere. According to Sir Thomas
Skyrme `so far no convincing evidencehas been found of any woman having been appointed as a Justice of the Peacebefore 1919' although he concedesthat `such evidencemight be obtained from a thorough examination of all relevant documents, 8 especially the Patent Rolls'. The Countessof Richmond appearsto have the best claim in this respect.Anyway, it is probablethat Normanton'spurpose (as the leading campaignerfor women's entry to the legal profession) was to maximise, though not to exaggerate,the historical precedents. It is anyway important to note that one perspectiveof campaignersfor female magistratesin 1919 may have been to restoreto women an ancient right, which they felt had been subsequentlyremoved.
s PRO LCO2/350, memorandumby 11.B. Simpson (Home Office) to Sir Claud Schuster,16 May 1919. At least two women had recently been recommendedto Lord Chancellors,one by a Lord Lieutenantin Scotlandand one by a Trades Council, despitethe fact they legally could not be appointed. 6 GlasgowHerald, 7 June 1919. 7 1lelenaNormanton, EverydayLaw for Women,Ivor Nicholson & Watson, London, 1932,p. 17. The Lady Berkeley may be the sameperson as Lady Bartlet of Gloucestershirementioned by Skyrme. Ile also refers to a Suffolk woman namedRowse. Clearly there is someconfusion betweenthese sources! (/Eistory of the Justices of the Peace, Volume2, p.233. ). ' Skyrme,History of the Justices if the Peace Volume2, p.233.
37 Whilst researchhas shown that womenin medievaland early modern England could hold propertyand wield the powerthat went with it, thereis a debateas to how An Act 1439insisted justices have widespreadthis was-9 of that should property valuedat leastat £20 a year,unless they werelearned in the law, andthe threshold was later raised to £100.10The property qualification remained in force until 1906 and effectively barred the overwhelming majority of women (as well as most men) from the magistracy. Further statutory prohibitions were placed on women in the nineteenthcentury. It is therefore possible to conclude that, while a few women may have held the office of Justice of the Peacein the first five hundred yearsof its history, the femalejustice was a fairly rare specimenat any time and completely extinct well before the beginning of the twentieth century.
A further complicating factor was that membershipof the magisterial Bench in boroughswas linked to municipal office. Mayors were entitled to take the chair of the local Bench in an ex officio capacity. Although the Bench itself, like the Housesof
Parliament and the entire legal profession, was an all male preserve,by the beginning of the twentiethcentury women were making their presencefelt in local government.
Women were electedto School Boards and as Poor Law Guardians from the 1870s onwards. The latter is particularly significant becausethe functions of the Boards of
Guardianshad, before 1834, been carried out by JPs. From 1907 women could stand for electionto all local councils." Eventually,in the normalcourse of eventssome of the womenelected as councillors could expectto becomealdermen and mayors, but the statutesexpressly forbade them from becominga JP ex officio eventhough under
9 On the questionof ownership of property, see Katherine Donovan,Sexual Division in the Law in (Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 1985) pp. 24 - 30; also Christine Churches`Women and property early modern England: a casestudy', Social History, Vol. 23 No. 2 (May 1998). 10Milton, The English Alagistracy, p. 7. 11For the role of women in local government,see Patricia I lollis, Ladies Elect, Oxford University Press,1987.
38 the Municipal CorporationsAct of 1835a mayorwas automatically entitled to be a 12 member of the borough's Bench and to take the chair when it met. Thus an anomaly was createdwhen, in the early twentieth century, women were electedto the position of mayor.
So it is clear that, in 1919, there were statutory obstaclesto the appointment of women as JPs. It is to the removal of those obstaclesand the argumentsof those who supportedit that I now turn.
THE SUPPORTERS AND THEIR ARGUMENTS
The origins of the campaign for women magistratescan be located in three distinct, but overlapping, areas:within the women's movement, the labour movement and among penal reformers. Whilst the women's movement approachedthe issue largelythrough a feministcritique of the malecourts and legal system,the labour movement and penal reformers were more interestedin the contribution that women justices could make in the new juvenile court system. This chapter will deal mainly with the former approachand ChapterThree will analysethe latter.
Obviously campaignersfor women's suffrage played a major part, although the demand for women JPs was largely in the background until the parliamentaryvote hadbecome a reality in 1918. Pressureto allow womenonto the Benchcame from mostof the women'sorganisations active in the first two decadesof the twentieth centuryand suffragistsfirst raisedthe demandin the yearsbefore the First World
War. Althoughthe vote was their main demandand the principal focusof activity, a full conceptof citizenshipwould naturallyinvolve dutiessuch as those of juror and magistrateas well as the right of suffrage. Moreover,`the cause'was never an end in 12 This Act was brought in to reform the previously oligarchic and self-perpetuatingcorporations and borough benches.The mayor as ex officio justice was a hangoverfrom the old system. See Moir, The Justice oflhe Peace,p. 179.
39 itself, but a necessaryinitial stepin a wider crusadeto improvethe lot of women- and their families- through`better conditions for working women,protection for children "double and ... an elevatedsexual morality replacing the notorious standard" which societyadopted towards men and women'. 13 The two separate,but related,strands of feminism, the drive for equal citizenship and the crusadefor a single moral standard
(the latter originating in the campaign of the 1870s and 1880s against the Contagious
DiseasesActs), each played a part in stimulating a demand for the appointmentof womenJPs. Indeed,activists were aware that nowherewas the `doublestandard' and women's lack of real equality more publicly evident than in the law courts of Great
Britain.
Social purity organisations,notably the National Vigilance Association, appearto have been concernedabout the treatment of women in courts from thel 880s onwards. However, their strategywas to obtain the appointment of women police
`matrons' (later, women police officers) to secure`the right of any woman or girl concernedin a trial to have some friends of her own sex in court when the assumed right to excludewomen is exercised'.14 It wasonly around1910, during the phenomenalgrowth of the Edwardianmovement for women'ssuffrage, that specific demandsfor the appointment of women JPs were made.
At first, abstractideals of citizenship do not appearto have had great significanceamongst arguments put in supportof the appointmentof women magistrates.Suffragists laid greaterstress on what they sawas the unequaland unfair treatmentof womenin the courtsof law while penalreformers were interested in the role that women might potentially play in the new juvenile courts.'s
13Fletcher, Maude Royden,p. 78. "'The Women's Library: NVA minutes, 12 November 1886(Box 109). " SeeChapter Three.
40 The perceptionof the threatof maleviolence against women and children was an importantfactor in the campaignsof suffrageorganisations to rectify the absence of women in the administration of justice. In 1910 the NUWSS paper Common Cause carried a letter from Katherine M. Harley, Presidentof the Shropshirebranch advocatingthat women magistratesbe presenton the Bench `in all casesbrought before the Police Courts in which girls and children arc the victims and men the offenders'.16 This observation was apparently prompted by some information she had receivedat a meeting of a rescueorganisation concerning `inadequatesentences' handeddown by magistrates,presumably, though Miss Harley did not specify, in casesof assault. The Editor, Helena Swanwick, concurred and cited in support examplesof sentencesof as little as three or four months imprisonment handeddown for assaultson girls as young as twelve or thirteen. One readerfelt so strongly that she sent a copy of Common Causeto the Home Secretary,Winston Churchill, commenting that `there is a strong feeling amongstwomen at presentthat it is high time their sex had some sharein the administration of the criminal law where women andyoung girls areconcerned' and claimingthat the numberof assaultson women '7 and children was growing (a point contradicted by the Home Office). Many women's suffrage activists were also involved in social purity campaigns(a connectionhinted at in KatherineHarley's mention of a rescuemeeting) as well as in 18 philanthropicwork and in the temperancemovement.
Theseoverlapping concerns ensured that therewas a networkof potential supportersfor the appointmentof womenmagistrates. For examplein 1918the
Keighley Branch of the Women's TemperanceAssociation petitioned the Home
"'Common Cause,October 1910. 17PRO: 110 45124609. '' For links betweenpurity organisationsand suffrage movements,see Paula Bartley, `Seekingand saving; the reform of prostitutesand the prevention of prostitution in Birmingham 1860- 1914', PhD thesis,University of Wolverhampton 1995.
41 Secretaryto securethe appointment of women JPs-19In the view of temperance activiststhere was a clear,causal link betweenalcohol and violence. It is significant that the Church of England TemperanceSociety sent the first `missionaries' (the 2° forerunnersof probationofficers) into the MetropolitanPolice Courts in the 1870s.
Later, in the 1920s,experience in rescuework and/or temperancecampaigns was to ' be one of the main trajectories for women on to the Bench.
The WFL, which had originated in 1907 as a breakawayfrom the WSPU, also arguedstrongly that women should have a presencein the police courts. Although
`votes for women' was its raison d'etre, Claire Eustancehas shown that the Leagueby
1910-12 had developeda more varied political culture than that of a single issue ' pressuregroup. Among the many issuestaken up was the perceived sex inequality in the justice system. Of crucial importance in this developmentwas the influence of
Nina Boyle,a veteranof the ContagiousDiseases Acts campaign.Together with Edith
Watson, Boyle encouragedWFL membersfrom 1912 to monitor court proceedingsin their local areaand submit them to the League's own paper, The Vote. Details of the seeminglyderisory sentences handed to men who hadabused women or children, contrastedwith severerpenalties for property crime were published under the title
`The ProtectedSex'. `The conclusion feminist activists drew from such arguments
legal wasthat exclusivemale control of the apparatus... constituteda terrainmen werecompelled to defendand yet was mostindefensible' 3 Accordingto Claire
19PRO: 11045/24609. 20 Dorothy Bochel, Probation and Aftercare: Its Developmentin England and Wales,Edinburgh, Scottish Academic Press, 1976,p. 6. 21See Chapter Four. 22Eustance, `Daring to be Free', pp. 142-144. 23Douglas, Feminist Freikorps, p. 12.
42 Eustance,the relationshipbetween the WFL andpurity campaignswas ambiguous. 24 However, by 1913 the Leaguewas more obviously influenced by Boyle's concerns.
For the WFL it was but a small step from complaining about the lack of justice shownto womenin the courtsto claiming women'sright to sit in judgementas magistratesand jurors. By 1918 the WFL secretary,Florence Underwood, was arguing that there should be at least one woman on every magistrates' bench.
Interestingly, although the League's concern initially was more for women as victims of crime than as perpetrators,Miss Underwood mentioned the `thousandsof women
in 5 The following The Vote and girls ... tried our police courts every year'. year demandedthat women should be in Court where casesinvolving women and girls were heard, `no matter how unsavoury' the evidencewas. Further, it alleged that
`everydaythousands of women and girls are chargedin our police courts and convicted on police evidencealone' and that without women solicitors, barristers and magistrates`it is exceedingly difficult to have any confidence in the administration of
British justice'. 26 This quotation further illustrates the deep mistrust many women hadin the legal systemas well as a perceptionof genderbias in the law. Through their evidentconcern about instances where courts were cleared the WFL was consciously assertingwomen's rights to occupy the public spaceof the courtroom, not just asvolunteer social workers but alsoas lawyers,jurors, justices,policewomen and evenjust asmembers of the public.
The violencesometimes meted out by policeto womeninvolved in the militant campaignsof the Women'sSocial and Political Union (WSPU)and the WFL
24Ibid. pp. 235-237. 25F. Underwood, 'Portia on the Bench: A plea for women magistrates',Reynolds Newspaper, 16 June 1918(Cutting in GertrudeTuckwell Collection, TUC library). 26The Vote, 5 September1919.
43 (for exampleon the infamous`Black Friday' in 1910)27must have heightened awarenessof the overwhelminglymale, and potentiallythreatening character of the forcesof law andorder among the usuallylaw abidingmiddle classwomen who predominatedin suffrageorganisations. Those who hadbeen before the courtsand imprisonedfor militant suffrageactivities had particular reason for concernabout the legal system. As Lady ConstanceLytton revealingly confessedwith regard to her nervousnessupon her first appearancein court `If I feel like this, what must it be for ordinary prisoners,whether guilty or not, who, day after day, file into this court?'28
Evelyn Sharp,the editor of the United Suffragists' newspaperVotes For
Women,also had personal experienceof the courts and prisons through her involvement in the window breaking campaign of the suffragettesand in tax resistance.She had been in Holloway Prison twice. By 1917 votesfor Womenwas running a regular feature in which punishmentsawarded to men found guilty of assaultson girls were comparedwith the (frequently heavier) sentenceshanded down in casesof crimes againstproperty. For example, in May 1917 two casesin Plymouth werecited. In the first an all malejury29 cleared a manof a chargeof indecentassault and foundhim guilty merelyof commonassault for which he receivedthe punishment of three months in the seconddivision. In the secondcase, two offences of housebreakingwere punished by ten monthsimprisonment with hardlabour. 30
The left-leaningVotes for Womenargued against class as well asgender inequalitiesin the legal system. Anotherissue featured the casesof an armyofficer chargedwith bigamywhose punishment was one day in prisonand a working class
r According to testimony gatheredby I I.N. l3railsford and D. JessieMurray women suffered sexual assaultsand `violence with indecency' from the police. Lisa Ticknor, TheSpectacle of Women, London, Chatto & Windus, 1987,p. 121. 2i ConstanceLytton, Prison and Prisoners, London, Virago, 1988. Only men could be called for jury service before the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. 30Votes for Women,May 1917.
44 womanwho wassentenced to six monthsimprisonment for the sameoffence, in the samecourt and by the samejudge. On another occasionthe paper commented approvingly on the appointment of eight working class men as JPs in the county of 31 Monmouth The openingof the benchto working classmen wasan essential precursorto the introduction of women magistrates,but in both casesthe consequent changein the social composition of the bench would occur only very slowly.
It was not just militant suffrage societieswho were concernedabout the fate of the womenwho foundthemselves in courtsof law. Protagonistson both sidesof the debateabout women justices frequently referred to the unpleasantatmosphere of the court. No doubt, an appearancebefore magistratescould be an intimidating and traumatic experiencefor many people, including children, young people and some women and men. Members of the National Union of Women Workers (NUWW, renamedNCW in 1918)shared the concern. Shortlyafter The Votelaunched its
`ProtectedSex' column the NUWW branch in Cambridgebegan a rota of women volunteerswho attendedtheir local courtsto act as `friends' to the womenappearing 2 in them. OtherNUWW/NCW branchesfollowed Cambridge'sexample, including
Southportin 1915,Wolverhampton in 1919,and Tunbridge Wells in 1924.33At least onewoman volunteer was present whenever the Court wassitting.
The involvcmentof the NUWW in this work is not surprising. The organisationowed its origins in the 1880sto bodiesestablished for the careof
`friendless' girls, precisely the type of young women who might find themselvesin a police court. Although the NUWW was philanthropic in its origins, bringing together
31Votes for Women,August 1917,January 1917. 32 CambridgeshireCounty Record Office (CCRO): RS84/91,'A survey of fifteen years' work of the CambridgeNCW' (1928) in CambridgeWCA archive. 31 NCIV Occasional Papers, no. 89 (May 1920); Dale Spender,Time and Tide lVaitfor No Alan, London, PandoraPress, 1984, p. 168-9; Centre for Kentish Studies,Maidstone (CKS): C1194/6, pamphletentitled NC{V Tunbridge IVeilsBranch: the First SeventyFive Years(anon., 1970). The Tunbridge Wells rota was still in operation in 1970.
45 middle class women who worked voluntarily in the service of others, by 1910 it was actively recruiting and promoting its membersto seek election as Poor Law Guardians and local councillors, thus providing `the most acceptableroute of all [for women] 34 from voluntary service to elected service'. Evidently its memberswere already moving on the path towards active citizenship. The NUWW has been characterised by historians as a `conservative' organisation35but it played an important part in the campaignsto securewomen magistratesand women police. Many active NCW membersshared at least some of the feminist critique of the law courts espousedby suffrage and purity campaigners. It was merely a short step from performing voluntary work in the court to campaigning for women magistrates. Supporters arguedthat a woman on the bench would be a help - perhapseven a role model - to women and girls who found themselvesin Court either as victim, witness or the accused.
The campaign to securethe appointment of female magistrateswas strengthenedby the First World War. Crucially, the principle of women police, which was often linked to the demand for women justices, was at last concededby 6 officialdom, albeit with a great deal of continued opposition. Furthermore,concerns aboutjuvenile delinquency were heightened,assisting the penal reformers in their demandsfor new ways of dealing with troublesomeyouths and for a role for women within that. Wartime conditions may have further exacerbatedsexual tensionson the
female streetswhilst concernsabout male violence - as well as about sexual
behaviour - grew among feminists. Their critique of society's double standardswas
certainly reinforced by the imposition of Regulation 40D under the Defence of the
341Iollis, Ladies Elect, p. 27. 35For example,Alberti, BeyondSuffrage, p. 123. Beaumontalso characterisesit as an organisation which distanceditself from feminism in the interwar period in `Citizens not Feminists'. 36For the views of somechief constables,see Douglas, Feminist Feikorps, p.31-2.15
FI) 46 211 .12 Realm Act (DORA) which was seenby feminists with long memoriesas practically reintroducing the notorious Contagious DiseasesActs.
Historians of the women police have often tendedto emphasisethe repressive aspectsof feministreaction towards matters of sexualityduring the First World 37 War. However, their reactions were not monolithic. While some emphasisedthe need for surveillance of young women, others were far more concernedwith protection. The WFL opposedregulations made under DORA on the grounds that the latter infringed the liberties of women and treatedthem all as potential prostitutes. At times middle aged,middle class women could even be quite supportive of young women accusedof immoral behaviour. An editorial in Votesfor Womencommented sarcasticallythat magistrateswere blaming the `unsatisfactorystate of some of our streetsin war time' entirely on young girls. The editorial continued:
The police - court proceedingsas reported,would lead one to suppose that (1) if there are any men in the streetsat all they are a strange, unearthly compound of saint and fool; (2) that `riotous' girls in their teensare all naturally vicious and always take the initiative in inviting men to go astray and (3) that these girls all have a strangecapacity for 8 generatingvenereal diseases.
Evidentlythe alienationsome women felt from ajudicial systemin which they had no part to play except as accusedor victim was very strong, notwithstanding the co- operation betweensome feminist policewomen and the authorities during the war.
In 1915Lord Haldanebelieved that public opinion wasnot readyfor women on the Bench39but by 1918the campaignfor womenmagistrates was well underway.
Obviouslythe admissionof womenover thirty to the parliamentaryfranchise was the major reasonfor this. However,legislation to admit womento the magistracyand to
37Ibid., pp.24-26,30-32. Seealso Philippa Levine, ` "Walking the Streetsin a Way No Decent Woman Should": Women Police in World War One', Journal ofAfodern History 66 (March 1994) pp34-78 and Lucy Bland, `Feminist Vigilantes of Late Victorian England' in Carol Smart (cd.) Regulating Womanhood,London, Routledge, 1992. 31 Voles for Women, May 1917. 39Quoted in the Daily Telegraph,27 August 1915 (cutting in Tuckwell collection).
47 enablethem to serve asjurors was still necessarybefore a women could assumethese responsibilities of citizenship. Furthermorethe refusal of the legal profession to admit women also had to be dealt with. In 1918 the Council of the NUWSS `decided to work to securethe entry of women into the legal profession,their appointment as
40 list JPs,and their right to sit on juries' The following year the WFL published a of demandsin The Vote, including as points three to six the need for women judges, barristersand solicitors, women magistrates`throughout the country', women commissionersof prisons and women on all juries. Only demandsfor the vote on equal terms with men (i. e. at twenty-one) and for women MPs were placed higher on the list 41 By 1919 WCAs, NCW branchesand local WFL groups were organising public meetings and lectures in towns and cities acrossBritain to advocatethe appointmentof women as JPs and jurors and the NCW conferenceheld in June at
Leicester featured a public meeting on this theme.42
One final argument,used by feminists as well as by other supportersof
women magistrates,deserves attention before we turn to examining the views of
opponentsand the debatesof 1919. It was frequently argued that women magistrates
would be of use in casesinvolving children and particularly in the new juvenile courts 43 which had come into being in the years since the 1908 Children's Act The
suggestionthat women JPs be used in `certain cases' had first been raised by the
Labour MP Arthur Hendersonduring the deliberations of the 1910 Royal Commission
on Justicesof the Peacebut was ruled by the Chairman, Lord Ilalsbury as being 44 outside the Commission's terms of reference Though he did not sec any objection
40Daily Chronicle, 20 March 1918 (cutting in Tuckwell collection). 41The Vote,7 February 1919. 42Ibid., 4 July 1919. 4' Thesedemands will be examinedfurther in ChapterThree. 4' Public Record Office (PRO): LCO2/350. The Liberal governmentestablished The Royal Commissionbecause of concernover the overwhelmingly Conservativeaffiliations of JPs.
48 to women on the Bench in `certain cases' (meaningjuvenile ones) he pointed out that justices were appointed to undertakethe full range of adjudication. Supporters,
including penal reformers and sympathetic lawyers such as the Metropolitan
Magistrate,Cecil Chapman,obviously saw this asa strongweapon in their armoury as they tried to win over MPs and Lords while the legislation was debatedin
Parliament in 1919. It was irrelevant whether or not the women concernedwere married or had children, they were all assumedto possessinnately the required maternal instincts and an intuitive understandingof young people.
Whilst women's organisationswere happy to make use of this as a debating 45 point, they did so with full awarenessof the pitfalls of associatingwomen too closely with juvenile work. Crucially, feminists did not argue that women should solely be occupied in juvenile courts, although they did stressthe peculiar attributes that women could bring to this work. The NCW certainly used this argument in their submissionsto the Lord Chancellor. However, even within the NCW there was awarenessamong campaignersthat women justices could and should not be limited to juvenile work. In July 1920,following the announcementof the appointmentof over onehundred women magistrates, the NCWVOccasional Paper carried an article by
Miss Amelia Scott, secretaryof the Public Service Committee46and a Tunbridge
Wells councillorand PoorLaw Guardian,which demonstratesa keenawareness of the trap that womenmight fall into throughplacing too muchstress on their suitability for dealingwith children'smatters. `The valueof womenas magistratesin Children's
Courts is so obvious', wrote Miss Scott, `and is so obviously quoted as an unassailableargument in favour of the appointment of women asjustices, that, as so often happens,there is a danger of public opinion being narrowed down to one point
" For example,Florence Underwood of the WFL. 46Later the Public Serviceand Magistrates' Committee (PSMC).
49 only, namely that women should be appointed as magistratesin Children's Courts only. ' Miss Scott's fears were obviously prompted by the introduction of the Juvenile
Courts (Metropolis) Bill, 47but she noted that the Lord Chancellor had made it plain thatwomen would possessthe samepowers and carry out the samefunctions as JPs as the men. Miss Scott concluded:
It is of importance when women are entering a new sphereof responsibility to seethat there should be no specialising in that sphere 8 by which the work of women is side-tracked.
Miss Scott's article demonstratesthat in the ten years that had passedsince the
Royal Commission the ground rules for women had altered. No longer were they to be ruled out of being JPs altogether becausethey were only suitable for one type of case,now they were to be madejustices with - on paper at least - the samepowers and functionsas the men. It also illustratesthat thosecampaigning for womento be made magistratesemployed both the languageof equalcitizenship and arguments centred on what wereperceived as women's special characteristics and abilities. At the same time feministswere both usingand challenging the notion that therewere separate spheresfor men andwomen in society,a strategythat could backfire,as Miss Scott realised.
The campaignto securethe appointment of women as magistrateswas consistentwith equalrights feminism;late nineteenthand earlytwentieth century feministshad consistently emphasised the importanceof establishingequal rights for menand women and securingthe accessof womento occupationspreviously closed to them. Feminists both insisted that women had a right to a place on the Bench and emphasisedthe duties of citizenship after at least somewomen had obtained the vote.
By insistingon their right to sit as magistrates,women were contesting the view that
47See Chapter Three. 41NCW Occasional Paper No. 91 (July 1920). The author was also a founder memberof the Tunbridge Wells NCW, treasurerof the town's WCA and active in the NUWSS.
50 theylacked attributes such as wisdom and a capacityfor makingunemotional, objectivejudgements, often regardedas the exclusive qualities of men. They were assertingtheir rights as citizens to occupy honoured positions in society and to take uponthemselves the consequentduties. They werecriticising a genderbiased legal systemand exhibiting deep-rootedconcerns about violent crime and the punishment it received. Above all, they were trying to establish a woman's right to occupy the public spaceof the courtroom, whether as magistrate,juror, lawyer or volunteer social worker. But the challengewas launched from the safe ground of women's sphere:the campaignfor female magistratesgrew out of women's involvement in philanthropy, the temperancemovement and the care of children, activities which conformed to the establishedgender roles of the time.49 It was an issue connectedto longstanding demandsof British feminists- suffrage,citizenship and a singlemoral standard.
THE LEGISLATIVE DEBATE IN 1919
Whenthe proposalto admit womento the magistracywas discussed in the all maleHouses of Parliamentin 1919it receivedlittle overt opposition. Both during
Commons'debates on Labour'sWomen's Emancipation Bill (which includeda clauseto permit women to sit on the magisterial bench alongside proposalsto equalise the voting ageat twenty-oneand to allow womento sit andvote in the I louseof
Lords)and on the government'sown bill, which was introducedin orderto block the passageof Labour'sbill, it was invariablyother clauses and aspects which aroused controversy. Likewise,when the Houseof Lordsconsidered the secondreading of the separateJustices of the Peace(Admission of Women) Bill in May 1919, such was the level of agreementthat the bill proposedby Lord Beauchampwas passedwithout
49 The ways in which genderroles shapedconcepts of citizenship is explored by Lewis in Womenand Social Action.
51 a division. Onecan scour the pagesof the official recordsof Parliamentand remain unableto find much dissent from the proposal to createwomen justices or any breach in the virtual unanimity of politicians from all parties on this issue.
Naturally,one should not takeparliamentary speeches at facevalue and an examination of other evidencesuggests that neither MPs nor their Lordships were unanimousin their enthusiasmfor women magistrates. It therefore seemsnecessary to offer someexplanation for this lack of overt opposition to the proposal and the seeminglyready acceptanceby Britain's political elite of the inclusion of women in the country's Commissionsof the Peace,particularly when it is set againstearlier resistanceto women's suffrage and the divisions which the proposal to cqualise the voting age for men and women continued to cause. This section will therefore examine the context of the debatesand analysethe views of the political elites, examiningsome of their hiddenagendas and genderedattitudes.
The repercussionsof the 1918 Representationof the People Act partly explain why the proposalto allow womenmagistrates had apparently become so muchmore acceptablethan when it was first madein 1910. During the First World War the natureof citizenshiphad been discussed by women'sorganisations, political parties and in the pressand there was some agreementby 1919 that the removal of certain civil disabilitieswas the logical corollaryto the franchise.Legislation allowing womento standfor Parliamenthad already been passed and throughout 1919 feminist groupskept up the pressurefor further measuresto equalisewomen's civil rights and duties with those of men. Furthermore,the property qualification for Ps had already been abolished and the inclusion of working class men on the Bench after 1908 providedan importantprecedent for the inclusionof womenof all classes;there were clear parallels betweenthe removal of class and gender barriers.
52 The connectionbetween the parliamentaryfranchise and the legislationto allow the appointment of women magistratesand jurors is multifaceted. On a fairly crude level there was the awarenessof politicians in the `Coupon' Election of 1918 that they faceda completelynew electorate,including many newly enfranchisedmale voters as well as 8.4 million women aged over thirty who were either themselveslocal governmentelectors or were married to one. The new voters, particularly the women, were an unknown quantity, but one with which candidateswould have to deal. The candidates'awareness of this is illustrated by the estimate of Martin Pugh that about two-thirds of them mentioned women specifically in their election addressesin
191850. In the days before opinion polling politicians had less hard evidenceas to what voters really cared about. However, the Coalition manifesto signed by the Prime
Minister Lloyd Georgeand his deputy, the Conservativeleader Bonar Law statedthat
`it will be the duty of the new Governmentto removeall existinginequalities of the law asbetween men and women'. 5' Evidently,whether they hadpreviously supportedor opposedwomen's suffrage, the coalitioncandidates regarded such a promiseas essential to gain women'ssupport.
The LabourParty, the official oppositionfor the first time in 1918,also made women - friendly pronouncementsin its election literature. The party's manifesto
Labourand the NewSocial Order includeda sectionambitiously entitled `The
CompleteEmancipation of Women',based on resolutionsfrom the StandingJoint
Committeeof IndustrialWomen's Organisations. 52 Pro-suffragistshad long argued that women's suffrage would alter the political agendawhile `antis' had feared its impact. In 1918-19 it seemedthat both sides had been right to assumethat women voters would affect political priorities.
30 Pugh, Womenand the Women'sMovement, p. 120. There were 17 women candidates. 31Quoted in The Times,4 April 1919. 32Graves, Labour Women,p. 19.
53 However,it remainedto be seenwhether the governmentwould honourits promisesonce elected and the commitment to 'remove all existing inequalities in the law', while apparently unambiguous,was open to different interpretations. The
King's Speech,which openedthe new parliamentin 1919,contained no mentionof women's rights. The government's preoccupationsincluded the PeaceSettlement, the civil war in Ireland and the housing programme. The WFL obviously feared the governmentmight renegeon its promise since it printed the manifesto words across the front page of The Vote with the message`No Shirking! '53
Meanwhile, the Labour Party set about promoting its manifesto policy and introduced the Women's Emancipation Bill basedon some of its proposals. The bill had three clauses. The first was to enable women to hold any civil or judicial office including that of magistrate,the secondwas to give women the vote on the same 54 terms as men and the third was to allow them to sit and vote in the I louse of Lords.
Although theseproposals left out significant parts of the Labour and the New Social
Order programme,most notably the promise of equal pay, the party's MPs seemto havebeen genuinely committed to them. The personalinterest of the party leader,
Arthur Henderson,is exemplifiedby the notehe sentMrs. Fawcettin 1920on her appointment as JP. `It is to me a great gratification that I contributed to such a result in the dayswhen it was not so popularas now', he wrotc.ss
Not withstandingthis ideologicalsupport for women'srights, grounded in the
LabourParty's fundamental belief in equality,the partyalso hoped to makepractical gainsfrom its promotionof the Women'sEmancipation Bill. Like the coalition,they were keen to win votes, but they were also interestedin securing better representation
ssThe Vote,28 February 1919. 34The Times,4 April 1919. 33The Women's Library: Millicent Garrett Fawcett Papers,letter from Arthur Ilenderson to Mrs. Fawcett, 15 September1920.
54 locally on magistrates' benches. The introduction of women JPs, particularly working class women would, they hoped, redressthe class bias in the administration of justice as well as attack gender inequality. During the SecondReading debate on the
Women'sEmancipation Bill a LabourMP from Lccdsreferred to his own experience as a JP when he advocatedthe mixing of men and women on the bench especially 56 when `delicate questionsof sex' came before the Court. This was a fairly radical and pro-feminist position to adopt at that time, as it was precisely in those casesthat 57 the most strenuousefforts were made to keep women out of court and off the bench.
Of course,as a minority opposition party, Labour could not hope to seetheir bill passinto law without the support of other MPs. Women's organisationssuch as the NUSEC had contact with sympatheticparliamentarians such as the Unionists
Major Hills andLord RobertCecil andthe Liberal William WedgwoodBenn. These allies could be countedon to tablequestions to ministersand useother means to keep up the pressurein Parliament.S8 But even thesecommitted men could not by themselvesproduce a Commons majority, even in the badly attendeddebates, such as the Bill's SecondReading, which was held on a Friday.What, then, convinced other coalitionMPs to supportLabour's Bill againstthe wishesof their government?
An examination of the speechesmight suggestthat the impact of the First
World War is one possibleexplanation. Moving the Bill's SecondReading, Adamson remindedthe houseof the work performedby womenduring the War. `Theyentered
into business,into industryand into agriculture,and their entry into thesevarious
56l louse of CommonsReport (Hansard) 4 April 1919,col. 1566. 37See `Working With Men' section in Chapter Five. 31For example,Hills put a question to the Leader of the Houseof Commonsconcerning the government'sintentions with regard to the women's EmancipationBill on13 April 1919and Wedgwood Benn on 7 July (see Mansard). The Timesclaimed that the Bill's Third Readingsuccess, againstthe government'swishes, was securedby 'the Young Unionist group' led by Lord Robert Cecil (The Times,5 July 1919). I refer to ConservativeSIPS as Unionists here, following the contemporary style.
55 life.. has ideas',he 59 AnotherLabour phasesof our national . revolutionisedour said. contributor to the debateeulogised women's war work and emphasisedtheir interest in national affairs, heaping special praise on his `lady' opponent in the recent General
Election. A Coalition Liberal, Hugh Edwards,MP for Neath,examined the argument that women were `exclusively and primarily destinedfor the domestic sphere' and found it wanting. He claimed that this view of women's place had been destroyedby the War and revealingly commentedthat women were the true `bulwark against
Bolshevism'.60 Other MPs also referred explicitly to women's work in the War.
Even though theseMPs frequently mentioned the impact of the First World
War in this context it is questionablewhether it was such an important factor in the decision to allow women to enter into a fuller citizenship. It is problematic to attempt a counter-factualanalysis and pronounce on what would havehappened had the war not taken place, but it is clear that pressurewas exertedeven before 1914 for the appointmentof femaleJPs and jurors and for the admissionof womento the legal professionas well as for the vote. Of course,the suffrageissue was of suchsupreme importanceto both supportersand opponents of the causethat it kept their attention awayfrom theseother matters to a largeextent. Evenon the suffrageissue, there is a debateas to what extentwomen's war work wasa decidingfactor in facilitatingthe 61 adoptionof the Speaker'sConference proposals It is remarkablethat the women who largelyperformed the work (thoseunder thirty) werenot enfranchisedin 1918.
Nevertheless,it would be inadvisableto denythat sucha traumaticexperience for the country and its leadersas the `War to end all Wars' was without effect. The debates on the Women's Emancipation Bill took place only six months after the Armistice
39! lansard, 4 April 1919,col. 1562. 60Ibid., col. 1599. 61For example,Martin Pugh arguesthat the shift in public and political opinion in favour of women's causesduring the war was of `modestproportions': Pugh, Womenand the Women'sAlovement, p. 41.
56 andshould be readin that context. Politicians' mentallandscapes, and those of the peoplethey represented,had been altered by total war andhad not yet revertedto a peacetimemould. If there was a moment of opportunity for women's rights
legislationthen this was it.
Opposition to the Women's Emancipation Bill in the House of Commons was seldom overt but was more likely to take an indirect form. J.D. ReesMP arguedthat the Bill was all very well in principle, but that Parliament had more pressingproblems to deal with, such as the PeaceSettlement. 62 The promotion of the Bill by the Labour
Party led to some party political sniping. For example, Unionist MPs detecteda whiff
of hypocrisy from the Labour Party, which was keen to seewomen enter the middle classdomain of the legal profession while supporting moves to keep them out of the engineeringshop 63 The Unionist MP for Maidstone, CommanderBellairs, employed
a significant verb while making this point in the committee stage,claiming that
Labour had `emasculated'its own election pledge to women. He then moved that
clauseone be deletedfrom the Bill 64 On anotheroccasion he commentedon the
emptinessof the ladies' galleryto infer a lack of interestamong women 65
CommanderBcllairs also opposedthe suffrage clause,although he did claim to back
an equalvoting ageof twenty-fivefor menand womenand suggested the matter
shouldbe dealtwith by a suffragebill. The antipathyof men like Rccsand Hellairsto
the contentof the Women'sEmancipation Bill shinesthrough all their obscurantist,
621lansard,4 April 1919 col. 1601. Rees,was the `Liberal Imperialist', later Unionist, MP for East Nottingham from 1912until his death upon falling from a train in 1926. A former magistrateand Indian Civil Servant,he was a dogged opponentof women police. 63 The Pre -War Practices(Restoration) Bill, intendedto reversethe wartime `dilution' of labour in industry, was also before parliament in the summerof 1919 and was supportedby the Labour Party. 64TheTimes, 1S May 1919. 63Ilansard, 4 April 1919,col. 1589.
57 delayingtactics, yet it is remarkablethe extentto which the `political correctness'of 66 the day preventedthem from attacking the women's causemore directly.
In the courseof the debates,the issue of women magistratesreceived little directattention since most of the controversyconcerned the franchiseclause.
However, when MPs did touch on the subject, their remarks reveal some of their assumptionsabout gendercharacteristics. For example, J.D. Reesflippantly remarked that, with women on them, benches`might not be so anxious to send people to prison 67 at the expenseof the rates and the taxpayer'. It is not clear whether he believed women were naturally softer than men on criminals or on taxpayers!
Many of the MPs who spoke regardedthe appointment of women magistrates as inevitable or a logical corollary of the parliamentary franchise. Reesconceded
`how can you keep them from being membersof the magisterial bench when once you haveadmitted them to Parliament?'68 Major O'Neill, who announcedhis attentionto abstain from voting on the secondreading, admitted that he could not `seelogically why a womanshould not be a magistrate'(my emphasis)69 MPs moresympathetic to the women'scause included George Thorne, who allegedthat `the nationhas, by limiting the powerof womendeprived itself of someof the keenestbrains in the country'70 and Captain Albert Smith who argued from the position of fundamental rights,claiming that `womenhave the right to standon the sameplane as men in our 7' constitution,our homelife, our municipallife, our parliamentarylife' l lis commentssuggest the ideal of equalcitizenship for women.
"Party political calculation no doubt played a part in the suggestionof twenty-five as the franchise age. It was supportedby some individuals and organisations,including the Maidstone Women's Citizens'Associationwho invited Bellairs to speakon at least one occasion. (The Women's Library: WCA papers). 61Hansard 4 April 1919, col. 1610. " Ibid. 69Ibid., col. 1571. 70Ibid., col. 1574. 71Ibid., col. 1577.
58 Therewas something of an air of inevitability that the principleof women magistrateswould be conceded,either by Labour's bill or through government legislation. No doubt, MPs were aware of the anomaliesthat existed in the current laws,for examplethe fact that femalemayors could not presideover (or evensit on) their borough's magisterial bench. Some MPs were JPs or lawyers themselvesor had beencouncillors, but only Lord Beauchampin the Houseof Lords mentioned this 2 aspectin debate.
Much to the Coalition government's surprise and embarrassment,the
Women's Emancipation Bill passednot only its secondreading but also the committee stageand third reading. The Coalition had, of course, promised to legislate to `removethe existinginequalities as between men and women' but had failed to producea bill of their own. It is likely that the successof Labour's bill caught them unawares:their is no record of any government activity concerning it until the Cabinet
Home Affairs Committee consideredit on 16 May 1919,two days after it successfully 73 completedthe committeestage. An editorial in TheTimes claimed that the governmenthad allowed the bill to proceedby defaulthaving failed to sendanybody with higher rank than ParliamentaryPrivate Secretaryto argue its cast. Ministers had not realisedthat enoughof the Coalition backbencherswould take their manifesto pledgesufficiently seriously to defy the whip andjoin the Labouropposition in the 74 ayelobby.
The governmentwas opposedto any changein the parliamentaryfranchise, becausethere was concern over the conventionthat a GeneralElection would
'2 Seebelow, p.60. 71PRO: CAB 26/1. By this time a bill specifically aimed at permitting women to becomeJPs had been introducedin the llouse of Lords and was to be debatedon 20 May. "? his was the stated position of leading Coalition Liberal, Sir SamuelI loare, in the third Reading debate.Jtansard. 4 July 1919 co1.1307-11.
59 automatically follow a Reform Act and becausethe compromise franchise reachedby the 1917 Speaker'sConference was barely two yearsold. As a coalition government, backedby the rather disparategroups of Unionists and Lloyd GeorgeLiberals, it fearedthat the equalfranchise issue would tear its parliamentarysupport apart.
However, ministers realised legislation would have to be brought forward on the other aspects,especially the entry of women into the magistracyand the legal profession, and to bring a measureof equality into the Civil Service. There was genuine approval amongministers for theseproposals; the supportof both the HomeAffairs Committee
Chairman H. A. L. Fisher, and the Minister of Labour, Mr. Borne for the introduction of women JPswas minuted at the16 May meeting.73 The Committee then resolved that the governmentwould opposethe Women's Emancipation Bill but that it would bring forward legislation to addressall the points except equal suffrage.
Meanwhile, a few days later, the House of Lords discussedthe Justicesof the
Peace(Qualification if Women) Bill. Moving the SecondReading, Lord Beauchamp spokeof the attributesof womenthat, in his view, especiallyfitted them for the bench:
Womenhave high moral character,a fair degreeof education,business knowledgeand common sense, together with an admixtureof the milk of humankindness.
Ile went on to put manyof the familiar argumentsof supportersof women magistrates.He arguedthat womenshould play a part in hearingcases of indecent assaulton girls andhinted that, as manyfeminists argued, punishments imposed by courtsin thesecases sometimes failed to fit the crime. As mentionedabove, he mentioned the legal anomaly regarding female mayors and district council chairmen.
's PRO: CAB 26/1. Fisher was a close associateof the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, and his wife was well known in feminist circles.
60 Revealingly,he specifiedjuvenile courtsand schoolattendance cases as areas in 76 which female JPs would be of special use.
Not all Beauchamp'sfellow peersagreed with him. In an article published in
January1920, just after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act becamelaw, Lord
Walsingham,a hereditary peer who was a metropolitan police (stipendiary) magistrate 77 for fifteen years, showed how deep was the opposition to the appointment of women
magistratesin some quarters. While he condescendinglyconceded that `as a country
magistratewith male colleaguesa woman may perform her office with sufficient
he feared `with instinct adequacy' that no advisor ... she will not evince the true of justice' A judge, he claimed, neededto be impartial and have `no truck with
sentiment'. He continued:
Women have not the judicial mind. They cannot approacha matter purely without bias. Their more sensitive souls are always hamperedby some sentimentalconsideration to the doom of justice.?
This contrastswith Beauchamp'sview that womenwould be skilled at `sifting the 79 worth of evidence'. Moreover, Walsingham's equation of women magistrateswith
`sentimentality'was highly significant. Their detractorsoften accusedthe early
women JPs of `sentimentality', particularly in the juvenile courts. `Sentimentality'
signified weaknessand was the enemy of `reason' and `soundjudgement',
characteristicsassociated with masculinity. Thus the very areaof work for which
womenwere seen as most suitable, was also the areain which they were liable to
attractthe mostcriticism. The attackon womenmagistrates came mostly from the
76 Houseof Lords Report, 20 May 1919 col. 734-735; The Vote,30 May 1919. 'Common sense' is still the most frequently mentionedqualification for the magistracy.It is rarely defined. n Ile retired in 1919. n Pearson's Weekly,3 January 1920. The barrister I lelena Normanton kept this article in her cuttings collection (the Women's Library). 79 Report, 20 May 1919 735. Houseof Lords col. -. -,
`'ý' 61 stipendiarymagistrates, 80 particularly the Londonones, a body to whom Walsingham belonged. With a few exceptions,such as Cecil Chapmanand William Clarke Hall, the London stipendiarieswere fairly hostile towards lay magistratesin general,and
femaleones in particular.
Walsingham also disagreedwith Beauchampabout the necessityto allow women to hear casesof indecent assault. He fearedthat repeatedcontact with
`indecentmatter' would `coarsenthe fibre of a woman' and that `sooneror later she would discard the attributes of her sex'. 81These sentiments were often repeated elsewhere,for example when women were askedto leave the court, the jury and even the bench in casesof `indecency'. Few went as far as Walsingham's suggestionthat women would be `unsexed' by the experience,but the fact that this was perceivedas a major problem is underlined by Home Office concern. In a letter H. B. Simpson, a
Home Office official, pointed out that there would be caseswhich men and women would be embarrassedto discusstogether, but he felt this problemwould be easily resolvedas `it may safelybe assumedthat anywomen appointed as magistrates would havesufficient sense to recognisewhen they arenot wantedon the Bench.'82 Perhaps
Simpsonenvisaged some form of vetting of candidatesfor the bench,since if he had any knowledge of the groups campaigning for the creation of women JPs he would haveunderstood that it was preciselythose cases in which they felt feminineinput wasmost required, or perhapshis sanguineattitude was dueto a recognitionthat the introductionof womenmagistrates was reasonableand inevitable.
Evensome peers who supportedthe bill appearto havehad their doubtsabout the suitability of women for the role of magistrate. Lord Buckmastcr, a former
80See Chapter Three and ChapterFive. " Pearson's Weekly,3 January 1920. $2PRO: LCO/ 350, Letter from 11.13.Simpson (l tome Office) to Sir Claud Schuster(Lord Chancellor's Office).
62 LiberalMP andLord Chancellor,who had sponsoreda bill to permitwomen to be called to the Bar and could therefore be regardedas something of a friend to the women's movement,83 would only concedethat `exceptional' women were fitted to serveon the benchor on juries. It would be `preposterous'he claimedto appoint
`ordinary women' who lacked `the training' which would have `stimulated and strengthenedtheir powers of impartial judgement'. 84 In this article for the Daily
Dispatch, under the headline WomenJudges - But not For Thirty Years! Buckmastcr reassuredhis readersthat there would not `suddenly be a rustling of women's dresses on magisterial benches'. He argued that women
Until have been in domestic quite recently ... occupied small concerns and in performing social duties mostly of a trivial character. The little circle of eventsand occupationsin which they have hitherto moved has unfitted them mentally and temperamentallyfor real judicial work in the courts of law. 85
Buckmaster'sviews do not appearfar removed from Walsingham's except that he doesnot seewomen's inadequacy as innate,but assomething that canbe rectified by training. He went on to outlinethe qualitiesessential in a goodmagistrate, a sound knowledgeof local affairs, freedomfrom political influence(or that of a `trade organisation'),absence of prejudice,an `unimpeachable'character, an understanding of human nature and the ability to command respect. He concluded:
I seeno reasonwhy womenshould not possessall thesequalities. The contentionthat they maybe influencedby `instinctivefeeling' as againstcalm judgement is not in itself a sufficientargument against their becomingmagistrates. If the big majority of women are, as I believe, still unfitted for the dischargeof judicial affairs, yet I think that things arc moving very fast in their favour.86
lie alsoproposed divorce law reform. u Women's Library: Helena Nornamton Papers:cutting of article by Lord Duckmastcr,Daily Dispatch, 9 November 1919. ýsIbid. Ibid.
63 Onewonders whether Buckmaster really believedthat the majority of mendisplayed all the virtues he enumeratedbut his comments illustrate the fact that even supporters of the introduction of women magistratesmay have had their qualms. Of course,as a knownsupporter of women'sentry in to the legalprofession, Buckmastcr may well have beensimply trying to reassureless committed readersthat no suddenor violent changewould result from the admission of women to the magistracy.
The Home Office also had reservationsabout the suitability of women for work on the bench. `The averagewoman is probably even less capableof exercising judicial discretion or recognising what the law meansthan the average man is', wrote Simpson, but `unquestionablythere are some women who are more capableof doing so than most JPs are, and there are man who are at least as well qualifiedas many of the JPsto act asmagistrates. Personally I think it would be wise to utilise their servicesin this capacity and so long as any appearanceof flooding the
Benchwith womenis avoided.' fie concludedthat `a gradualinfiltration of the feminine increase diminish in elementwould ... ratherthan public confidence the 87 administrationof justice'.
Concern to avoid `flooding' the bencheswith women was also expressedby the Lord Chancellor.Replying for the governmentto the Lordsdebate on May 20`h
Lord Birkenheadexpressed its approvalof the principleof womenmagistrates and promisedthat eitherBeauchamp's bill or onelike it would soonbecome law. But he warnedthat the magisterialbenches were already `tolerably full' and that he would not make `unnecessaryadditions' to them ` merely in order that women might be
" PRO: LCO/ 350 (emphasisin the original).
1.4 given Commissionsof the Peace'. However, he made it plain that women would be 88 appointedwith the samepowers as men and not just for certain types ofcase.
This `sex blind' approachon Birkenhead's part was welcomed by Lord Crewe, the Liberalpeer and Lord Lieutenantof London,but it wasnot what it seemed.
Birkenhead,formerly F.E. Smith MP, was no supporterof equal rights. lie had been a prominent opponent of women's suffrage. According to his biographer,John
Campbell, he enjoyed the company of women, particularly `young, pretty and high spirited'89ones, but believed that they inhabited a separatesphere `of suitably 90 feminine interestsranging from fashion to philanthropy'. His world - the law courts and Parliament- was an exclusively male world, and ideally Birkenhead would have liked to seeit stay that way. He showedhis preferencewhen he opposedLady
Rhondda'sattempt to sit in the House of Lords. Referring in 1919 to the proposed abolition of the Upper House he said, `I would rather perish in the exclusive company 91 of my own sex' On other occasionshe claimed that a woman was biologically incapableof genius and that neither Jane Austen nor GeorgeEliot could be compared with the greatmale novelists 92 With sucha recordof misogynyit is unlikely that
Birkenheadwas enthusiastic about the appointmentof womenmagistrates but he was a pragmatic politician and followed the agreedgovernment line. However, civil servantswere sensitive to his reluctanceto appointmany women magistrates and their briefingnotes referred to the lack of suitablecandidates and reassuredthe Lord
Chancellor that the changein the law would not result in crowding the benches93
u Houseof LordsReport, 20 May 1919col. 737. John Campbell, F. E. Smith: First Earl of Birkenhead, London, JonathanCape, 1983, p.273. Ibid., p.272. 91Ibid., p.497. 92Ibid., p.280. 93PRO: LCO/ 350: brief ing note by A. E.A. Napier, 19 May 1919. Napier also explicitly statedthat all women bencheswould not be allowed.
65 Oneway to keepthe numbersof womendown wasto introducean agelimit and when 13cauchamp'sBill returned to the Lords for its Third Readinga clausewas insertedto the effect that women could only be appointedas a JP if they had attained the ageof thirty (the agelimit for menwas, of course,twentyone)94. This amendment,opposed by the bill's sponsor,roused the fury of the Women's Freedom
League whose paper, The Vote, was keeping a close watch on parliamentary proceedings9S.However, it was entirely consistentwith the apparentsuspicion and antipathy of politicians towards younger women, already evidencedin the refusal to allow women to vote until they were thirty. 96 As Cheryl Law points out ' "girls" of twenty-one were not regardedas being responsibleenough for the exacting task of citizenship'. 7 The amendmentwas agreedin the House of Lords despite
Birkenhead's assurancesthat he would be highly unlikely to appoint any women underthirty in any case. Howeverit did not appearin the governmentbill, 98which was introduced in the Lords in July.
The SexDisqualification (Removal) Bill was the govcmment'sanswer to its difficulties over Labour'sWomen's Emancipation Bill, which had successfully completed its Commons stageson 4 July. Designedalso to replace Lord
Beauchamp'sproposal, the new bill containedclauses relating to civil andjudicial opportunitiesfor womenbut omittedany franchisemeasure. Once again, controversy reignedover otheraspects (the positionof womenin the Civil Serviceand the i louse of Lords)and not over the claimsof womento becomemagistrates. Nevertheless,
9' Houseof Lords Report, 23 June 1919. 95The Vote,8 August 1919. °G There were also two million women over thirty who failed to qualify for the vote. Sec Law, Suffrage and Power, p. 183. 97Ibid. "The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill.
66 feminist organisationsstepped up the pressureon this issue. The WFL, NUSEC and local Women's Citizens' Associations all held meetingsthroughout England and
Wales on the subject and in June the NCW devoted a public meeting during its annual conferencein Leicesterto the needfor `womenas patrols, police andmagistrates, to serveon juries and in police court work'. Lady FrancesBalfour took the chair and speakersincluded Miss Peto of the Bristol Women Police Training School, Helena
Normanton (on magistratesand juries) and Mr. Hiolford Knight (a barrister and author " of Advancing Women) In October a meeting organisedby the Women's Local
GovernmentSociety in support of the appointment of women JPs took place at
Kensington PalaceGardens. The main speakerwas the prominent Liberal MP
Herbert Samuelwho claimed that `the administration of the law would gain, and gain 100 greatly, by the addition of women of proved capacity andjudgement to the Bench'.
The governmentbill passedall its parliamentarystages and becamelaw just before Christmas. Why had the proposal to introduce women magistratesattracted so little seriousopposition? Part of the answerseems to lie in the contextof party politics. Politicianswere nervous of the powerof womenvoters and wary of each other,in caseone party or groupwas able to identify itself with the women'scause more than others. Some, like Samuel, were genuine enthusiasts,others, like
Birkenhead,were prepared to concedethe principle in the hopethat numbersof womenJPs could in practicebe limited. Many felt the movewas inevitable,an idea whosetime hadcome now that womenhad the vote andcould standfor Parliament.
As Samuelsaid, the burden of proof had now shifted on to the opponentsof the
The Vote,4 July 1919;handbill in Ilelena Normanton Papers. The Normanton papersalso contain an undateddraft speech,obviously preparedfor this occasion,which makesspecific referenceto the proposalto bar younger women from the Bench. Normanton's view was that they would provide a valuablecheck on `the extreme levity of someof our elderly magistrates'. The speechsuggests that Normanton'smain interestlay in the admissionof women to the legal profession. 10°The Times, 14 October 1919.
67 1°' appointmentof women to the bench. Women had, after all, proved themselves
capablethrough many years of work as philanthropists, poor law guardiansand local
councillors. As we shall see,these were the typical activities in which women were
preparedfor the magistracy.
Herein lies a further reasonwhy perhapsthe political elites acceptedthe principle. The magistracywas an unpaid, voluntary activity. It was not a career,it offered no remuneration,nor could it in any way be regardedas a profession. There
were no large fees to be earnedor career ladders to climb. It was often describedas
the `poor man's knighthood'. 102Justices of the Peaceno longer had the power and
social position in a town or county that they had enjoyed before the abolition of the
property qualification and the loss of most of their functions to local authorities. There
still was some personalprestige and honour to be gained from appointment, but it was
limited to beingable to write the initials `JP' afteryour name. As Lord Crewehad madea point of remarkingin the Houseof Lordsdebate, the routinework of a JP was
`humdrumand exceedingly irksome. 103Although this point was not madeexplicitly, it wasan obviousadvantage to be ableto widen the recruitmentpool for magistratesif enoughmen could not be found to takeon this `irksome'task.
Women had, of course,already demonstratedtheir worth in a range of
voluntaryactivities, in local governmentand in the managementof schoolsand
workhouses.The magistracycould be seenas a naturalprogression from their
acceptedsphere of local politics andphilanthropic work, particularlywhere cases
involving children and teenagegirls were concerned. Therefore, no vital interests would be threatenedby allowing women to take their place on the bench, especially if
101 Ibid. The samephrase was used by the Marquis of Crewe in the I louse of Lords on 20 May 1919. 102 This description is often attributed to H.G. Wells. SeeKing & May, Black Magistrates p.24. iosHouse of Lords Report, 20 May 1919.
68 their numberswere limited as the Lord Chancellor clearly hoped they would be.
Genderrelations and the patriarchal society would be largely undisturbed.
Despite the historic nature of the admission of women to the magistracyafter centuriesof exclusionthere was no needfor a struggleof anythinglike the proportionsof the suffragecampaign. Equal citizenship had been recognised to the extent that a few, exceptionably able and well-qualified women were to be appointed to the bench. Now it would be up to the women appointed to make the most of their opportunity to enter their new sphereof summaryjurisdiction and up to their organisationsto conduct a campaign for the appointment of more women magistrates.
69 CHAPTER TWO
WANTED: MORE WOMEN MAGISTRATES'
Oneof the definingcharacteristics of twentiethcentury British feminismwas the continuing effort to raise the number of women in prominent positions and in public life generally, particularly in those areaswhich had been traditionally regarded as the exclusive province of men and which consequentlyserve as a litmus test for equality of citizenship. From the late nineteenthcentury organisationssuch as the
Women's Local Government Society and the Women's Co-operative Guild, which encouragedwomen to becomePoor Law Guardians,to bodies such as Women for
Westminster(1942) and the 300 Group (1980) which have attemptedto increasethe numberof womenMPs, feministshave consistently argued for the inclusionof larger numbersand a greaterproportion of womenin positions(paid or unpaid)which they havedeemed to be powerful? The attempt,which still continuestoday, to increase the representationof womenin local governmentand parliament is analogousto the focusof this chapter: the campaignto securethe appointmentof a sufficientnumber of womenas Justices of the Peace.
Argumentsfor the inclusionof morewomen in public life wereadvanced both by thosefeminists for whom equalitywas the primary issue,some of whom presumablywould havebelieved that therewas little differencein practicebetween a maleand female MP, JP or councillor,and by thosewho haveplaced greater emphasisupon genderdifference and who have argued that public life would be enrichedby a greater input of ideas and approachesparticularly associatedwith
1Headline in The Vote,5 January 1923. 2 An interestingexample is MaureenColquhoun's Balanceof SexesBill, introduced in 1975,which aimed to ensureequal representationof men and women on all public bodies; MaureenColquhoun, A Womanin the House, Sussex,Scan Books, 1980, pp. 60-67,181.214.
70 women. Arguments were also advancedby organisationsand individuals not primarily identified as `feminist', for example penal reform groups and membersof pressuregroups concernedwith children.
In theorythere was a contradictionbetween those who arguedfor strict equality and those who emphasisedwomen's distinct qualities and `mission'. The two approachesroughly correspondto the division betweenthe `old' or `equalitarian' feminists and the `new' or `welfare' feminists of the interwar period. However, as
Cheryl Law points out, `adherenceto thesephilosophies was neither rigidly confined to distinct organisations,nor operatedas a consistentpolicy'. Moreover, some antipathybetween them did not prevent a certain amount of co-operation betweenthe two feminist campswhen tackling the common enemy of the male establishment during the three decadesafter 1918. The military metaphor is significant, for in some respectsthis was a war; in order to increasethe proportion of women in any group or activity therenecessarily has to be a decreasein the proportionof men,unless the size of the groupis increasing.Therefore the vestedinterests of somemen would be under attack. This wasas much the casewhere legal appointmentswere concerned as it has beenin the caseof parliamentarycandidates. 5 Womenwere not alonein seeking accessto power in the first half of the twentieth century and sometimesthe arguments for greaterrepresentation of womenon the magisterialbench became enmeshed in classand party political disputes,resulting, for example,in calls for the appointment of more working class women or more Liberal women.
At times the aim of an increasein the number of women in public office might appearto be an end in itself, that the principal target of an organisation's activity was
3 For the distinction betweenthe two types, see Harold Smith, `British feminism in the 1920s' in I larold Smith (ed.) British Feminism in the TwentiethCentury, Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1990. 4 Law, Suffrage and Power, p. 162. sfor example,in the caseof the legal action taken againstthe Labour Party's all-women parliamentary shortlists in the 1990s.
71 simply to increasethe presenceof one sex at the expenseof the other. But this was usually not the case. Women's organisationsargued that women should take their
place in public life not just becausethey were women (although that was sufficient
reasonfor some) but also becauseof the particular qualities they possessedas women.
The argumentsof `old' and `new' feminists often merged in generalclaims about the
capabilities of women, and what special talents and abilities they might bring to a
role. Of course,these arguments were often basedupon generalisationsabout gender,
which were at best unsustainableat an individual level and at worst played into the
handsof the feminists' opponents. The feminists of the interwar period were
continuing to react (as they and their predecessorshad before 1914) against the
elaborategender divisions of `Victorian' society while at the sametime seemingly
demonstratingthat they had internalised those divisions. However, they also made use
of widely held assumptionsabout women's special talents not only to enhance
women's citizenship and ensurethat their value was recognisedbut also to disarm
opponents.
Campaignsto get more women into a particular sphereof public life were
in qualitatively different from the initial movementsthat brought about their entry the
first place, although they may appearto apply similar argumentsand even tactics.
Without the seemingly impenetrableinitial barrier to be broken down and overcome
the campaignsseemed less interesting to participants and observersalike.
Consequently,campaigners suffered from three major handicapsthat had not applied
previously. Firstly, they struggled to find willing activists, particularly when the 6 campaign,as it usually has been, was a long drawn out affair. The pace of changein
this spherehas been so slow that it was usually necessaryto recruit several
6 Although this is more evident with the benefit of hindsight, many interwar feminists already had experienceof the women's suffrage campaign,which had been a very long drawn out affair. Despite their evident optimism, they must have realised further changewould take time.
72 generationsof activists. Thosewho committeda long lifetime to activefeminist politics in the twentieth century, such as Margery Corbett Ashby, were relatively rare.
This needto spreadthe campaignover the generationsmay have incidentally contributedto the appearanceof a cyclical pattern in feminist activity.?
Secondly,the campaignssuffer from a lack of publicity and coveragein the massmedia. Extensive coveragewas given to GertrudeTuckwell as London's first 8 woman magistratein the 1920s, but the secondhad no news value whatsoever. historians have tendedto follow this pattern. Campaignsto increasethe participation of women were lengthy and unglamorous,but were no less vital to the participants. It was very important to feminists to securethe continuation of women's presencein public life, having achieveda toehold in the first place. Some form of successionhad to be established,even though women had no recourseto many of the networks that traditionally recruited people for public roles. Thirdly, the campaignshad to combine suchan attackingstrategy with moredefensive positions. In contrastto the initial campaignsthat could go on all-out attack,the consolidatingnature of the later ones requiredthem to try to preventthe renewalof the exclusionof womenfrom a particularsphere of actionor to stabilisethe levelsof women'srepresentation at currentlevels.
This chapterwill examinesome of the abovethemes in the contextof demands for morewomen magistrates between c. 1920 and c. 1950. Throughoutthis period women's organisationssustained a consistenteffort to seethat more women were appointedas justices of the peaceand more tentatively advancedarguments for the appointmentof women as stipendiary magistrates. It is hoped that this examination
7 Noted by Pugh, Womenand the Women'sMovement, p. xii. There are severalexamples in the GertrudeTuckwell Collection (TUC library).
73 9 will providea furthercorrective to the impression,now greatlymoditied, of feminist quiescencein the period after 1920, as well as illuminating the difficulties faced by the women's movement in sustainingand extending the presenceof women in public andpolitical life, difficulties which havenot yet beenfully overcome. The work of women's organisationsand other campaignersand the extent to which they were collectively successfulin their efforts to securethe appointment of more women magistratesin this period will be critically examined, as well as some of their argumentsand the implications of these for the debateabout `old' versus `new' feminism, and the extent to which theseapproaches became intertwined with party politics and concernsabout the staffing of juvenile courts and the `modernisation' of the magistracy.
THE CAMPAIGN FOR MORE WOMEN MAGISTRATES
After the initial legislation1°feminist organisationssuch as the WFL monitoredclosely the rateat which womenwere made magistrates and were soon disappointed.In March 1920The Votecomplained that all the fourteennew JPs appointedin SouthShields were men, including two `whoseonly qualificationseems to be that they have a house addressin the district', while the four women whose " nameshad been put forwardwere passed over. By April the paperwas complainingthat the appointmentof womento the benchwas `singularlyslow' 12.
Fourwomen had been chosen for the Commissionof the Peacein Dublin in January and in March the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancasterannounced the addition of twenty four women to the magisterial benchesof the County Palatine, but there were
9 For example,by Law in Suffrage and Power. Seealso Pat Thane, 'What Difference Did the Vote Make?' In A. Vickery (ed.) Women,Privilege and Power, Stanford University Press,2001. 10See Chapter One. 11The Vote,S March 1920. 12Ibid., 9 April 1920.
74 to be no furtherappointments in the restof England,or in Wales,or Scotland,until 13 the publication of the Lord Chancellor's list in July. After that, appointmentswere madethrough the local advisory committees but the feminist presscontinued to monitorand report on the extentto which womenwere or werenot beingmade magistrates,as well asoffering adviceto readerson how to get namesput forward for 14 consideration, further demonstratingtheir commitment to full citizenship.
The campaign continued throughout the interwar period. Year after year the
WFL's annual conferencecalled for women to be appointed in equal numberswith men.'s The Vote expressedits continuing frustration in 1925: `in no part of the country are women being addedto the Commission of the Peacein adequatenumber.
During the past week four men and one woman have been appointed in Bath, and in
SouthendOn Seanine men and one woman'. On other occasionsit reported that three women and twenty-six men had been appointed in the Duchy of Lancaster(1926) and 16 two womenand fifty -threemen in Derbyshire(1927). In the latter caseit was pointedout that the two womenwere of `county' families:it would seemthat, though the WFL wasfirst and foremostcommitted to an increasein the presenceof womenin the magistracy,it wasnot entirelysatisfied when the womenin questionwere so obviously privileged in status.
Dissatisfactionwas not confinedto the `equalrights' feministsin the WFL.
Despiteinternal disagreements over `new' feminismin the mid-1920sthe NUSEC '? remainedcommitted to the promotion of practical citizenship. In 1925 Mrs.
CoombeTennant JP, a leadingformer suffragistand Liberal parliamentarycandidate
13For an analysisof appointmentson the Lord Chancellor's list, seeChapter Four. " For example,articles in The Vote,9 January 1920 and Women'sLeader, 5 March 1920. 13For example in 1924. The Times,7 April 1924,p. 9. 16The Vote, 21 August 1925,25 June 1926,7 January 1927. "'The Law at Work' appearedfrom 1923 until 1931 'under the direction of Mrs. C.D. RackhamJP. Miss S. Margery Fry JP with Mrs. Crofts as lion. Solicitor' (Women's Leader, 9 February 1923). The articles were written mostly by Mrs. Rackhamalthough not all were signed.
75 from SouthWales, wrote to the paperdeploring the slow 'rate at which womenare beingelevated to the Bench'. Shecited the exampleof a list of justicesfor Mcrioneth recently issuedwhich containedthe namesof `thirteen men (of whom one is stated to be the husbandof the "only womanmagistrate in the county")and not onewoman'.
Mrs. Coombe Tennant asked `is not this question of "More Women on the Bench" one that might rightly find a place in the immediate Programmeof the National Union 18 of Societiesfor Equal Citizenship and be specifically defined therein?' The NUSEC did retain an interest in the promotion of women as JPs and the national organisation continued to lobby governmentand MPs. For example, in 1927 they promoted a parliamentaryquestion `on the faulty distribution of women JPs' and a bill - which was withdrawn - for a reform of juvenile courts in Scotland which would have had the 19 effectof ensuringthat womenwere present for casesinvolving children. These efforts- undertakenwith sympatheticback bench MPs - togetherwith lettersto the home Office and the Lord Chancellor's Office, representedstandard tactics for
`outsider' pressuregroups. As Helen Joneshas commented,the women's organisations`remained the supplicants,albeit well organised,articulate and dynamic ones'?°
The importance of the issue to the rank and file of the women's movement is underlinedby ampleevidence of local activity of Societiesfor EqualCitizenship and
Women'sCitizens Associations in makingrepresentations for morewomen magistrates.In Reptonthe SECorganised a petition for the appointmentof a woman 21 JP. Local women'sgroups regularly held meetingsat which addresseswere given
" WVomen'sLeader, 10 April 1925. 19 Ibid. II February 1927; Women's Library: NUSEC Annual Report 1926-7,p. 16. 20 l lelen Jones,JVomen in British Public Life 1914-50,1larlow, Pearson,2000, p. 133-4. 21 Theseinclude CanterburyWCA (PRO: 11045/24609,letter from l Ion. Secretaryof the NCWA), the I lampshireWCA and Ilkley SEC (The Vote, 19 December 1926 and 24 June 1927). The Repton petition is mentionedin the NUSEC Annual Report 1924-5,p. 24.
76
"l on the subjectof the `work of womenmagistrates' and resolutions passed calling for morewomen JPs. Members' names were submittedfor considerationby local advisorycommittees. Although only fragmentaryrecords survive of local WCAs
(andtheir activitieshave been correspondingly neglected by historians)it is probable thatthese activities may havehad someeffect in raisingthe numbersof women magistratesin some localities, most notably in Cambridge where the WCA had about sevenhundred membersin the 1930s. Four women were made JPs for the borough in the Lord Chancellor's list of 1920, more than for any comparabletown, and by 1934 eight women were entitled to sit on the local bench. In Chester,seven women had 22 beenmade magistratesby 1928, all of them membersof the WCA Together with other factors, such as the attitudes of local advisory committees and Lord Lieutenants, the extentof local organisationby women'ssocieties (including, in someareas, the
National Council of Women, which also formed branchesin towns and cities, and local womenmagistrates' societies) undoubtedly contributed to the ratheruneven geographicaldistribution of women magistratesby the 1930s,some areasbeing well suppliedwhile otherswere not.
At a nationallevel the most sustainedcampaign to securemore women magistrateswas waged by the Public Service and Magistrates,Committee of the
NCW (PSMC). Beaumont has recently argued that the NCW were among the women'sgroups who `refusedto be identifiedas feministand publicly distanced themselvesfrom feminism' andthat they drew a line betweenthat andtheir pursuitof equalcitizenship. This distinctionseems hard to sustainin the caseof the PSMC, which was the NCW's largest committee in the 1920swith over four hundred members.Its leadingactivists had strong feminist credentials and a senseof solidarity;
22CCRO: 455/Q/40 Cambridge& District WCA minute book; NUSEC Annual Report, 1927-8,p. 28. 23Beaumont, `Citizens not feminists' p. 426.
77 theywere committed to an increasewomen's share in the administrationof justice not merely out of principle, but becauseof what they believed women could achieve on 4 behalf of other women. The efforts of the PSMC to highlight the need for more
womenmagistrates are worth examiningin detail sincethey demonstratethe strengths and weaknessesof the NCW as the country's largest women's organisation and
further illuminate its character.
The size of the PSMC and the NCW's place at the heart of a network of women's organisationsfacilitated efforts to gather and disseminateinformation in support of their demands. Repeatedinvestigations were held to establishthe facts 25 about women magistrates In 1926 the chairman, Mrs Keynes, with the help of the
Magistrates' Association, beganto compile a list of women JPs.26 The main object of
this exercisewas to identify which petty sessionaldivisions had no womanmagistrate,
althougha usefulby-product was the recruitmentof additionalPSMC members. Mrs.
Keynesfound that the 736 divisions in England and Wales had betweenthem 749
womenmagistrates but that thesewere not evenlydistributed. Instead,`in making
new appointmentsthere appears to be a tendencyto increasethe numbersof women
magistrateswhere they are alreadyin considerablestrength, rather than to appoint women where there are few or altogether lacking'. 7
Londonwas particularly well-supplied: one hundred of the womenJPs were in
the countyof Londonbut in mostparts of the city28their powers,other than in juvenile cases,were limited to licensing, weights and measures,committal orders and
ratesand Education Act summonses. London benefited from the residenceof many
Someleading NCW activists were also membersof `equalitarian' feminist bodies such as the WFL and the Open Door Council. u SeeChapter Six for other aspectsof the PSMC's activities. 26 Before 1948 the Lord Chancellor's Office kept no list of the namesof justices of the peace. The list NUSEC had compiled a of women magistratesin 1922,a copy of which was passedto the PSMC. r London Metropolitan Archives (LMA): ACC/3613/1/77, PSMC minute book, 18 November 1926. 211lampstead was an exception.
78 womenexperienced in local governmentand voluntaryorganisations. On the other hand,of the 168 non-county boroughs that had separatecommissions of the peace, about seventyhad no woman on the bench at the time of Mrs. Keynes' survey. 9
Having gatheredthe data the PSMC sent a letter to the Lord Chancellor in 1927 and put a resolution to the NCW's Annual Conference(which was subsequentlysent to the Home Office).
In 1929 Mrs. Keynes repeatedher survey and found that the number of women magistratesappointed had increasedfrom 1,440 in England and Wales to 1,775, though not all were necessarilyactive (or even alive), making the effective total around 1,590. Again, distribution was uneven; one county borough and forty-eight non-county boroughs still had no woman JP and fifteen English counties had fewer women magistratesthan petty sessionaldivisions. At the existing rate of growth, Mrs.
Keynesclaimed, it would be anothereight yearsbefore all the boroughshad at least one woman on the bench. This time she sent her findings to The Tinies, which published them in July 1930.
The PSMCalso requestedthat the Lord Chancellorreceive a deputation calling for morewoman magistrates. Although the requestwas refused,Lord Sankey replied that he was sympatheticto their demandsand he was said to be `fully aware that the presenceof more women on magisterial bencheswas an assetto the country'.
Mrs Keynescontinued to monitor andreport on the paceat which womenwere being appointeduntil shestepped down asPSMC chairman in 1935. By thenover three thousandwomen had been made magistratesbut Mrs. Keynes claimed that there were still ten borough and fifty county divisions without a female JP. 30
29F. A. Keynes, WomenMagistrates, London, NCW, 1927. 30CCRO: 789/Q6, F. A. Keynes,rough notesof an addressgiven to Ladies' Association connected with St Bartholomew's Ilospital entitled `Women on the Bench', 18 March 1937. Sheclaimed that the increaseof 400 in 1934 was achieved `underpressure from the I tome Office'. In 1933 aI tome
79 Like the formersuffrage societies (WFL andNUSEC) the I'SMC wasan
`outsider' pressuregroup, but one that had impressive connections. Members carefully researchedthe problem and made assiduoususe of deputations, parliamentaryquestions by sympatheticMPs andpublicity to furthertheir objective.
They kept a close watch upon the activities of governmentand persistently presented 31 evidenceto relevant enquiries Leading membersof the NCW were also called upon to sit on governmentappointed committees examining questionsrelevant to the work of magistrates. Lady Emmott, Mrs. Barrow (Geraldine) Cadbury, Miss Kelly
(Mrs. Keynes' successoras PSMC chairman) and Mrs. Rackhamall servedon several occasions. Not only were they therefore able to exercisesome influence over official policy, they could also use theseopportunities to exert pressurefor greateruse to be madeof women magistrates. For example, while serving on aI comeOffice Enquiry in 1928-9 into the operation of London's courts, both Geraldine Cadbury and
ElizabethHaldane repeatedly questioned witnesses as to whetherwomen JPs should be usedin domesticcases and raised the possibilityof a womanstipendiary. 32
As Law hasdemonstrated, the women'smovement in the 1920swas madeup of an extensivenetwork of organisations.The natureof the NCW, an umbrellagroup composedof many different bodies, placed it at the centre of this network.
Campaigningwas not restrictedto the nationalstage, to organisationsthat are recognisedprimarily as `feminist', or evento women'ssocieties. Among the bodies that took up the call for morewomen magistrates were the British Federationof
University Women, the National Union of Women Teachers(who sent a resolution to
Office circular had decreedin 1933that all juvenile courts `should include one man, and so far as practicable,one woman'. Examplesinclude the Committee on Sexual Offencesagainst young Persons(1925), the Committee on the Social Servicesin Courts of SummaryJurisdiction (1936) and the Committee on Corporal Punishment(1938). 32PRO: 11045/13777,Minutes of evidenceof Home Office Committee on Metropolitan Police Courts & Juvenile Courts 1929.
80 the HomeOffice in 1949)13 and the Women'sInstitutes. The networklinked the national groups with local ones (such as WIs, WCAs and Townswomcn's Guilds as well as WCG and NCW branches)whose activism was vital to the procurementof morewomen magistrates and whose members were most likely to providesuitable candidates. This women's network was further connectedto other pressuregroups and support for more women magistratesfrom the Howard Leaguefor Penal Reform 34 and the Magistrates' Association underlines their close co-operation
Male allies were not in short supply. Several MPs askedparliamentary questionson the subject including William Wedgwood Benn, Frank Briant and James
Alexander Lovat Fraser. A few metropolitan stipendiary magistratessupported the cause,notably Cecil Chapman35and William Clarke Hall, although they were apparentlyin a minority. In 1935the OxfordshireJP andjournalist, Mr. J. W.
RobertsonScott, made `a minimum of two womenon everybench' the fourth out of
eighteenproposals for the reform of the lay magistracy,36 a demandwhich went beyondthe NCW positionthat thereshould be at leastone woman for everypetty sessionaldivision.
The effectivenessof all theseefforts is hardto gaugedespite the slow but
steadyincrease in the numberof womenmagistrates in the 1930s.It probablyseemed to campaignersthat they were going with the grain of governmentopinion. The pace
of appointmentquickened after the HomeOffice circular requiringthe presenceof
`oneman, and so far as is practicable,one woman' on all juvenile court benches
33PRO: 11045/24609. " SeeAppendix C. ss Chapmanhad beena memberof the executive of the Men's Leaguefor Women's Suffrage and was also a supporterof divorce reform. SeeAngela V. John, `Betweenthe Causeand the Courts: The CuriousCase of Cecil Chapman' in Claire Eustance,Joan Ryan & Laura Ugolini (eds.) A Suffrage Reader,London, Leicester University Press,2000. 36The Times, 18 October 1935, p. 11.
81 outsideLondon was issuedin 1933.37On a numberof occasionsLord Chancellors expressedtheir wish to seemore women JPs, although no doubt this was often little more than lip service. The most vociferous was Lord Sankeywho was elevated to the woolsackin 1929by the LabourPrime Minister RamsayMacDonald and remained there until 1935. In 1931 he told the House of Lords `a sufficient number of women justices should be appointed. It is not only in the children's courts that the state needs their presenceand advice.'38 By 1932 he claimed to have appointed 403 women magistratesbut regrettedthe fact that there were still some petty sessionaldivisions without a single one. 9 In 1934, his last full year as Lord Chancellor, Sankey appointeda further 360 women to the Commissions of the Peacefor which he was responsible40
However,feminists were well awarethat the Lord Chancellorwas not in a position to make new magistratesunaided. After the initial lists of 1920 new women magistrateswere appointed on the adviceof local committeesthat hadbeen set up after the Royal Commission of 1910. It was soon apparentthat some advisory committees,Lords Lieutenant and local bencheswere reluctant to countenancethe appointmentof womenJPs. Giventhe secrecythat surroundedthe activitiesof advisorycommittees, public admissionof this attitudewas generallyrare, but there wereexceptions, such as the Kingstonborough bench in Surrey,which senta resolutionto the Lord Chancellorhoping that no womanwould bejoining them.
Their petition was obviously unsuccessful;by August a woman had beenappointed to
" London's juvenile had lay court rules required two magistrates- one male and one female- to sit alongsidethe stipendiary since 1921.The advice followed the findings of the departmentalcommittee on the Treatmentof Young Offenders (1927) and the 1933 Children and Young Person'sAct. See ChapterThree. "Speech by Lord Sankeyin the I louse of Lords, 15 July 1931 (copy in TUC library). 39The Times,25 February 1932,p. 11. 40Ibid., 18 October 1934,p. 9.
82 41 Kingston'sCommission No doubtopponents of womenmagistrates were much morevocal in privatethan in public.
TIIE ROLE OF ADVISORY COMMITTEES ANI) PARTY POLITICS
Campaignersrealised that only if women were appointed to the advisory committeeswould there be any certainty that the number of women JPs would increase. The women's conferenceof the Magistrates' Association called for this in
1925and the WFL added it to their annual resolution in 1927. In fact, it seemsthat the Lord Chancellor requestedin 1921 that one woman be addedto each advisory committee42yet by 1927 only about half of them had a female member. Again, the distribution was uneven. In London, Lord Crewe had ensuredthat there were three womenon the advisorycommittee, one for eachmain political party.43 The largest obstaclefor campaignerswas finding out precisely the composition of each committee, given the thick mist of secrecythat attendedtheir deliberations. The well connectedactivists of the PSMC were better placed than many groups to obtain informationand in 1934they considereda report,drawn up by a sub-committee, containinga detaileddescription of the systemand the recommendationthat at least one woman should be put on every advisory committee.
Evenin placeswhere there was a womanon the advisorycommittee there was no guaranteeof success.Miss Ker in Gloucestershiregathered suitable names from her fellow membersof the GloucesterWomen Magistrates Society (GWMS) yet there werestill six bencheswith no womanmagistrate in the countyin 1925and three in
1934. Miss Ker also had to try to fill vacanciescaused by death and in 1934 was
41The Vote, 16 January 1925 p. 20 & 21 August p. 268. 42According to Sir Hugh Bell, Lord Lieutenantof the North Riding of Yorkshire in The Times, 16 September1925, p. S. 41See below, p.84.
83 forcedto `beg' her fellow GWMS membersfor suitablenames to put forward, perhapsa suggestionthat they were not easy to come by. Yet Gloucestershirewas relatively well supplied with women JPs, not only becauseof this well organised societybut alsobecause of the supportof the Lord Lieutenant,who hadapparently 44 expresseda desire for there to be two women on each bench
As Barbara Wootton pointed out, appointment by Advisory Committee was effectively a systemof co-option in which existing magistratesappointed in their own 4S image: overwhelmingly male and upper or upper middle class Their tendencyto operateas an `old boy' network may be one of the reasonswhy women found it hard
to break in. Above all, selection for service on advisory committees in this period
seemsto have been overwhelmingly on the grounds of political allegiance,although
evidenceis scarcebecause of the secrecyof the system. Three women, one from
eachpolitical party, were appointed to the London Advisory Committee as early as
1920.46 Margaret Wynne Nevinson was chosenspecifically to representLiberal
women while Marion Phillips representedLabour and Lady Midleton the
Conservatives.Although the PSMCmight urgethe appointmentof womenon `non-
party lines' this was a fundamentally unrealistic hope. The advisory committee
systemwas establishedafter the 1910 Royal Commission with party politics in mind;
as the 1948 Royal Commission commented `the attempt to carry out the 1910
recommendationshas resulted in advisorycommittees being overwhelmingly
47 political'
4' GCRO:6156/1 & 2, GWMSminute books 8 April 1924,30June 1925 &9 October1934. According to RobertsonScott Gloucestershire had 52 womenmagistrates in 1935while a neighbouringcounty had 12(The Times, 23 October1935, p. 15). 's BarbaraWootton, Crime and Penal Policy: Reflectionson Fifty Years' Experience,London, George Allen & Unwin, 1978,p. 71. 46LMA: LCC/LCTY/36, letter from Lord Crewe to the Lord Chancellor dated 23 November 1920. Selectionwas mainly political, with geographicconsiderations of secondaryimportance. 47The 1910 commissionhad proclaimed that `appointmentsinfluenced by considerationsof political opinion are highly detrimental to public interests' yet had recommendedthat `that the bench may
84 In a periodwhich witnessedan unprecedentedrealignment in the partypolitics of England and Wales it is perhapstherefore unsurprising that the claims of women did not take first place in the deliberations of advisory committee members. It is clear that therewas dissatisfaction also from political groupswho felt themselvesundcr- 48 represented,most obviously the Labour Party. However the political dimension in appointmentsmay have particularly discriminated againstwomen who had no party allegiance,including many women who servedas independentcouncillors or Poor
Law Guardiansand who might otherwise have been consideredwell qualified for the bench.
Even party women could be disadvantaged. Although female membershipof
political parties was at a very high level in the interwar period it appearsthat women
wereorganised in separatesections lacking the powerof the main (male)party
machine. According to G. E. Maguire there were perhapsnearly a million
Conservativewomen in 1928in over four thousandwomen's branches, but their role
waslimited in crucialactivities such as candidateselection, despite their extensive
work in raisingfunds and in otherroutine duties. 9 Estimatesof the membershipof
labour PartyWomen's Sections vary from nearly 100,000in 1922to 300,000in 1927
but according to Pugh there was greaterpotential for friction between Labour women
andmen than Conservatives because of the policy demandsof the LabourWomen's
Conferenceon issuessuch as family planning. Edeconcludes that `by the endof the
1930sthe Labourwomen's movement had settled firmly into domesticity'.50 Pat
Thane arguesthat `Labour women could, however, make effective use of their
include men of all social classesand of all shadesof creedand political opinion (1948 Royal CommissionReport Cmd. 7463, pp.4-5). 4' For example,a report in The Times,2 June 1924,p. 11. 49G. E. Maguire, Conservative Women,Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1998,p. 78-80. For the role of women in the ConservativeParty, seealso David Jarvis, 'Behind Every Great Party', in Vickery (ed.) I1,omen, Privilege and Power, pp.289-314. S0Pugh, Womenand the Women'sMovement, p. 131 & 139.
85 numericalforce in local politics, especiallyperhaps in areaswith a strongtradition of 51 women's public activity'. Whether or not this view is accurateit is clear that women party memberswere plentiful but that they were far less likely then men to hold positionsof powerand responsibility such as that of councillor. They would thereforenot be the first to spring to the minds of advisory committee membersor to the party officials who lobbied them. It was often said that the letters `JI'' were
(wrongly) treatedas a reward for political service,52 and it appearsthat women just did not have experienceof the right kind. Too often they had been confined to the routine backroom tasks in the party organisationsthat failed to attract attention and honours.
The pervasivenessof politics also placed demandson women membersof advisorycommittees, facing them with the dilemmaof whetherto supportall women candidatesor only those of their party. Many of them clearly put party first, few would have beenas swift to condemn the appointmentof `party hacks' as Lady Astor wasin a speechto probationofficers in 1933:`children had to go beforemagistrates' sheclaimed `who might be qualified in oneway but thoroughlyunqualified in another'.53 LadyAstor wasunusually outspoken and not all her fellow Conservatives would have dismissedpolitical considerationsso readily; the EasternArea Women's
Unionist Committee expressedconcern in 1921 that too many Labour women had 54 beenappointed. MargaretLloyd Georgewas also concerned that too manyLabour magistrateshad been appointed in her areaand not enoughLiberals, although some of the namesshe suggestedin 1937 may have not been viewed favourably as the Lord
"Thane, `What Difference Did the Vote Make?' p.264. 32For example,by `A Barrister' in Justice in England, London, Gollancz (Let Book Club) 1938, p. 12. The anonymousauthor alleged that `as many as nine tenthsof the magistratesappointed have generallybeen persons active in local politics'. The Times, 17 May 1933,p. 9. PamelalZorn, Womenin the 1920s,Stroud, Allen Sutton, 1995,p. 140.
86 Chancellorwas by this time urgingthat committeesselect younger people under the 55 age of sixty.
Often party women seemedto have resolved their difficulties by emphasising the needfor more women magistratesof their own persuasionto be appointed. In
1928Labour Womanfeatured two examplesof juvenile'crimes', the accidental burning of some hay ricks in Somersetfor which two boys were birched and the theft of coal by a motherlessboy in Wales. The journal commentedthat:
It is in caseslike thesethat we must have the advice and guidanceof Labour women magistrates,people with an understandingof the home circumstancesof the little ones,and a desire to treat the citizens of tomorrow with sympatheticunderstanding and not vicious punishment.56
This quotation illustrates how easily political affiliation was conflated with social class. For the intensely partisan Labour Womanonly a socialist had the required sympathyfor juvenile court work even though a real `understandingof the home circumstances'may have been limited amongthe largelymiddle classLabour nomineesto the Bench. The acceptanceof political affiliation as shorthand for social classin the deliberationsof advisorycommittees was explicable in termsof contemporaryunderstanding of voting behaviourbut (asthe HowardLeague and its alliesrepeatedly pointed out) it wasnot sucha true indicatorof suitability for magisterialduties. However, Labour Womanmight have been correct in assuminga correlationbetween attitudes to youthful misdemeanoursand political philosophy.
Occasionallythere were claims that therewas a lack of suitablewomen to be mademagistrates, especially in rural areas" but this is hardto believein an erawhen political activismwas relativelypopular and largenumbers of womenwere involved in voluntarywork. It is possiblethat the demandsof childcare,and the perceptionthat
3sNational Library of Wales (NLW): MS 20470C/2905. M Labour Woman,I January 1928,p. 16. 57LMA: PSMC minutes, 15 March 1934.
87 womenwith small childrenshould devote themselves entirely to their off-spring, preventedsome younger women from coming forward. The Chairman of the Royal
Commission in 1947 cited the caseof a lady who `felt compelled to give up because of the competingclaims of her family, her childrenand her home' but the I Toward
Leaguerepresentative Mrs. Calvert replied that `the courts arc convenient, meeting at
10.30am. I have three children myself. One gets them off to school and then goes 58 off to court'. This would have been less of an impediment in the interwar period to middle class women who had accessto domestic help than it was from the 1940s onwardswhen servantswere harder to come by. However, such practical difficulties may well have preventedmore working class and younger women from coming forward, both groups being in particularly short supply. As Hannah Mitchell, who becamea magistratein later life, remarked on the question of suffrage activism, `no causecan be won betweendinner and tea and most of us who were married had to 59 work with one hand tied behind us'.
Apart from party politics, the main obstacle for those who wished to influence advisorycommittee decisions was the secrecyof the system.The identityof committeemembers was sometimes kept evenfrom membersof their own family:
`nobody likes to be the person known to have turned down some local worthy'. 0
This doesnot seemto haveprevented energetic organisations and individualsfrom submittingnames as the Lord Lieutenantof London'sfiles indicate. In onecase a lady submitteda full curriculumvitae on her own accountand was accepted.More commonlypolitical partiesput forwardcandidates, for examplethe I lomc Counties
Liberal Federationproposed a Mrs. Bigham recommendingher to Lord Crewe as:
5' Minutes of evidenceto the Royal Commissionon JPs, 24 January 1947, London, l lMSO, 1947. 99llannah Mitchell, The (lard Way Up, London, Virago, 1977,p. 130. 60Elizabeth Burney, Magistrate, Court and Community, London, Hutchinson, 1979, p.82.
88 A very advancedLiberal, most sympathetic with the poor, she runs a crecheetc., and is an able and sensible woman, just the sort who would be invaluable in a children's court, as she is the mother of a considerable family.
Otherrecommendations came from co-operativebodies such as the Women's
Co-operativeGuild and the Railway Women's Guild, from WCAs and from 61 influential individuals such as membersof parliament and existing JPs. In Yorkshire
Sir Hugh Bell complained that his committee had 257 namesfrom various sourcesto 62 considerin one annual meeting while his bencheswere already overstaffed. Perhaps the wish for anonymity was understandable,given that all those promoting the candidatesfelt they had a good claim. Yet there was considerableignorance among the wider public about the workings of the system (in some caseswould be magistratesapplied to the Home Office) and even some Labour party activists 63 regardedit as inaccessible
Ultimately it is likely that committeesfell backon the practiceof appointing candidatesof whom they had some personalknowledge as in this example cited by
ElizabethBurney in the 1970s:
A great friend of mine becamea magistrate in 1970 and about a year later at a party she was talking about it and I said `Ooh that must be interesting, I'm envious'. Jim F- (the deputy clerk of the court) was standing by and he must have heard me. He's got a very good memory. Quite a time after he `I hear interestedin the bench' At rang me and said you're ... about the sametime Judy (my friend) was on the phone about Girl Guide business and she said `Oh, by the way, I'm putting your name forward for the bench'... 64
Althoughthis form of co-optionwould haveworked to the advantageof well connected,middle classwomen by the 1970s,when women made up onethird of advisory committee members,it would not have done so in the 1920sor even the
61LMA: LCC/LCTY/86. 62The Times, 16 September1925, p. 8. 61The Times,2 June 1924,p. 11. " Burney,Magistrate, Court and Community, p. 79.
89 1930swhen women magistrateswere still a rare breed. In 1946 there were still eleven countycommittees, including four out of sevenin London,and an unknownnumber of borough committeesthat had no women membersat all. 65There was dissatisfaction in somequarters that too may of the womenappointed were from 'county' families who would have been better known to advisory committees membersthan other women. It appearsthat some committees did not look far to find women magistrates; the early appointmentsincluded some wives of Lords Lieutenant (although the
Marchionessof Bute apparentlyrefused nomination because she did not agreewith 66 women JPs). In a systemwhere only political or social connectionscould ensure appointment,the possessionof neither was a significant disadvantageand one that was more likely to affect women than men.
WOMEN MAGISTRATES FOR CHILDREN'S COURTS
As alreadymentioned, by 1934there was pressure from the 1come Office to find more women magistratesto take part in the new juvenile court rotas of justices.
Women'sorganisations had long claimedthat womenwere most suitable for work in children'scases and, as in the caseof Mrs. Bighamcited above,the possessionof a family was sometimesin itself regardedas sufficient qualification. Feminists, includingthose in the PSMC,were wary of any suggestionthat womenshould be confinedto juvenile work andthey undoubtedlyenvisaged a far wider role for women in the administrationof justice. Howeverthe 1932Children and Young PersonsAct could be usedas Trojan horseto get womenonto the Commissionof the Peaceand
°S PRO: 11045/21980,memorandum of evidencefrom the Lord Chancellor's Departmentto the Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,1946. " The Vote, 14 January 1921.
90 women's organisationsstrongly backed the policy. 67 As Mrs. Keynes wrote in some notesfor a speech:`now altho' there is little to be said for allocating to win. spec duties as magis. it is obvious that a casecan be made out for their presencein Juv.
Cts.' [sic].68 Althoughthis view, with its emphasison maternalattributes and supposedlyinnate genderedabilities, can be characterisedby historians in the context of the interwar period as `new' or `welfare' feminism, its expressionwas not confined to that faction nor did it representa retreat from pre war equalitarian positions, as an examinationof the essentially similar argumentsput in favour of women magistrates before 1918 demonstrates69
However, the emphasisof equalitarian feminists was placed less on women's suitability for juvenile work than on the common humanity of men and women as the commentsof FlorenceUnderwood, secretary of the WFL, in a letter to TheTines indicate:
Men areapparently considered useful in children'scourts; why should womennot be consideredequally useful in othercourts? Both men and included womenare amongoffenders; why shouldnot menand women - 70 who arenow equallytheir fellow citizens- sit in judgementon them?
Althoughthere was clearly a differencein toneand rhetoricbetween Mrs. Keynesand
Miss Underwood,there was lessdifference in practice.Both had the sameend in mind althoughthey would usedifferent strategiesto achieveit. For manywomen at thetime, andnot just mothers,the view that they werespecially qualified for juvenile courtwork representedcommon sense. Many mothersdid feel that their experience in bringing up children gave them a special insight and often women who had not
67For an examinationof the genderedarguments in favour of women's involvement in juvenile justice, secChapter Three. " F. A. Keynes,rough notesof an addressgiven to Ladies' Association connectedwith St Bartholomew'silospital entitled `Women on the Bench', 18 March 1937 (CambridgeshireCounty RecordOffice 789/Q6). 69See Chapter One. 70The Times,7 January 1935 p.6.
91 ý ýy marriedhad had contact with youngpeople through voluntccr work in girls' clubsand youthorganisations or in a professionalcapacity, for exampleas a teacher.It wasseif evident that they would feel an affinity with this work given that few other avenues hadbeen open to them,but that did not meanthat womenmagistrates restricted themselvesonly to work regardedas `appropriate' or that they were preparedto acceptexclusion from other duties. Supportersof women's citizenship used argumentsabout the suitability of women for juvenile work as a meansto an end, a way of ensuring that at least some women were appointed to every bench. As Mrs.
Keynessaid they were making a `case'. Their aspirationswere by no meanslimited, but they were realistic about the prospectsfor women at a time when opportunities for professionalinvolvement in the legal system were still circumscribed. The suggestion,which gainedincreasing currency in the 1930s,that thereshould always be a womanon the benchin domesticand maritalcases can be viewedin a similar 7' wvay,although there is evidencethat it wasalso inspiredby femininesolidarity.
Although the policy of insisting that women were present in children's cases ensuredthat therewould be a steadyflow of appointmentsof womenas J['s, it may have beencounterproductive and actually hindered the achievementof the feminist aim of equal numbersof men and women magistrates. In most areas,particularly rural onesaway from the largecities, the volumeofjuvcnile casesin the 1930swas relativelylow andthe appointmentof one or two womenwould be sufficientto cover the HomeOffice's requirements.Those who were lessthan enthusiastic about women magistrates,such as `a boroughmagistrate of twentyyears' standing' who opinedthat
'women are most helpful in the children's courts; their attendanceis not necessaryin
71See Chapter Six.
92 othercourts'72 no doubtwould haveresisted more than a tokennumber of appointments. Evidence from Kent indicates that in 1934 each petty sessional division had betweenone and three women magistratesregardless of the overall size of the bench and that women comprised 10% of all JPs acrossthe county. By 1950 the proportion of magistrateswho were women had risen to 20% over the county althoughthe actual number in each division ranged from two to seven(see Figures 3 and 4, pp. 100-101).
It seemslikely, therefore, that there was an unofficial quota of women magistratesin operation that ensuredthat Home Office requirementswere met but which stoppedshort of the feminist goal of equal citizenship. Mrs. Calvert, the
Howard League's representativewho gave evidenceto the Royal Commission in
1947,clearly held the view that advisorycommittees had limited the numberof women appointed:
I think they feel they have done their part if there is a certain proportion the has been traditionally low I do and numerical proportion ... not think that they think it is necessaryto have enoughwomen to be serving all the Benches. I think they had best would say ... that they to take the person, that that they take best regardlessof sex, and means normally the man ... we are only just emerging from the stageat which one put on a woman. You find they mention `the' woman councillor and not `a' woman councillor.
Mrs. Calvert's colleague,Miss Craven, added:
That has been the tendencysince 1920 when it first began. I laving got a woman, who was generally rather good and outstanding, they did not think of getting any more. I think in some places, especially in rural districts, you are still at that stage. 3
Thesepoints, which suggestthat women magistrateswere treated as the `token' or 44 `statutory woman, would be familiar to anyonewho has argued in favour of
n The Times,3 January,p. 8. " Minutes of Evidenceto Royal Commissionon JPs, 8'hday (24 January 1947), London, u MSO 1947. 74 This term is usedby Mary Stocks in her memoir M!y CommonplaceBook, London, Peter Davies, 1970,Chapter 12.
93 increasingthe participationof womenin public life. An exchangebctwccn the
HowardLeague representatives and the commissionmember Lord Cadoganpoints to the internal tensionsin their argumentsand the problem in advocating what is now knownas `positivediscrimination'. Cadoganasked if they wishedto reserveplaces for women on the Commission of the Peace. lie argued:
Any suggestionof that kind would cut acrosstwo principles (1) that the be irrespective best person should appointed ... of religion, sex, age or anything else and (2) the equality of the sexesbecause you are granting ... " women a privilege which men have not got?
Women's organisationsand their allies in the penal reform groups and the
Magistrates' Association argued consistently and energetically throughout the interwar period and the 1940sthat more women should be made magistrates. I have duty contendedthat they did so both becauseservice as a JP was a symbolic of citizenship to which they believed women were entitled to equal access,and because they felt that womenhad a specialcontribution to makein the administrationof justice. Althoughthese viewpoints may seemdistinct, in practicethey combinedand therewas little evidencein this particularcampaign of the boundarybetween 76 citizenshipand feminismdetected by Beaumont.
The NCW's magistrates' committee was a casein point. They realised that womencould taketheir part in the `modernisation'of the magistracyand were preparedto work with governmentofficials andpresent evidence to enquiriesthat bothsupported new initiatives(such as juvenile andmatrimonial courts) and ensure that womenwould be secureda role within them. If this meantstressing women's
`innate' qualities or suggestingthat they were particularly well qualified to handle particularwork thenthese points would be put, after all they were patentlyobvious to
75Minutes of Evidenceto Royal Commissionon JPs, 8`hday (24 January 1947), London, IUMSO 1947. 76Beaumont, `Citizens not Feminists'.
94 womenat the time. But this stancedid not entail an abandonmentof feminist principle or even an accommodationto a hostile, anti-feminist environment as has 77 beensuggested. lt was a strategy in a long-term campaign; gender roles were not goingto be radicallyaltered over night and activistshad to be preparedfor the long haul. Recordedpronouncements of leading PSMC memberssuch as Florence Keynes and Amelia Scott (the committee's first secretary)make clear their commitment to women's role in all aspectsof a magistrate's work and there is no evidenceto suggest other membersof the organisation felt very differently, although the NCW was undoubtedlya broad church in the women's movement and contained many shadesof opinion due to its federal structure. However, an emphasison the assumed`special talents' of women was useful ammunition against anti-feminists and could be used to obtaina vital footholdin thejustice system,although these arguments could be counter-productive.This did not makethe PSMC`new feminists' so muchas pragmatists,but their ability to work as an `insider' group probably made them more effectivein the long run thanthe WFL with its ritual annualresolutions.
The extentof successin the nationalcampaign for morewomen magistrates canbe gaugedfrom Figure2 andthe datafor one CountyCommission, Kent, is set out in Figures 3 and 4.78 The data in Figures 3 and 4 indicate that in Kent the proportionof magistrateswho werewomen doubled between 1934 and 1950,while the county'sregister of JPsindicates that therewere two separateperiods of growth, onein the mid 1930safter the passageof the Childrenand Young Person'sAct and anotherin the 1940s.Nationally the rise over that periodwas apparently more modest, from just over three thousandto more than 3,700. Growth in the numbers of r For exampleKingsley Kent arguesthat organisedfeminism was constrainedin the post was era by a `backlash'against equality for women. Making Peace,p11S. "Sec pages99-101. The figures are for the County Commissionof the Peaceonly and represent largely rural communities.
95 womenmagistrates was patchy because decisions were taken locally, the Lord
Chancelloronly appointedthose who had beenrecommended to him. As we have seensome petty sessionaldivisions were still without even a single woman magistrate in the late 1930s.Success depended partly on local activism,partly on whether womenhad been placed on the advisorycommittees, and partly on factorslargely outside the control of women's organisations,such as party political considerations.
Magistrateshad a tendencyto appoint in their own image and the advisory committee systemwas saturatedwith politics at a time when women played a rather detached and genderedrole in the political parties and still shoulderedthe bulk of domestic responsibilities.
However, it is not credible to assumethat the problem lay with the supply of suitable candidates,except perhapswhere younger and working class women were concerned.There were evidently large numbers of suitablewomen who could have playeda usefulrole in the administrationof justice but did not havethe opportunity, within a decadeof the RoyalCommission the proportionof magistrateswho were womenhad risen to aboutone third. The problemlay morewith the demandfrom localcommittees and the over supplyof what they regardedas suitable male candidates.I haveargued that, while the strategyof pressingthe governmentto insist on women'sinvolvement in certainbranches of a magistrate'swork may have ensuredthe appointmentof at leastsome women in mostparts of the countryby 1939, it wasprobably counterproductive in encouraginga `statutorywoman' attitude.
Nevertheless,there was gradualgrowth in the numberof womenii's, which standsin contrast to the extremely slow progressmade by women in the legal profession,parliament and the judiciary in the sameperiod. It is notoriously difficult to provebeyond doubt the effectivenessof a particularpressure group campaign, but
96 feministsin the 1940smust have had some satisfaction that the proportionof Jf's who 79 were women was approachingone quarter. The fact that it still fell short of the targetof 50% would have been a causefor concern, but this result had been achieved
`within the profoundlyinhospitable political cultureto which they [women]had been reluctantlyadmitted'. 80 In sucha context,the resortof feministcampaigners to argumentsbased upon women's supposedspecial abilities was not evidenceof a retreatto conventional femininity and domesticity, or even of the salienceof `new feminism'. It was merely a useful strategy that produced- up to a point - results.
Reportof the Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,1948, Cmd. 7463, p.6.3 700 women replied to the Commission'ssurvey and 13 100 men, representing87% ofjusticcs. If women respondedmore readily than men, the proportion of women will be lower than that stated. '°Thane, 'What Difference Did the Vote Make?' p.288.
97 Figurc 2
WOMEN MAGISTRATES APPOINTED
YEAR ENGLAND & SCOTLAND TOTAL WALES 1923 886 1925 1293 1926 1440 237 1677 1928 1892 1929 1775 288 2063 1932 1966 1935 3066* 1947 3700 1962 4100 1983 10328
Sources:Parliamentary Questions (1923,1928,1935); NCW Survey (1926,1929); TheMagistrate (1925,1932); Skyrme (1947,1983); Eddy (1962). *Reportednumber of appointmentsto date,not all werestill alivel
98 Figure 3
COUNTY MAGISTRATES IN KENT 1934.5 (EXCLUDING PENGE)
BENCH WOMEN MEN TOTAL %WOMEN
ASHFORD 3 23 26 11.5 BEARSTED 3 19 22 13.6 BROMLEY 3 26 29 10.3 CRANBROOK 1 14 15 6.6 DARTFORD 3 26 29 10.3 ELHAM 3 14 17 17.6 FAVERSHAM 3 17 20 15 MALLING 1 29 30 3.3 N. AYLESFORD 3 30 33 9 RAMSGATE 1 11 12 8.3 ST. AUGUSTINE 3 29 32 9.3 SEVENOAKS 2 20 22 9 SITTINGBOURNE 3 24 27 11.1 TONBRIDGE 2 29 31 6.4 T. WELLS 2 13 15 13.3 WINGHAM 2 29 31 6.4
TOTAL 38 353 391 9.7
Source:Kent Year Book 1934-5, Maidstone, Kent Messenger,1934.
99 Figure 4
COUNTY MAGISTRATES IN KENT 1950 (EXCLUDING PENGEI
BENCH WOMEN MEN TOTAL %WOMEN
ASHFORD 3 14 17 17.6 BEARSTED 3 13 16 18.75 BROMLEY 5 20 25 20 CRANBROOK 2 12 14 14.2 DARTFORD 7 34 41 17 ELHAM 2 5 7 28.5 FAVERSHAM 2 8 10 20 MALLING 2 13 15 13.3 N. AYLESFORD 6 18 24 25 RAMSGATE 2 5 7 28.5 ST. AUGUSTINE 5 14 19 26.3 SEVENOAKS 3 15 18 16.6 SITTINGBOURNE 7 21 28 25 TONBRIDGE 2 14 16 12.5 T. WELLS 2 8 10 20 WINGHAM 4 14 18 22.2
TOTAL 57 228 285 20
Source:Kent County Yearbook1950, Maidstone, Kent Messenger,1950.
100 CHAPTER THREE
'A SUITABLE PERSON FOR SUITABLE CASES': ' WOMEN
MAGISTRATES AND TIIE INTRODUCTION OF JUVENILE COURTS
Whenever interestedparties discussedthe need for women to be appointed as magistratesit was almost invariably assumedthat women would be particularly adept at dealing with children who were brought before the courts. Supportersof the appointmentof women to the magistracy frequently argued that they were particularly well suited to appearingon the Bench in casesinvolving young people. Arthur
Henderson,a member of the 1910 Royal Commission of Justicesof the Peace,first raisedthe need for women magistratesat an official level when he askedwitnesses whethera womancould be `a suitableperson to sit on suitablecases'. Neither
Hendersonnor his witnessesdefined what they regardedas a `suitable' case,but it is highly likely that they hadin mind thosematters dealt with by the specialjuvenile courtsrecently established under the 1908Children Act. Lord I lalsbury'sreply that
JPswere not appointedmerely to adjudicatein 'certaincases' but acrossthe board, appearedto closethe matterdespite Iienderson's insistence that specialisationdid happenin practice.
The apparentlyrising tide of juvenile crime during the First World War providedfurther impetus to the argument.By 1919participants at an NCW conferencewho discussedthe positionof womenin the law at a public meeting,were, accordingto the TimesEducational Supplement, mindful of the needto `considerthe
Seenote below. 2 Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Pcacc, 1910; Minutes of Evidence(9 March 1910) paragraphs 1013-1015,1196-1200. rar-.. delinquentboy andgirl' who needed`something more of maternalinfluence in penaltyand protection' (my emphasis)3
Throughout the period covered by this study, and beyond, the special contributionthat womencould maketo juvenile courts(and generally to matters concerningchildren) continued to be the principal justification for their appointment as magistrates. Many women magistratesmade juvenile work the main focus of their activity asjustices and derived great satisfaction from it. They assiduouslyattended lectureson methodsfor dealing with young offenders, visited institutions and read books on child psychology. This chapter will concentrateon the legislative and administrative processby which women were brought into the recently established juvenile courts in London and the rest of England and Wales and guaranteeda role in their administration.Contemporary views on gendercharacteristics, which were employed to support and opposethe involvement of women in this work, will be critically examined,and it will be arguedthat womenmade a significantcontribution to the developmentof thejuvenile courtsboth beforeand alter they wereentitled to vote in parliamentaryelections or sit as magistrates.
WOMEN'S SUITABILITY FOR JUVENILE WORK
Women'sorganisations, campaigning for the appointmentof women magistrates,were naturally tempted to arguethat womenwere especially needed for thejuvenile courts. They seizedupon official adviceand circulars (which they had themselvesoften prompted)that recommendedthe presenceof a womanin juvenile 4 courtswherever practicable. However,they wereequally concerned that women shouldplay a role on the benchand in thejury in caseswhere women and children
TimesEducational Supplementn. d. (1919). Cutting in Gertrude Tuckwell papers,TUC library. For example,the report of the DepartmentalCommittee on the Treatmentof Young Offenders (1927) Cmd. 2831.
102 were the victims of male violence and in indecencycases. They also took the view that equal citizenship implied that there should be no practical difference betweenthe role of a woman and a man on the bench. They were fully aware that the argument that womenwere most suited to dealingwith childrenwas a double- edgedsword, onethat could be usedto restrictthem to juvenile work. In the view of Miss Bertha
Mason of the NCW, the PSMC should `carefully watch that (women) wert not only 5 appointedto children's courts'. The PSMC SecretaryMiss Amelia Scott was aware that the argument for the use of women magistratesin children's courts was
`unassailable'but that it could backfire.
Nevertheless,no doubt attracted by its `unassailable'nature, feminists continued to make full use of the argument in the campaign for women JPs,
particularlywhen making their caseoutside the feministpress.? Interestingly,both
feministsand their opponentsresorted to stereotypicalgeneralisations about gender.
Writing in Reynold'sNews under the predictableheading of `Portiaon the Bench:A
Pleafor WomenMagistrates' Miss Underwoodof the WFL statedthat `womenare
to dealing delinquenciesthan muchmore used with children's men ... why, then have in deciding is be done shouldnot a woman equalpower with a man ... what to " with the young people who are brought into children's courts? Miss Underwood's
characteristicemphasis on equalityunderlines the fact that shewas not a `new'
feminist,yet her wordssuggest that evenunmarried, childless women had accepted
and internalisedconventional genderedviews about the suitability of women for juvenile work. However, it is entirely possible that she was merely utilizing a
debatingpoint that she knew would resonatewith readers.
s LMA: PSMC minute book, 12 May 1920. 6 NCIV OccasionalPaper, no. 91, July 1920. Sec also NCW PSMC minute book, 12 May 1920. 7 SeeChapter Two. 'Portia on the Bench: A Plea for Women Magistrates' Reynold's News, 16 June 1919.
103 The sentimentsof anotherspinster (one more associated with the so-called
`new' or `welfare' feminism)9 reiteratethe point. Interviewedin 1926,after some yearson the bench,Miss GertrudeTuckwell spokeof women'srole on the children's courts,`if anywork canjustly be calledwomen's work that surelyis'. I lowever,
Miss Tuckwell too did not favourthe restrictionof womento juvenile work alone.
11crnext words further demonstratethe unanimity among women on this matter: `I am glad to say that the suggestionto limit us to caseswhere only women and children are involved has been dropped almost everywhere."0
Male supportersof women magistratespredictably made similar points, although perhapswith greater stresson a woman's innate, `natural' ability to understandand empathisewith a child, rather than merely the greater experiencethat womenhad with youngpeople. In the CommonsLieutenant Colonel Frcemantle claimedthat `women,married or unmarried,have instinctively a feelingwith the child'' and the pro-feminist Metropolitan magistrateCecil Chapmanused similar wordswhen he saidthat by naturewomen had a `fuller, moreinstinctive
12The linkage understandingof childhoodmisdemeanours ... thanmen'. of women andchildren was assumed to be naturaland the role of the womanmagistrate in the juvenile court was perceived as a specifically maternal, caring one. Carol Smart has arguedthat in the late nineteenth century motherhood was the subject of a
9 According to Law, Tuckwell's denial in an interview in 1926 that she was a feminist indicated that she 'was refusing to place herself within the equalitarian feminist camp. I lowever, her work for womenand political allegiancemight be consideredby othersto identify her with the communitarian socialist mode of feminism'. Suffrage and Power, p.4. 10`Women iPs: Miss GertrudeTuckwell talks of women's influence on the Magistrates' Bench' Daily Chronicle, 14 April 1926. 11house of CommonsDebates, 1 November 1920,column 153. 12`Women on the Bench; Views of London Magistrate' Daily Express,21 December 1918.
104 in redefinition, increasingly confined to a caring model, enshrined statutesconcerning 13 abortion and infanticide. be Yet a woman magistratedid not actually have to be a mother to an expert on children, simply to be a woman was enough. Both feminists and anti-feminists
subscribedto this view; Lord Birkenhead, who was no lover of the women's bring into movement,yet was chargedwith introducing legislation to women the work
of London's juvenile courts, spoke fulsomely of ladies' `sympathy,experience ... 14 Jane Lewis has maternalinstincts' and generalsuitability for juvenile work. As
pointed out `Darwinistic Victorian scienceproposed that psychological and cultural
differencesbetween men and women - such as women's stcrcotypically greater 's These tenderness,generosity and intuition - derived from female biology'. and
similar qualities, which it was hoped women would bring to the children's court as a
corrective to masculineharshness and logic, were supposedlyinnate in all women,
regardlessof whether they were actually mothers. It was nature (or `instinct') that 16 counted,rather than the practical experienceof raising a family.
Discussionof the role of womenin juvenile justice throughoutthe first half of
the twentiethcentury illustrates the powerand pervasiveness of genderstereotypes.
Both supportersand opponentsof women magistrateshad recourseto arguments
basedon genderedconcepts that associatedbiology with psychology. People opposed
to the generaldrift of policy on juvenile justice in the interwar period feared that
women would display' sloppy sentimentality' where children were concernedinstead
of applying justice in an impartial and disinterestedmanner. Supportersdenied this.
13Carol Smart, 'Disruptive bodies and unruly sex: the regulation of reproduction and sexuality in the nineteenthcentury' in Smart (cd.) Regulating Womanhood. Houseof Lords Debates, 15 June 1920, column 594. JaneLewis (cd.) Labour and Love: Women'sExperience of llome and Family 1850-1940,Oxford, Blackwell, 1986,p. 6. 16however, single women could also demonstraterelevant experience,for example through social work or teaching,careers which were themselvesdetermined by assumptionsabout biology.
105 With the experienceof over two decadesof womenon the benchthe former permanentsecretary to the Lord Chancellor, Sir Claud Schuster,argued in 1947 that
`less I bench dealing women were sentimental ... whereas think a male with a woman is almostalways "sloppy"'. The Royal Commissionchairman, Lord du Parq,replied that a `motherly looking' woman was required in casesinvolving small children and
Schusteragreed. '? By the 1930santi-feminists were adding pseudo-Freudiantheories to their armoury as demonstratedby the following objection to the possibility of women chairmen presiding in juvenile courts:
Juvenile courts shouldn't violate the idea of man as the head of the household boy, for instance, bewildering ... a with the experiencesof adolescencepressing on him; fretting against maternal control or compulsion, is not going to be handled as he should by a court composed entirely of women, or of a court presided over by a woman. That is all too reminiscent of what he terms `mother's nagging'. He is already feeling that swaggeringsuperiority of sex which indicates any adolescentboy, and which is particularly marked in the working class boy from the day he leavesschool at 14. He feels himself of importance; he feels he is entitled to be talked to `man to What Her is man' ... of the girl? case as pronouncedas that of the boy. Her thoughts are becoming more and more centred on the other sex; she shows exaggeratedconfidence in any male in authority over her and an equally exaggeratedresentment of the woman in In domestic `Master's' far authority ... service word carries more weight than that of the mistress.18
This anonymousopponent of womenmagistrates managed to mix a headybrew of genderand class stereotypesand psychological platitudes, all in a patriarchal context.
IHowever these strictures failed to preventthe adventof womenchairmen in juvenile courts,although official policy continuedto favour nixed benches.
'7 Minutes of Evidenceto Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,7 March 1947,paragraphs 3567-8. '' PRO: LCO2/1955. 'A commenton the resolution sent from the Council of Magistrates' by Or-NIL' n.d. (c. 1935).
106 It, \I I)INI S. ( \I)MI14. rvrv
f. II h! k 'worrr, I /fit rr; Ph r! Figure 5: Photograph o1' Mrs. Geraldine Cadbury, 19 19 107 WOMEN AND TIIE DEVELOPMENT OE JUVENILE COURTS This sectionwill outlinethe backgroundto the developmentof separate juvenile courts in England and Wales. It will argue that certain women were influentialin their creationeven at a time whenwomen lacked the formal political clout of the parliamentaryvote or a place on the magistrates' bench, indeed, at a time when women were still largely excluded from the legal systemas a whole. The gradual developmentof specialist treatment of child offenders and increasingattention to the welfare of young people were projects in which individual women, their organisations,and later women magistrates,played an important role. The involvement of individual women in matters of penal reform and juvenile delinquencycan be traced back at least to Elizabeth Fry and Mary Carpenterbut concernover crime committedby juveniles appearsto havebeen increasing towards the end of the nineteenthcentury. John Gillis suggeststhat moral panics about juvenile delinquencywere a recurringphenomenon since at leastthe sixteenth century,but that betweenthe 1880sand the 1900syouthful transgressionswhich previouslymight havebeen dealt with informally werebecoming the subjectof prosecutions,making the anticipatedrise in juvenile crime a self-fulfilling prophesy. Writing about Oxford, he specifically points the linger at the `upper middle class ladiesfrom North Oxford in ... conspicuous the ranksof the NSPCCand Vigilance Association'who `consideredit their duty to act in the nameof children'.19 The issuewas the causeof muchdeeper concern than Gillis suggests.New conceptsof childhoodand adolescence were emerging in responseto the pressuresof industrialisation and urban living in general. In particular, the growth of compulsory schoolingtowards the end of the nineteenthcentury and the concomitantdiminution "John Gillis `The evolution of juvenile delinquency in England, 1890-1914', Past and Present, no. 67 (May 1975). 108 of child labourmeant that youngpeople were increasingly separated from older generationsfor significant periods of time and were thus perceived as a distinct group with their own needsand problems. In the early twentieth century a growing interest in psychologycontributed further to the definition of adolescenceas a potentially problematic life stage20 Like women, adolescentswere assumedto be ruled by biology, in their casethe repercussionsof puberty. The notion gained ground that juvenile misdemeanoursrequired specialist treatment from experiencedindividuals - such as youth leaders,probation officers, teachersor magistrates- many of whom were women. The demandfor separatetreatment of juveniles in the judicial systembecame increasinglyinsistent towards the end of the nineteenthcentury. As adolescence becameconstructed as a distinct andproblematic life stage,a time of `stormand stress'as well asone in which impressionswere made and the habitsof a lifetime formed,so it becameregarded as inappropriatefor childrenand young people to be tried in the samecourts as adults or incarceratedin adult prisonswhere they might becomesusceptible to contaminatinginfluences. While the wholesomeinfluence of the adultswho led the burgeoningyouth movementsof the time wasto be 21 encouraged, stepswere taken to remove children from associationwith unacceptable,criminal role models. Althoughpast centuries offered isolated examples of the separate 22 treatmentof children in the criminal justice system, suggestingthat the concept was 20According to John Springhall, the modem conceptof adolescencewas `createdalmost single- handedly' by the American psychologist, Stanley Nall (1844-1924). Springhall claims he put popular ideasabout adolescenceinto a `framework of post Darwinian biology'. Coming ofAge: Adolescencein Britain, 1860-1960,Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 1986,pp 28-9. 21Youth movementswere establishedpartly in order to divert youthful energiesaway from harmful activities; seeJohn Springhall, Youth Empire And Society 1883-1940,London, Croom 1ielm, 1977. 22`Even the Middle Ages showeda desire to discriminate betweenthe adult criminal and the young delinquent', accordingto the report of the DepartmentalCommittee on the Treatmentof Young 109 not entirely new, in 1844 over eleven thousandyoung people betweenthe agesof ten 23 and twenty were in prison, amounting to one person out of 304 in that age group Children as young as eight or nine were sentencedto transportation in the early nineteenthcentury and as late as 1831boys no older thanfifteen werehanged in Essexand Kent for arson, theft and murder. The age of criminal responsibility was 24 sevenand there was no special provision for the treatment of children in court. The work of nineteenthcentury philanthropists and reformers was to change this, work in which women such as Elizabeth Fry and Mary Carpenterplayed an important part, even though women had no formal role in the judicial or penal systems. Firstly, reformers aimed to remove children from possible contamination by adult criminals in prisons or even in their own homes. For example, Mary Carpenter was a pioneer in the establishmentof reformatories in England in the 1840s establishingone at Kingswoodnear Bristol. Sheworked hard to gain supportfor her methodsalong with allies suchas Matthew Davenport lui1125 and in 1854the ReformatorySchools Act gavethe courtspower to sendyoung offenders to these institutions. Mary Carpenter'swork waswell known to middle classwomen in early twentiethcentury Britain andwas described in somedetail by GeraldineCadbury in her book, Young Offenders Yesterdayand Today. In the United Statesthe `child savers'such as Jane Addams and Louise Dekoven Bowen also intervened to remove endangeredchildren from what they regardedas degradinghome surroundingsand pressedfor the introduction of separate Offenders(1927), p.7. Seealso Geraldine Cadbury, YoungOffenders Yesterdayand Today, London, Allen & Unwin, 1938. 2' Reportof the DepartmentalCommittee on the Treatmentof YoungOffenders, Cmd. 2831,1927, pp. 7.8. 21Skyrme, History of the Justices of the Peace, Volume2, pp. 197-180:Kent Messenger23 April 1999, 44. I fill was also an early proponentof probation and a supporterof married women's property law reform. 110 juvenile courts. British penalreformers were generally well informedabout developmentsin the USA and someeven visited Chicagoto seeAddams' work at first hand. In the 1960sAnthony M. Platt characterisedthe `child savers' as 'bored at homeand unhappy with their participationin the "real world" ' who turnedto this 26 form of work in order to fill a void in their own lives. The participation of the child saversin public affairs was justified as an extensionof their housekeepingfunctions, so that they did not view for jobs themselves nor were they regardedby others - as competitors - 7 usually performed by men. Platt was right to draw attention to the way this work conformed to conventional expectationsof women's role but he appearsto have underestimatedits potential for eventually widening what was regardedas women's proper sphereand for drawing individualwomen into the realmsof public policy hithertodominated by men. It is not credible to ascribetheir motivation simply to boredom. Philanthropic women on bothsides of the Atlantic wereinspired by the knowledgethat their work wasneeded at a time whenthe stateplayed little part in socialmatters. Boredom alone would not havesustained them through the often exactingand time-consuming duties to which theywere devoted. Moreover,however dominant they were in classterms, these women belongedto the subordinatesex. In her study of lady `child savers' in ScotlandLinda Mahood arguesthat they had to fight for professional recognition, ' equalpay and the right to sit on decision-makingbodies. Their o%Nmexperiences may,therefore, have raised their consciousnessas women and as feministsin a similar way to their observation of problems such as the sexual abuseof girls. having removed many young offenders from the contamination of adult prisons,reformers then proceededto isolate them from associatingwith older 26AnthonyM. Platt The Child Savers,University of Chicago Press,1969, pp.77-8. Ibid. p. 79. Mahood,Policing Gender, Class and Family, pp.72-5. Ill criminalswhile in court. Onceagain, many of the new methodsof dealingwith young offenders were pioneeredin the United Stateswhere the problems of industrialisation and urbanisation were compoundedby mass immigration, resulting in a 700% increasein the urban population in the secondhalf of the nineteenth century. In 1870 Boston introduced separatehearings for juveniles and in 1877 New York preventedchildren under sixteen from being held in any prison or courtroom whereadults were held or tried, unless accompaniedby a responsibleperson at all times29 Of greatestsignificance was the establishmentof separatejuvenile courtsin Chicago, Illinois, at the end of the nineteenth century. Jane Addams' hull House (itself apparently inspired by the example of Britain's university settlements)supplied a volunteer probation officer to the court, which becamea showpiecefor visitors from othercountries. By 1917all but threestates in Americahad separate juvenile courts, which operatedon the principleof guardianshiprather than criminality. In some casesthese courts were presided over by womenjudges or referees,for exampleDr. Miriam Van Watersof Los Angeles,whose work becamevery well known to British 3° feministsin the 1920s. SeveralBritish penalreformers, feminists, social workers andsome of the earlywomen magistrates visited the United Statesto examinetheir systemsof juvenile justice, including Geraldine Cadbury and Margaret Wynne Nevinsonin the 1920s.Louisa Martindale visited the ChicagoJuvenile Court in 1900,twenty years before she was made a JP31 p P.C. & L. D. Kratcoski Juvenile Delinquency,4`h edition, New Jersey,Prentice I lall, 1996,p. 76. 3° Grace Roe, formerly of the WSPU, immigrated to California and ran a girls' club for Dr. Waters in the 1920s.She recalled her experiencein an interview with Brian I larrison recorded in the 1970s(tape held in the Women's Library). Geraldine Cadbury was amongseveral British visitors to the court after the First World War. Shegave a report to the PSMC on her return. (LMA: PSMC minute book 18 January1924. ) " Louisa Martindale visited the Chicago Juvenile Court with her mother and sister. They also met Jane Addamsand visited a RomanCatholic reformatory for two thousandchildren in New York. Louisa Martindale A WomanSurgeon, London, Gollancz, 1951, p. 95; Mary Drake McFccly Lady Inspectors: the Campaignfor a Better Workplace 1893-1921,Oxford, Blackwell, 1988, p.93. Margaret Wynne Nevinsontold her experiencesin Life's Fitful Fever, London, A. C. Black, 1926,Chapter XIX. 112 Backin Britain therewas increasing concern about the fateof schoolleavers - but especiallyboys - who, asthe apprenticeshipsystem weakened, had no alternative 32 to hang around the streetssearching for so-called `blind alley' jobs, thus bccoming vulnerableto the attractionsof pettycrime. Concernsreached a crescendoat the time of the South African War (1899-1902) when revelations about the poor health of army recruits drawn from the cities led to the establishmentof the Interdepartmental Committeeon Physical Deterioration. Amongthe committee'srecommendations was the specialselection of magistratesto handle casesinvolving young people. This proposal was supportedby the Wage Earning Children's Committee, a philanthropic and lobbying organisation that came into being around 1900, at a time when worries about national efficiency andthe organisationof the labourmarket were coming to the fore. The committee, whose secretarywas Miss Henrietta (Nettie) Adler, daughterof a former Chief Rabbi, organiseda conferenceof philanthropicsocieties and lobbiedcentral and local 3 governmentfor the establishmentof juvenile courts. In 1908the Women's IndustrialCouncil publishedMiss Adler's pamphletarguing for juvenile courtsand 34 greateruse of probation andwhen new probationrules were introducedin the same year she was consulted by the Home Office on the identity of suitable candidatesfor 5 children'sofficer in London. It is clearthat not only wasa well-connectedwoman ableto exertstrong influence over official policy but also that women'sorganisations, in this caseone allied to the labour movement, were already taking a strong interest in penalmatters, particularly in relationto children. 32Springhall, Coming ofAge, p 84. I3ochel,Probation and Aftercare, p. 20. ' Miss Adler, SeparateCourts of Justicefor Children & Probation and Probation Officers, London, Women's Industrial Council, 1908. Miss Adler later servedon the LCC and on London's Juvenile Court Panel.After her nomination on the Lord Chancellor's List (see Chapter Four). " ßochel Probation and Aftercare, p.40-1 Mrs. Humphrey Ward was also consulted. 113 By the time Miss Adler's pamphletwas published England's first juvenile courthad opened in Birminghamand the 1908Children Act, which providedfor their introduction nationally, was on the point of becoming law. Again, some future womenmagistrates played a vital role in this new development.Geraldine Cadbury andfellow QuakerMrs Priestmansat as observersin the new children'scourt and followed up the caseof every girl brought before the court. According to her biographer,Mrs. Cadbury did not approachthis work as an 'amateur' but set herself high standardsof personalcare of her `clients' and she and Mrs. Pricstman were apparentlymeticulous in their record keeping. They preparedreports to advise 36 magistratesand worked alongsidethe court's probation officers 37 In many ways Geraldine Cadbury was a typical `child saver' As wife of one of the directorsof Cadbury's,she was a wealthywoman with the time andresources to devoteto voluntarysocial work, but her motivationsprang from her deepreligious faith andQuaker roots rather than from a mereneed to relieveboredom. Shecould havedabbled in a greatmany causes yet shechose to devoteherself to the `delinquent'children of Birmingham,work which shewas to continuein the 1920s and 1930sas a Birminghammagistrate and chairman of thejuvenile court. I1er feminist consciousnesswas evident both in her promotion of women magistrates38and in the particularinterest she took in girls who camebefore her in court. For manyyears in Birminghamas a womanmagistrate and a memberof the AftercareCommittee, I havewritten at regularintervals to everygirl who hasbeen sent to an ApprovedSchool. Whenthe girl leaves,she feels 39 shehas a friend and gladly visits me ' JanetWhitney, Geraldine S. Cadbury 1865-1941,London, I larrap, 1948, pp. 72-86. 37Sec Figure 5, p. 107. 31Sec Chapter Six. Mrs. Cadbury had feminist antecedents.According to her biographer her mother was an open advocateof votes for women' and dressreform and one of the first women poor law guardiansin Birmingham. Whitney, Geraldine S. Cadbury, pp. 28,30-31. 9 GeraldineS. Cadbury, YoungOffenders Yesterday and Today, p.97. 114 Of course,Mrs. Cadburycould afford to takethis interestand hadsecretarial assistancewith her work. She adopted a professional approach,yet was so self- effacing that the above is the only passagein her book concerning her own work. The 1908 Children Act extendedthe Birmingham experiment throughout Englandand Wales. Childrenunder the ageof sixteenwere to be tried by magistrates sitting at different times or in different places from the ordinary courts, children under fourteencould not be sent to prison (nor those under sixteen except in certain circumstances)and offenders brought before juvenile courts were further protected by 0 the exclusion of the public from proceedings. In addition to sentencingthem to industrial schools,reformatories or corporal punishment, magistratesdealing with young people now had the option of placing offenders on probation or, in the caseof olderadolescents, sending them for Borstaltreatment. However, thus far therehad beenno attemptto speciallyselect magistrates for work in juvenile courts. As the exchangequoted at the beginningof this chapterfrom the 1910Royal Commission suggests,a magistratewas still regardedas a generalist,capable of performingall typesof work, not asa specialist.This view wasto changequite radicallyin the 1920safter the introductionof womento the magisterialbench, although it remained 41 the caseofficially in the period covered by this studY. While the role of the magistratewas usually seen as a judicial one,dispensing verdictsand punishment, the ethosof the newjuvenile courtswas centredon the need to get away from the overbearing formality of the police court and replace it with a domestic, homely atmosphere. Miss Adler wrote: 40Skyrme, History of the Justices of the Peace Volume2, p. 25S. 4' The systemhad changedby the mid-1970s, when JPs were appointed specifically for the Juvenile Panelin London (interview with Mrs. J. Pepper,Canterbury, March 2001). 115 The entire surroundingsof Police Courts render them unfit places for children. The more nervous boys and girls face the ordeal with sobs of 2 terror; the more hardenedoffenders consider themselvesyoung heroes. Separatechildren's courts, she argued, would reassurethe former group and disappointthe latter. Miss Adler also correctlypointed out that not all children brought to court and threatenedby its contamination were accusedof an offence; magistratesalso dealt with school attendancecases and applications for theatrical licences.43 Within the more homely, domestic court promoted by reformers the magistrate'srole wasperceived as quasi-parental,so what could be moreappropriate than having a `motherly' woman on the bench? Thus, by the time women were first appointed as JPs in 1920,juvenile delinquencyhad been defined and identified as a modem social problem and special, distinctivemethods and processes had been established to deal with it. Increasingly, delinquencyand youth crime were perceivedas social diseases,symptoms of squalid living conditionsand psychological ill healthrather than innate wickedness or inheritedweakness44. While women(mainly working classones) were, as Jane Lewis hasshown, regarded as culpable when their assumedneglect of their offspring was seenas the causeof the problemof delinquency,45 women (this time, middle class ones)were also part of the solution. Their apparently natural talents as carers, nurturersand nurses could be usedto goodeffect in providing the `treatment'that juvenile offendersrequired. Therefore,as probation became more common in the first decadesof the twentiethcentury, women were employed as probationofficers, 42Adler, SeparateCourts of Justice, p. 5. '3 Ibid. p.6. "There was still significant dissent from this liberal view, as suggestedby the widespread recommendationof the birch as punishmentin juvenile courts until 1920. After 1920there was a suddenand substantialdrop in the numberof birchings ordered. Seefigures in the Report of the DepartmentalCommittee on Corporal Punishment,Cmd. 5684,1938, p. 19. 'S JaneLewis `Anxieties about the family and the relationshipsbetween parents, children and the state in 20'" Century England' in Martin Richardsand Paul Light (eds.), Children of the Social World Oxford, Blackwell, 1986, p.38. 116 bothvoluntary and professional. They handledcases involving womenand children andworked for lower salariesthan their malecolleagues. Other women worked as volunteervisitors, educatorsand youth leaders,attempting to prevent delinquency and theconditions it flourishedin, ratherthan producinga cure. Many of the early women magistrateshad experience in thesefields and,in a few cases,notably Miss Adler and Mrs. Cadbury, had already exerted some influence over developmentsnationally or locally. LEGISLATION FOR LONDON The relative easewith which the legislation to permit women magistrateswas passedin 1919 is in contrast with the much more contentious passageof the Juvenile Courts(Metropolis) Act in the following year. This legislation,necessary in order for women to play a part in the juvenile justice systemin London, specified that the capital'schildren's courts should consist of onestipendiary (police) magistrateand twojustices of the peacechosen from a panelnominated by the I comeSecretary, one of whomwould be a woman. The police magistratewould preside,having himself beenspecially selectedby the Home Secretary,with regard to his ` previous for dealing juvenile experienceand ... special qualifications with the casesof offenders'. Thereforeit introduceda new principle:that juvenile court magistrates (bothlay justices and stipendiaries)should be speciallyselected. The Act also providedthat juvenile courtswould in futurebe held in buildingsother than those 46 currentlyin useas police courts. London women were not able to take part in the work of juvenile courts since underthe MetropolitanPolice Court Act 1839stipendiary magistrates handled almost 46Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Act, 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5.) p. 1-2. 117 47 all criminal casesin the capital, leaving only administrative work to the lay justiccs. When separatejuvenile hearingsbegan after the 1908 Children's Act the police magistratesnaturally presided. No woman was likely to becomea stipendiary magistratein the shortterm, asthe qualificationwas to be a barristerof at leastseven yearsstanding, and no woman was called to the Bar until 1921. In fact, the first woman stipendiary magistrate,Sybil Campbell, was only appointed in 1945 and in the 8 late 1960sonly two out of the forty-five stipendiarieswere women. Therefore special legislation was required in 1920 to permit women in London to take up the work for which they were seenas best qualified, but in order for this to be accomplishedthe interestsof the metropolitan magistrateswould be affected, making someopposition inevitable. During the First World War concernabout juvenile delinquency,already apparentin Edwardian England, was heightenedby statistics showing a rise in the numberof offencescommitted by youngpeople. In 191337,520 juveniles hadbeen chargedwith an offence,rising to 51,323in 1917. Althoughthe figure had fallen backto just over thirty thousandby 192349and may be attributableto a greater willingnesson the part of police to chargeoffenders in war time, the rise was neverthelessa causeof official and unofficial concern. The U. S. Department of Labor in 1918reported an increasein juvenile crime throughoutthe combatantcountries in Europe,attributing the rise in Britain's caseto the absenceof fathersat the front and mothersin the factory,the overcrowdingof schoolsas somebuildings were made into hospitalsand `a deteriorationin behaviorand morality amongyoung peopic'. These commentswere basedupon the views of Cecil Leeson,a Birmingham probation 4' Skyrme,Ilistory of the Justices of the Peace Volume2, p 149. 41PRO: LCO2/897066; Women's Library: Women's Citizens' Association recruitment Icatlct n.d (C. 1968). 49The Times,27 April 1923,p. 9. 118 officer who wassecretary of the HowardAssociation. In TheChild cwdthe IVurhe hadclaimed that the official statisticsactually understated the gravity of the situation. Leeson'ssolutions to the problem of delinquency included preventive measures,such as organisedrecreational activities for children, and the more extensive use of probationfor thosewho did offend.50 Concern about the apparentrise in juvenile crime during the war was clearly one of the main inspirations behind the Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Bill. The proposalswere backedby women's organisations,particularly the NCW, the NUSEC and the Women's Local Government Society, some of whose memberswere appointedas JPs in 1920. The lone woman MP at this time, lady Astor, spoke in its favour in the House of Commons,claiming that `all organisedwomen's associations' 5' backedthe measure. The other main sourceof support was the penal reform groups,the HowardAssociation and the PenalReform League led by Cecil Leeson andMargery Fry respectively.In addition,groups interested in the welfareof children,particularly the StateChildren's Association, 52 the NSPCCand the Wage EarningChildren's Committee, also played a part in lobbyingfor the bill. 53 This overlapping network of organisationswas to prove crucial in securing the changesto London's juvenile courts and provided one of the earliest examplesof the closeco-operation between feminists and penalreformers, which wasto havean importantinfluence on the work of the earlywomen magistrates. Key figuresincluded 30Juvenile Delinquency in Certain Countries at IVar, Washington,U. S. Departmentof Labor, 1918, V-11. llansard, 1 November 1920,columns 148-9. Sir Frederick Danbury retorted `that is a very good reasonfor voting againstit'. 52 Like the Wage Earning Children's Committee, this organisationhad lobbied for juvenile courts and the use of probation before the First World War. " PRO LC02/463. According to its letterhead,the StateChildren's Association was opposedto rearing children in workhouses,barrack schoolsand grouped cottagehomes. It favoured boarding out, scatteredhomes and `FOR CERTAIN CHILDREN EMIGRATION, TRAINING SI IIPS, TRADE TRAINING SCHOOLS'. It also promoted separatecourts of justice for children and the use of probation. Membersincluded Ilenrietta Barnett, Lord Lytton, Lord Crewe, Mrs. GeorgeCadbury and Lady FrancesBalfour. 119 Cecil Leeson,Margery Fry, Sir William Clarke hall, Miss Adler and Gertrude Tuckwell. Lceson's book, The Child and the War, had establishedhim as an authority on the treatmentof young offenders. In a subsequentpamphlet, The Magistrate and Child Offendershe again argued strongly againstthe use of birching and in favour of probation, comparing the high rates of recidivism where the former punishmentwas 54 applied to the low rates recordedwhere the latter was used. lie also advocatedthat women be placed on the bench in juvenile courts where the work required `a knowledge,not of law, but of children and family and social conditions' and that a rota of suitable magistratesbe establishedfor juvenile courts. Leesonsupported the view that juvenile hearingsshould be removed entirely from the police courts. In fact, heclaimed that ` the needis not for a "court" at all, in the acceptedsense of the word, but for a small room - in a local schoolor institute,for instance- wherethe magistrate 55 maysee the child'. Leeson'sideas were to havea significanteffect on policy towardsyoung offenders as it evolvedover the next decadeand their influencecan be detectedin the provisionsof the 1920Act. MargeryFry, a Quakerfrom a legalbackground (her fatherhad been a judge), metCecil Leesonin Birminghambefore the war andwas further promptedto concern aboutpenal matters by her aunt,Susan Pease, and by accountsof prisonconditions from Quakeracquaintances imprisoned as conscientiousobjectors during the war.56 In 1920she was secretaryof the Penal Reform League,the larger but poorer of the two penal reform groups. In the following year she arrangedits amalgamationwith the Howard Association, working closely with Leeson. A `powerful speakerand 34 Anon. (Cecil Leeson) The Magistrate and Child Offenders,London, Iloward Association,n. d. 1920? M6. Ibid., p. 10-11. 56 Enid IIuws Jones,Margery Fry: The EssentialAmateur, Oxford University Press,1966, p. 112. r, "- rý 120 provedadministrator' 37, Miss Fry wasto becomeone orthe first womenJPs in London, sworn in with an affirmation in the Quaker style on 28 Scptcmbcr 1920. Shewas placed on the rota of justices for juvenile courts in 192258and was a founder and leading figure in the Magistrates' Association. Sir William Clarke Hall was metropolitan magistrateat Old Street and an executivecommittee member of the Howard Association. The son of a clergyman, Clarke Hall had married the daughterof the NSPCC's founder the Reverend Benjamin Waugh. After standing unsuccessfullyas a Liberal in the19l O General Election he was appointed by the Home Secretaryas a metropolitan magistrate. According to his obituary he had `a strong senseof the social side of his duties' but his approachclearly did not go down well with his more conservativecolleagues. As The Timescommented `his views on the merits of the law tended perhapsunduly to obtrude themselvesin the form of observationsfrom the Bench, speechesand articles rathermore than is desirablein oneholding magisterialoffice'. 59Despite (or probablybecause of) this ClarkeHall seemsto havebeen very popularwith women magistratesand their organisationsevidenced by their presenceat his memorial scrvicein 1932. Like Leeson,Clarke Hall was an advocateof probation, which he applied extensivelyin his own court,especially to youngoffenders. In a memorandumto the Lord Chancellor'sdepartment (in which he also advocatedthe appointmentof women to juvenile courts) Clarke Hall claimed that, in twelve months since October 1918, 139juveniles had been placed on probation at Old Street police court, only eleven of whom had re-offended. The court employed two salaried Probation Officers assisted by no less than seventyvolunteers. In contrast, Clarke I lall criticised courts in the s' Ibid., p. 113. LMA: LCTY 69; 1luws Jones,The Essental Amateur, p. 118,122. s9The Times,29 October 1932,p. 12. 121 provincesfor what he judged as over-reliance upon the birch, given that the recidivist rate there was up to 80%. However, it is likely some of his targets were closer to home; it is clear that by no meansall of his metropolitan magistratecolleagues agreed with his methods. Significantly, the Chief Magistrate was moved to describe Clarke 60 I lall as `the favouriteof all the wild menand women'. The fifth key supporterof reform of London's juvenile courts was Gertrude Tuckwell 61 She had followed her aunt, Lady Dilke, in leadershipof the Women's Trade Union League,and evidently took a deep interest in the position of women in 2 the law and in juvenile justice and probation. She was also an expert lobbyist, adept at working behind the scenesand applying pressureto governmentat just the right points. She was London's first woman magistrate,taking the oath on 14 January 1920,and had been invited by Sir Robert Morant to be on the Lord Chancellor's Women's Advisory Committee, which was compiling a list of women suitable for appointmentas JPs in the early months of 1920.63Subsequently she was involved in the Magistrates'Association and was chairman of the National Associationof ProbationOfficers. In July 1920she organised a deputationof interestedparties to JuvenileCourts (Metropolis) Bill 64 the HomeOffice to supportthe . Preparationof the bill to reform London's juvenile courts beganalmost as soonas the SexDisqualification (Removal) Act becamelaw and the Lord Chancellor'sWomen's Advisory Committeehad beenset up to adviseon suitable candidatesto becomejustices. The permanentsecretary in the Lord Chancellor's 64 PRO: LCO2/463: memorandumfrom Clarke stall, 20/2120;letter from Diron (Bow Street) 31 July 1920.This description is reminiscentof similar terms usedfor women's suffrage supporters. 61For details of Miss Adler, seeabove, p. 113. 6211erpapers contain a selection of newspapercuttings about the admissionof women to the magistracyand legal profession. 6'' LMA: LCTY 69; unpublishedmemoir by Gertrude Tuckwell, (TUC Library)1 ter interest in the campaignto allow women into the legal professionand magistracyis evident from the newspaper cuttingsshe kept. `4 PRO: LCO2/463. 122 Department,Sir ClaudSchuster, who had beenpersonally chosen for thejob by Lord Haldanein 1915 and `gave continuity to the reforming efforts of ten successiveLord Chancellors',65 was to remain in post until 1944. According to I3irkcnhcad's biographer,John Campbell, Schuster `already formidable was ... a civil servant, agile 66 and diplomatic, an invaluable counsellor and guide'. Schusterappears to have had personalcommitment to reform: in July 1920 he wrote to Gertrude Tuckwcll, `I believe that they (women) really will improve the administration of the Children's Acts' 67 On 16 Februaryhe wrote to the Home Office in the more formal manner of the civil servant; `the Lord Chancellor is of the opinion that there is no class of case for justices be which the new women ... will more suitable than casesarising under the Children's Act' but that in London `where the supply of qualified women is likely to be most abundant'68this would not happenwithout a changein the law. The primary reasonfor the bill was clearly the needto make use of the perceived talents of womenJPs in London. The suggestionsfrom Leeson,Adler, ClarkeI lall andothers thatmagistrates should be speciallyselected for this work and that thejuvenile hearingsshould be held in placesother than police courtswere then appended. Once thegovernment's proposals were known, opposition started to mount. It is to the opposition and the passageof the bill that I now turn. The Home Office reply to Schuster'sproposal was less than enthusiastic, suggestingthat to takechildren's cases out of the handsof the professional,legally qualified, metropolitan magistratesmight be seenas a retrogradestep. Instead,the I lome Office suggestedthat women magistratescould sit as assessors,advising the 63Campbell,F. E. Smith: First Earl Birkenhead, p. 417. 6` Ibid. 17PRO: LCO2/463, letter to Gertrude Tuckwell from Claud Schuster26 July 1920. " Ibid., letter to the Home Office from Claud Schuster,16 February 1920. 123 policemagistrate. 69 This proposal,together with the suggestionthat juvenile casesbe transferredentirely to lay justices, was put to a meeting of the metropolitan magistrateson February25`h where opposition was evidently intense. While the metropolitanmagistrates were apparently in agreementconcerning the `suitability' of women for children's cases,they were extremely reluctant to relinquish, or even share,this work with untrained amateurs. Although a woman's point of view would be welcome, there should be no suggestionof them having equal power with the police magistrates. The `assessor'proposal received little more enthusiasm,as it was 7° unclearwhat role the woman JP would have in that case. It was already clear that this highly trained body of men would resist any incursion into their professional territory to their utmost ability. Meanwhile,Schuster rejected the assessorplan. Writing to the HomeOffice, heexpressed the view that womenwould not be satisfiedwith sucha proposaland that it would makeLondon an anomaly(which, of course,it alreadywas). The Lord Chancellor,he wrote, `fails to seewhy the competentstipendiary could not have sufficientinfluence over thosewho sit with him to control them in effect'. 71 Throughoutthe debateon the Bill the governmentremained opposed to the assessor plan72despite the fact that there was clearly some support for it in the I tome Office. Furtherdifficulties arosewhen the draft bill was published.Although the wordingwas vague, there was a suggestionthat theremight be as little asone central juvenile court,perhaps supported by threeor four othersin the outlying partsof the metropolitan area. Penal reformers, impressedby the model of Chicago, advanced this plan,envisaging the centralcourt asa specialistfacility, attunedto the needsof 69Ibid., reply to Schusterfrom }tome Office, n.d. 70Ibid., report from Chief Metropolitan Magistrate,25 February 1920. " Ibid., letter from Schusterto the Home Office, 19 March 1920. '2 For example,Lord Birkenheadspecifically rejected the plan when proposing the Dill's second reading. House of Lords Report, 15 June 1920, col.. 596-7. 124 the young offender, staffed by probation officers, doctors and psychologists,all of whom would be experts in their field. The magistratestoo would be specially selected and the stipendiary would be able to concentratesolely on juvenile cases. The reformersknew the manthey wantedfor thejob: Sir William Clarkeäa11.73 The hint that the othermetropolitan magistrates would therebylose their juvenile casesprovoked even greater opposition from them and as rumours of the government'splans circulated, they becamemore determined in their criticism. For example,the suggestionthat oneof the existingpolice courtswould be discontinued andtransformed into the centraljuvenile court alarmedthe stipendiarieswho were fearfulthat it might be their court. The Westminsterand Pimlico Newsreported as fact the rumour that `the historic court of summaryjurisdiction at Westminster' was to be converted`into a sort of centralbureau or headquartersfor this latestfeminist movement',a view that illustrateshow conflatedthe positionof penalreformers and women'sorganisations had become in the mindsof their critics. The newspaper quotedthe Westminstermagistrate, Cecil Chapman- `a known andtrusted friend of the causeof women' - as saying`it is fallaciousto supposethat womenare specially fitted deal 74 different from he ... to with children'scases', a somewhat view the one had apparentlyexpressed in 1918. The article then claimed that `lady probation officers' who wereholding `very comfortableand lucrativeappointments from the Office, in implying IIome attend,watch and make suggestions ... children'scases' that the whole plan to introduce women justices was quite unnecessary. In May 1920 the debateerupted into the columns of The Times. A leading article criticised the suggestionof a single juvenile court, claiming that `Americans " PRO: LCO2/463, letter to Lord Chancellor from Robert Parr, NSPCC Director, 20 March 1920. Parr describedClarke Hall as `the one man who standsout' given his experienceand his writings on 'children's law'. 74Ibid., cutting from Westminsterand Pimlico News, n.d. C.f. `Women on the Bench: Views of London Magistrate', Daily Express,21 December 1918. 125 who haveseen the experimenttried in their own countrypoint out that its actualeffect is emotional and sensational'. As far as The Timeswas concerncdthe existing system in London already made adequateconcessions to the special needsof young people. The articlecriticised the suggestionthat two untrained,lay justicesshould sit on equal termswith stipendiaries,and feared that, if boththe lay justiceswere women, 'the possibility of their combining to overrule the decision of the stipendiary would be derogatoryto the authority and dignity of his official position'. 75 However The Times did back the assessorplan, which would make use of the women's `motherly instincts'.76 There followed an intense debatein the letter columns. Miss Adler wrote to repeather argumentsfor special children's courts and support the use of women JPs. Her views were in turn contradicted by a London solicitor who insisted that ` the suggestionthat the presentcourts stimulate a love of adventuredoes credit to Miss Adler's imagination,but hasnot the smallestfoundation in fact' and by a barrister who describedallegations of the court atmosphere`contaminating' children as `simplyrubbish'. " It seemsthat the legalprofession had been roused by the government'sproposals to defendits statuswith all its might. The next professionalgroup to opposethe bill werethe probationofficers. On May 2 1Sta letter addressedto the Home Secretaryfrom ten London women probation 78 officersargued against any changein the presentsystem. Not only werethe signatoriesof the letter (who werenot named)opposed to the centralcourt andthe use of lay magistrates,they also rejected the assessorplan. Gertrude Tuckwcll was of the opinion that the probation officers had been encouragedto write anonymously by the 75 The Times, 10 May 1920. The bill actually statedthat of the two JPs in the juvenile courts 'one shall be a woman'. Officials in fact tendedto assumethat the other would be a man, so the sccnario proposedby The Timesleader writer was unlikely, but it seemsto have been particularly alarmedat the ideaof women overruling a man, rather than lay people overruling a professional. 76Ibid. 77Ibid. 12th13`h & 15`hMay 1920. " Ibid. 21 May 1920. 126 metropolitanmagistrates, `though opposed [they] would not dareto do this'79she told Schuster.The reactionof the HomeOffice wassympathetic. `[The womenprobation officers] are genuinely afraid of interferencein their work by inexperiencedand faddy womenmagistrates', commented a HomeOffice official. It seemsthat the high opinion of the calibre of London women JPs apparentlyheld by the Lord Chancellor's 80 Office was not sharedby its sister department. Meanwhile, the `London Beaks' continued to stir up troubles1,ensuring that the bill would receivea roughride whendebated in the Houseof Lords. J.G. I lay Flalkett, one of the stipendiaries,wrote to the Times,claiming that, with the exception of Clarke Hall, the metropolitan magistratesopposed the proposals. lie also repudiatedClarke Hall's views on corporal punishment and its efficacy as a deterrent.82 In the Secondreading debate,Lord Salisbury expressedconcern about the oppositionfrom stipendiariesand said `we mustnot think too muchof the interestsof women'. He claimed,that in any case,women could now ultimatelybecome stipendiarymagistrates themselves and so changewas unnecessary,conveniently overlookingthe fact that it would be manyyears before a womanbarrister would accumulatethe requisiteexperience and even then might be overlookedfor some other reason. Another participant in the debate,Lord Sheffield, criticised `sentimental' talk about bringing a child into a police court. Meanwhile some Lords favouredthe assessorplan. Otherscomplained about the lack of consultationor allegedthat the changeswere being made simply in order to give women A's 83 somethingto do. The Lord Chancellor tried to belittle the opposition, claiming that the bill's opponentscould be `counted on the fingers of one hand', that the magistrates " PRO: LC02/463, letter to Claud Schusterfrom Gertrude Tuckwell, 16 June 1920. '0 PRO: 11045/10970/404139. " PRO: LCO2/463, memorandumfrom `B. S.', 27 May 1920. 92The Times,21 May 1920. 13House Lords Report, 15 June 1920, 601-612, of columns passim. 127 hadbeen consulted at everystage and that the Chief Metropolitanmagistrate supportedit. Rejecting the assessorplan, Lord Birkenhead said that such a subordinaterole would not attract `the voluntary servicesof the best type of woman'. lie contendedthat adjudicatingin juvenile casesdid not requirespecialist legal knowledgeand that, beinganalogous to `semi-administrativeproblems' it was work 84 well suited to women. Behind the sceneslobbying had ensuredthat Lord Birkenhead's position was supportedin this debateby Lord Haldane, whose sister, Elizabeth, was on the Lord Chancellor's Women's Advisory Committee, and later on by Lord Crewe, London's Lord Lieutenant and the husbandof Lady Crewe, who was the committee's chairman. The former attorney generaland Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Reading (a close associateof the PrimeMinister, Lloyd George)also backed the government." The Archbishopof Canterbury,who agreedto supportthe bill when it was madeclear that the suggestionof a centralcourt would be dropped,was a usefulconvert. 86 Therefore, despitesome difficulty, the bill wasable to completeits stagesin the UpperIlouse, but only after a well organisedand publicised deputation in its supporthad been receivedat the HomeOffice and the wordingof the clauseconcerning the numberof juvenile courts had been amended. As Lord Birkenhead suggested,the appointment of women JPs to the children's courts was the government's 'bottom line', other parts of the bill wereopen to amendmentbut they would not give in to pressureon that 87 point. Schusterand Tuckwell continued to work to counter the metropolitan magistrates'opposition. Miss Tuckwell promised to get `the Labour people' on side N Ibid., columns593-599,624. 's Both Lord Reading'ssecond wife and his daughterin law were later to becomeJPs; the latter served in London'sjuvenile courts. '6 Ifouse of Lords Report, 21 June 1920,columns 809-811; 6/8/20 column 921. 17Ibid., 6 August 1920,column 918. 128 Congress;her and to get a resolution in support of the bill at the Trades Union influence may well have been responsiblefor the fact that the Labour Party was representedalongside the penal reform groups, the children's societies and women's 88 organisationsat the deputation to the Home Office on the 27thJuly. Tuckwcll's if position was a conciliatory one. She did not want to rule out the male JP'who he female is the father of a family -&a sensibleman - will supply a useful corrective to her `ten for have done' enthusiasm'. Schusteroffered thousandthanks ... all that you but he was afraid that `if we do not do what we now have in prospectyour 119 enthusiasticsisters will hereafterstorm the whole bench' It is clear that the coalition of interestspresent on July 27`hwas an uneasy alliance; writing to Sir Edward Troup at the Home Office, Schusterconfided that the Earl of Lytton (of the StateChildren's Association) was ` far moreinterested in the Children'sCourt ideathan the womenidea'90 whereas the oppositewas probablytrue of the feminist organisations. Likewise the Howard Association and Penal Reform Leaguehad their own agendawhile, accordingto Tuckwcll, Labourwas concerned because`the workers feel that it is the fateof their children,not that of otherclasses 91 which is beingprovided for' Schusterwas very concernedthat no cleavageshould openup betweenthe interestedparties for the oppositionto exploit, but his fearsdo not seemto havebeen realised. The carefullyplanned and publiciseddeputation, timedto takeplace just beforethe tricky committeestage in the Lords,appears to havehad the desiredeffect andrepresents an importantexample of the networkingof 11The deputationwas reported in The Timeson 28 July 1920. The PRO file, LCO2/463, containsa copy of the government'spress release, dated 27`h July and correspondencebetween Schuster and some of the organisationsrepresented. '9 PRO: LCO2/463, letters from Schusterto Tuckwell 17 June 1920 & 26 July 1920; Tuckwell to Schuster25 July 1920. 90Ibid., undatedmemorandum. However, Lytton, the brother of Lady ConstanceLytton, had been a ominent supporterof women's suffrage as presidentof the Men's League for Women's Suffrage. 'r bid., letter from GertrudeTuckwell to Sir Claud Schuster,25 July 1920. 129 feminists with other interest groups, a pattern which was to be repeatedover the next decade. By the time the deputation took place the namesof three of the women present - Miss Adler, Miss Fry, and Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon - had appearedon the list of aboutthirty new womenJPs for the Countyof Londonproduced by Tuckwcll and her colleagueson the Lord Chancellor'sAdvisory Committee. The announcementof so many new women magistratesin London was a further signal that the government would persistwith the Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Bill despite the opposition. As Schusterwrote, women in Londonwould not want to comeon to the bench'unless 92 there is really something for them to do' The deputation seemsto be something of a turning point in the controversy over London's juvenile courts. The stipendiary magistratesand their allies continued to grumble,but the bill passedthrough the Commonsunchanged. The Chief MetropolitanMagistrate, Biron objectedto the clausewhich statedthat magistrates would be `selected'for the work; `to suggestthat any metropolitanjustices cannottry 3 thesecases satisfactorily is quite absurd'he complained. In the Commons,familiar argumentsabout the inaccessibilityof a centralcourt (eventhough that ideahad been dropped)the goodjob presentlybeing done by the stipendiaricsand the probation workers, and the possibility of women JPs being used as assessorswere put. It was also suggestedthat the new courts would incur unnecessaryexpense and that the plan wasunpopular with the working class. The attitudeof someMPs is revealedby their insistencethat the bill was introduced`for the convenienceof womenmagistrates' or for `ladiesin high positionin the WestEnd, who arc very anxiousto comeand sit on thesemagisterial benches'. Another view was that the bill was retrogressivein that it 12Ibid., letter from Schusterto Tuckwell, 26 July 1920. ' Ibid., letter from ßiron 31 July 1920. 130 reversedthe trend towards professionally qualified magistratestaking more ofthe work 94 The government- now in the form of Shortt, the home Secretary- continued to minimisethe opposition. He claimedthat the stipendiarics,whom he hadconsulted throughthe Chief Magistrate,approved of the bill 95 This wascontradicted in The Tipresby two metropolitan magistrateswho announcedthat disapproval of it was unanimousamongst the stipendiaries. Despite the passageof the bill into law at the end of 1920,the magistratescontinued to make public statementscritical of its provisions. In January 1921 the Old Street magistrate,Mr. Wilberforce, said that it was `no secretthat the metropolitan magistratesas a body would have liked the 6 continuanceof the presentsystem'. Mr. Banks of the South Western Police Court `he find wasreported as sayingthat thought... that the womenmagistrates would hadbeen had bccn mostof the methods... which they so earnestlyadvocating already tried anddiscussed by the old gangand that the problemof how to treatthe children wasby no meansan easyone'. lie suggestedthat a magistrateneeded to be `kind and 97 sympathetic,but not sloppyand sentimental' The latter adjective,meaning `to be swayedby feelingrather than reason' was not infrequentlyharnessed by opponentsof women magistratesand employed to convey a negative image of a feminine approach to judicial decisions.As JoanScott has pointed out, the languageof genderis `a 98 primaryway of signifyingrelationships of power' The characterisationof women as `sentimental' rather than `reasonable'underlined their subordination. °' Ilansard, 1 November1920, columns 134-152. 95Ibid. Column146. The Times, I1 January 1921. 97Ibid., 17 January 1921. Joan Scott, Gender and the Politics of History, New York, Columbia University Press, 1988, p.42. The definition quoted is from the Concise Oxford Dictionary. 131 Professions,especially the legal one, are notoriously resistant to any change that affects them directly. The opposition of the stipendiary magistratesin London to the Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Act may be characterisedas the resistanceof a threatenedprofessional group. The introductionof womenmagistrates was all very well in theory, as long as they were not seento be displacing men. The stipcndiarics objectedto what they perceivedas a reversal of the trend towards professionalism, an affront to their dignity as qualified personneloffered by the introduction of lay people with equalpower, and the suggestionthat juvenile work was a specialistfield for which they would have to be selected. The possibility ofa centraljuvenile court may havebeen attractive to penal reformers, impressedby the Chicago model, but to some of the metropolitan magistrates,who had enjoyed considerablefreedom within their ownjurisdiction, it was an anathema.Not all of themshared this view, but the glimpseof the internalpolitics of the Londonmagistrates we get from the sources suggestsome antagonism towards Clarke Hall, whosewritings on juvenile justice had madehim somethingof a self - proclaimedexpert in the field. In addition,some of the magistrateswere worried abouttheir own positionsand fearful that their own courtmight be closedto makeway for the children'sone. Moreover,proposals to introducewomen magistrates had become conflated with reformedapproaches to juvenilejustice which werenot to the tasteof all the stipeniaries. The probationofficers who objectedto the bill workedwith the stipendiary magistrateson a daily basis. They also appearto have been worried about the possibleimpact of the introduction of women magistratesupon their status but they were less vocal in their opposition. Having comparatively recently emergedas salariedoccupation (MPs persistedin referring to them as `missionaries', a reference to the origins of the probation service in the voluntary court missions establishedby 132 the Churchof EnglandTemperance Society and other sectarian bodies) the probation officers were still in the processof establishing themselvesas a profession. It would seemthat they had not yet reachedthe stagewhere they could mount a sustained campaignof pressureon government. In any case,it is not clear how representative of the probation service were the ten anonymousauthors of the protest published by The Timeson May 21Sc. On the other hand, supportersof the changesto London's juvenile courts were well organised. The ideas of penal reform campaigners,such as Miss Adler, Clarke I lall, Margery Fry and Cecil Leesonhad been gestating for a number of years. They were successfulin securingthe presenceof women magistrateson the bench in all children's casesin London, the special selection of appropriate stipendiary magistratesand the physicalseparation of juvenile proceedingsfrom police court premises(as the Orderin Council which followedthe Act in 1921provided that the hearingstake place in town halls).99 However,they failed to obtaina central, specialistcourt facility for London;in the 1920sthe capitalhad nine juvenile courts, reducedto eight in 1929.100The bill's advocateshad benefited from official support of ministersand civil servants(particularly Schuster) and could secthemselves as working with the grain of public opinion: children were now seenas requiring special handlingin the criminaljustice systemand women magistrates were regarded as naturallysuited to this work. The Londonstipendiaries ultimately failed to defendthe traditionof the generalistmagistrate in the faceof the new `specialists'. Penalreformers worked successfully with feminists,the latter keento ensure that London's new women JPs were given useful work and accordedequal statuswith men. CherylLaw arguesthat in the 1920sthe women'smovement entered a new '9 Order in Council, 27 May 1921. 100'Juvenile Courts in London: Reorganisation'home O1Ticc,17 December 1929. 133 phase,having reassessed its objectivesand altered its strategiesin the light of 101 experiencegained during the First World War. Important elementsof the 'new' strategy were parliamentary lobbying and networking with other interest groups. However,Brian Harrisonhas demonstrated that moral and socialreform groupsin the late nineteenthcentury (including some feminist organisations) were linked by shared 102 personalities,attitudes and lobbying techniques. Quakersand other nonconformists were strikingly prominent in both the women's suffrage movement and in penal reform groupsin the half-centurybefore 1920:their networkwas already formed. Their methods,originally honed in the anti-slavery movement of the early nineteenth century, were well establishedif not invariably successful.Women's organisations such as the NCW took a great interest in matters other than the advancementof women,particularly in questionsthat touchedon their members'philanthropic activitiesand were relevant to what they regardedas women's`natural' interestin the welfareof children. As womenmoved further towards equal citizenship, so feminists continuedto be involvedin a rangeof causesof which the treatmentofjuvcnilc delinquencywas but one. JUVENILE COURTS OUTSIDE LONDON OutsideLondon there was no needfor speciallegislation in order for women to sit asjuvenile magistrates.However, that did not meanthat they were automatically put into juvenile courts even in areaswhere female JPs had been appointed. There was a strong tradition, especially in the counties, that JE'swere generalistsas well as amateursand no distinction was made betweendifferent types of work otherthan that requiredby law. But with Londonleading the way, the notion of 101Law, Suffrage and Power, p.225. 102 Intervention Harrison, 'State & Moral Reform in Nineteenth Century England', p. 290. 134 `specialist' magistratesfor juvenile casesbegan to gain ground. Once again, women's organisationsand penal reform groups led the way in pressinga fairly receptive governmentfor change,joined in the 1920sby the newly formed Magistrates' Association. In April 1921 the Home Office issueda circular to magistrates suggestingthat they draw up a 'special' rota of men and women with 'special qualifications' for juvenile work, which was obviously in emulation of the Home Office's own rota for London. This advice evidently was not universally followed 103 since in 1927 a further circular reiterated it. Some benchesmay have simply ignored the government's policy, others, particularly in sparselypopulated areas wherejuvenile caseswere comparatively rare, did not regard it as applicable to their situation. In somecases entire benches elected themselves cn bloc to thejuvenile panel. It is highly likely that the moreconservative minded county JPs were as resistantto the notion of specialistmagistrates as the Londonstipcndiarics had been. Penalreformers and women's organisations again worked together to support andshape Home Office policy. In its pamphletThe Magistrate and Child Offenders the HowardAssociation argued that: In manyjuvenile courts continuity of policy is securedby forming a rota of magistratesspecially to deal with children's cases,and it is found that this plan producesthe best results. In any group of magistrateswill be found some men and women who possessmore ex4 cricnce and ' understandingof children than their colleagues... The StateChildren's Association was also continuing to lobby for special arrangementsfor young offenders. Its secretary,J. A. Lovat-Fraser who, as an MP regularly tabled parliamentary questionsabout the number of women magistrates, arguedthat `magistrates...in Children'sCourts, should be thoroughlyin agreement 103PRO: 11045/13403/12 10ýAnon., The Magistrate and Child Offenders,p. 11. 135 andsympathy with the system'. lie felt they shouldbe relativelyyoung and 'have interest in in Boy Scouts experienceand educationaland social work ... the and the Girl Guides, in after-casecommittees, boarding out committees and child welfare work'. Inevitablyhe arguedthat `justicessuitable for thejuvenile courtsshould be appointedwithout regard to the political party to which the person belongs' and that more women should be chosen,adding that `in their caseit is even more absurd than in the caseof men that politics should be regardedas a guaranteeof suitability'. '05 The need for special rota of magistrateswas discussedfrequently by conferencesof women magistrates(including those organisedby the Magistrates' Association) and in articles in the feminist press. By 1925 there was some dissatisfaction,not only at the slow speedat which women were joining the magistracy,but alsoat the failure of benchesto form juvenile panelsand to carryout othergovernment recommendations. Mrs. Rackhamrecounted in The Women's Leaderthe `disappointing'results of a surveyby the HomeOffice Children's Branch which revealedthat over half of the respondentbenches held juvenile hearingsin the ordinarycourt anda third gavefull detailsof proceedingsto the presswhile `in very few indeedare special magistrates designated to hearjuvenile cases'. 106 In 1925 the government appointed a departmentalcommittee on the treatmentof youngoffenders. Among the threewomen selected was Geraldine Cadbury.Members heard evidence from ninety-ninewitnesses including Mrs. Rackham(representing the Magistrates' Association), Miss Fry (on behalf of the Iloward League)Clarke Hall, and Dr. Ethel Bentham and Janet Courtney who spoke 107 for `the London lady magistrates'. The report, issuedtwo years later, claimed that pos3 A. Lovat-Fraser, Child Offenders,London, StateChildren's Association, 1928, p.3-4. Lovat- Fraserwas a barrister on the South Wales circuit, a Cardiff councillor and Labour MP. 10bThe Woman'sLeader, 14 August 1925,p. 230. 107Report of the Committeeon the Treatmentof YoungOffenders, appendix 1, p. 131. 136 `there is an undoubtedneed for more Justiceswho arc really suited for work in the juvenile court and arc willing to give their time to it'. Although the report's authors were undoubtedly referring both to men and women, the mention of time as a factor mayindicate they hadthe femalesex in mind. The reportrecommended that the Lord Chancellorand Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancasterbe requestedto 'include a sufficient number of men and women who have special qualifications for dealing with children and young persons' when they appointed Justicesof the Peace,for example `experienceor interest in social work among the young as well as practical knowledge of the homesand conditions of life of the class of children who usually come before thejuvenile court'. This approachmay well have been designedto favour not only the type of middle class woman (and a few men) for whom `social work' was a virtual vocation,but alsoworking classmen and women. That womenwere mostly in mind whenthis sectionof the reportwas written is suggestedby the commentthat `if the recommendationin the precedingparagraph is accepted,it will obviouslybe necessaryto securethe appointmentof a sufficientnumber of womenmagistrates throughoutthe country'. Additionally the reportdecreed that `the serviceof thejuvenile court demands younger recruits' and warned that party political considerationsshould play no part in selection.The committeerecommended that legislationshould be introduced containing`some general direction that Magistrateswho sit in juvenile courtsshould havespecial qualifications' and that petty sessionaldivisions shoulda small panelof no morethan twelve justices for the work, of whom no morethan three should be 108 presentat one time. Believing that the new systemwas working well in London, 1" Ibid., p. 26-7. 137 109 the committee recommendedno changethere. Effectively the committee appears to have agreedwith the views of the Howard Leagueand the Magistrates' Association. The former argued in a memorandumthat the presenceof a woman ' 10 magistratewas `essential'in juvenile cases, while the latter,championing the cause of the JP, was pushing for lay chairmen in London's juvenile courts by 1927.111 Although the government acceptedthese recommendations and promised legislation, five years elapsedbetween the report's publication and the passageof the 1932 Children and Young Person's Act, which decreedthat a panel of justices be formed for juvenile casesin each petty sessionaldivision. In January 1933 the Home Office convenedyet another committee to advise on draft rules for juvenile courts under the new Act. Of the five membersunder the chairmanship of Sidney Harris,112 two werewomen, Geraldine Cadbury, and Lady CynthiaColville, a London JP who had been recommendedby Gertrude Tuckwcll. 113The wording chosenwas that juvenile courtsshould be constitutedof not morethan three justices, to `includeone man and, so far aspracticable, one woman'. 114 Feministorganisations and women magistrates appear to haveregarded this wordingas unsatisfactory as it providedan effectiveloophole for bencheswho had appointedinsufficient numbers of womenjustices. In Octoberat the conferenceof womenJPs organised by the Magistrates'Association disapproval was expressed, (notablyby EleanorRathbone) of the wording andthe following montha letterof protestwas sent to the Lord Chancellor by the National Council for Equal Citizenship. $°9Harris of the Home Office was less sanguineand so in 1928 another Home Office committee,of which GeraldineCadbury was also a member,was set up to review the operation of London's magistrates'courts. 1° PRO:11045/13402/2. 11' PRO: 11045/13402/6. With very few exceptions,notably Clarke }call and Mullins, stipendiariesdid not involve themselvesin the Magistrates' Association. 112I larris was under-secretaryat the } tome Office, in chargeof the Children's Branch, 1919.34. Colville was the daughterof Lord Crewe and was a'woman of the bedchamber'to QueenMary. 114PRO: LCO2/1955. 138 Complaintswere also received from individual Benches,including Liverpool, although Harris at the Home Office surmised that Miss Rathbonehad put them up to it! Correspondentsall objected to the fact that, effectively, a juvenile court could be madeup of menonly, but not of womenonly. As far asofficials was concerned,the wording provided for sex equality in theory while remaining pragmatic in practice but feminists regardedit as falling far short of their ideal of equal citizenship. There were further letters of protest but the wording remained unchangedand the Lord Chancellor'soffice merelyhoped that furtherappointments of womenjustices would ' 15 eventually relieve the situation and silence the objectors. The new juvenile panels were first elected in November 1933. According to Leo Pagethe results were not as successfulas he and other reformers had hoped. Old anddeaf justices were selected and `worsestill they haveelected men who do not hesitateto deridethe Act of 1933as silly sentimentalityand who tue entirely 116 incapableof administering it'. Neverthelessthe policy representeda further refinementof the rulesfor children'scases and another decisive move in the creation of a separatesystem of juvenile justice, untaintedby the traditionsof the so-called 'police courts', for which penalreformers had beenpressing since the late nineteenth century. For both reformersand opponents the involvementof womenon the magisterialbench was the key to this new form of justice. Whenever'special' qualificationswere alluded to, women's`maternal instincts' andunderstanding of childrenwere the kind of featurein mind. Womenwere fundamentallyassociated '13Ibid. 16 Leo PageFor Magistrates and Others, London, Faber8: Faber, 1939, p. 23. Pagewas a barrister and )P and was secretaryof the Commissionsof the Peacefrom 1940 to 1945.The quotation is taken from the text of a speechto the Magistrates' Association. 139 with modernity;penal reform and feminismmarched hand in hand. An anonymous critic of governmentpolicy, who clearly saw the connection, claimed that support for an all femalejuvenile bench was: Entirely in keeping with modem feminist ideas but completely disregards realities. The whole juvenile court legislation is a flagrant example of the intrusion into the working class home, under the guise of social welfare, of that obnoxious patronageso prevalent in the United States. Only the poor would tolerate it. But juvenile courts are now establishedfacts, pushedthrough a House which did not take the trouble to realise that Law ' 17 and Social Reform are two distinct spheres. The governmentcontinued to insist that magistrateswere not appointed for only one type of work. Mrs. Rowntree of York was told that `tlic Lord Chancellor prefers to appoint people to dischargeall duties' when she inquired as to whether magistrates could be specifically appointed for children's work, although `exceptionsmight be 118 made'. However,in practicethe combinationof the introductionof women magistratesand of newjuvenile court procedureshad pushed the magistracyfirmly in the directionof specialisation.Appointments, at leastin theory,were to be madeless on the groundsof partypolitics andmore in accordancewith the individual's `suitability' for certaintypes of work. It wasno accidentthat this approachgained groundsignificantly from the time whenwomen first becamemagistrates. Individual women, such as Henrietta Adler and Geraldine Cadbury, had succeededin influencing governmentpolicy evenbefore they weremade JPs, and the latter wasa regular choicefor advisorycommittees after shewas appointed. The philosophicalconnection betweenphilanthropy - quintessentiallyperceived as women'swork - and legal reform was clearly expressedby Elizabeth Macadam. The philanthropy of the eighteenthand nineteenth centuries which sought to ameliorate the lot of `prisonersand captives', or modify harsh, often brutal, punishments,has in our century entereda new phasein which men PRO: LCO2/1955. 11$Ibid. 140 and women work together to bring about new standardsof prcvcntion, early treatment on scientific lines, and more curative methodsof 119 punishmcnt. 'rough their commitment to a gendcredform of citizenship, underpinned by their belief that womencould makea particularcontribution in thejuvenile courts, earlywomen magistrates, some working as individualsand others through feminist or penal reform organisations,were instrumental in changing the institution of the magistracy. Women were not madejustices purely on the sameterms as men. A new gcndcredcategory, `the woman magistrate', was created, one particularly'suitable' for hearingchildren's cases. The idea of the `specialist' magistratetherefore gained ground and in turn createdfurther demandsthat justices should be properly educated 120 and trained for the job, notwithstanding its voluntary nature. However, in terms of power,women magistrates remained subordinate, confined largely to specialistwork in juvenile courts. Althoughsome women, notably Mrs. Cadburyin Birminghamand Miss Kelly in Portsmouth,quickly assumedthe role of chairmenin the children's sessions,the latterwere accepted as a woman'sdomain. In adult courtswomen magistrateswere more likely to be orjunlor status. They also had far lessinfluence on key committees,such as Probationcommittees and the StandingJoint Committees in the counties.121 '19Elizabeth Macadam The New Phflanihropy, London, Allen & Unwin, 1934, p. 223. 120For the training of magistratesand the involvement of women see Chapter Six. 121See Chapter Six. 141 PART TWO A NEW KIND OF MAGISTRATE? CHAPTER FOUR TIIE FIRST WOMEN MAGISTRATES: AN ANALYSIS OF TIIC LORD CHANCELLOR'S LIST OIL'JULY 1920 On 20`" July 1920 a list was published of 212 women recommendedfor appointmentas Justicesof the Peacein England, Wales and Scotland. These were not the first women to be made magistratesfollowing the passageof the Sex ' Disqualification (Removal) Act in the previous year, but they were the first group of sufficient size to have any impact and were followed in the next few months by further appointmentsaround the country. The political andsocial composition of the lay magistracyin Englandand Waleshas been a causeof commentand concern for well over onehundred years. Politicalconcerns emerged following the HomeRule crisis of 1886when Gladstone's LiberalParty lost the supportof thirty-nineLord Lieutenants.Thereafter it could only rcly on the supportof about 15%of countyJPs. The growth of the tabour Partyand the admissionof working classmen to the magistracyadded a further dimension,as did the appointment of women. SuccessiveRoyal Commissions and Lord Chancellorshave urged that the lay magistracyshould contain a mix of classes,ages, sexesand (in morerecent years) ethnic backgrounds. However, this aspirationhas I The first women to becomeJPs were thoseappointed to the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee (secsection below) in December1919 and Mrs. Ada Summerswho sat on the bench ex officio from January1920. Someappointments had also been made in the Duchy of Lancasterby the time the Lord Chancellor'slist appeared. 2 For a critique of the political and social composition of the magistracy,see, for example, 'A Barrister', Justice in England, pp. 12-15;J. P. Eddy, Justice of he Peace, London, Cassell, 1963, pp. 129-133; Burney, Magistrate Court and Community,pp. 76-7. 143 proveddifficult to achievein practiceand efforts are still beingmade today to make 3 the magistracymore representativeof the community it serves. The appointment of women to the Commission of the Peaceobviously altered the compositionof the magistracyin genderterms: this in itself is highly significant. I iowever, it is less immediately obvious whether it had any impact in any other respect. This chapter will endeavourto establishwhether the appointment of women did produce `a new type of magistrate' in social and political terms. The following analysisof the backgrounds,previous experienceand, where possible, the agesand political leaningsof the early women magistrates,is basedmainly upon the appointmentsmade by the Lord Chancellor to benchesin England and 'Vales, excluding the Duchy of Lancaster,on the advice of the small group of women who weregiven responsibility for producingthe July 1920list. Throughbiographical research and with the aid of the citationson the list it hasbeen possible to constructa profile of this groupwith regardto its members' previousexperience and (in somecases) their ageand political affiliations. In addition,a considerableamount of biographicalinformation on a largergroup of womenJPs has been gathered. This chaptertherefore employs quantitative as well as qualitativeresearch methods. However, the biographicalsource material from which the datais derivedis inevitablyboth fragmentaryand inconsistent.4 For example,it hasnot beenpossible to establishthe ageat which womenwere appointed as A's for all but a small number of examples,either becausethere was no information on an individual'sdate of birth, dateof appointment,or both. The analysiswill be preceded by a brief examination of the method of appointment ofjusticcs establishedbefore 1920,the political controversieswhich surroundedit and its socio-politicalresults. Me Guardian, 3 October 2001 For the full Lord Chancellor's List, see Appendix B. 144 Themembership of the Lord Chancellor'sWomen's Advisory Committeewhich actually drew up the list will also be discussed. TILE SYSTEM OF APPOINTMENT The method of appointment of Justicesof the Peace,based as it was upon a systemof patronageinfused with secrecy,was the subject of intermittent political controversyduring the late nineteenthand twentieth centuries. The Liberal Party's lossof supportamong county justices and Lord Lieutenantsfollowing the 1tonic Rule crisis of 1886 led to concern within the party that the magisterial bencheswere politically biasedbastions of Conservatismand that the choice ofjusticcs could no 5 longer be left solely with the Lord Lieutenants. Political considerationswere underpinnedby socialones; in the countiesmembers of the (mostly Conservative) landedfamilies continued to dominateboth the Commissionsof the Peaceand the newlyestablished, elected local authoritieswhile in the boroughsthe sametradesmen occupiedboth the magisterialbench and the council chamber. Concernabout political leaningswas exacerbated in 1906when the property qualificationfor countyjustices was removed and working classmen - including Labour supporters- becameeligible for appointment. As Labour's strength as a parliamentaryand municipal force grew,the issueof the political leaningsof appointeesbecame more acute. Havingestablished a self-consciouslyclass-based political party,socialists argued that the courtsof summaryjurisdiction dealt primarily with working classmcn and thcir familics,yct labouras a classwas undcr representedon the bench. Increasingly, political views were seenas shorthand for Skyrme,History of the Justices of the Peace Volume2, pp. 217-8. 145 classstatus, leading to further intensification of the criticism that the appointments were madeon political grounds. After some considerableinternal controversy within the Liberal government andin orderto work towardsa morerealistic political and socialbalance in the Commissionsof the Peace,a Royal Commission on the appointment of justices was in 1909 Its in 1910 be set up .6 report recommendedthat advisory committees establishedin the countiesand boroughs to help the Lords Lieutenantand the Lord Chancellor(or the Chancellorof the Duchyof Lancaster)in their selectionof suitable candidates. While condemning `appointmentsinfluenced by considerationsof political opinion' as `highly detrimental to public interests', the Royal Commission neverthelessinsisted that it was desirableto ensurethat the Bench included 'men of all socialclasses and of all shadesof creedand political opinion'. ' As the second RoyalCommission on Justicesof the Peacepointed out in 1948,it provedimpossible to ignorepolitics of appointeeswhile at the sametime attemptingto achievea political balanceamong them. The resultwas that the advisorycommittees, which werein existencefrom 1912,were made up of experiencedJPs who werethemselves appointedalong party political lines. In 1946the Lord Chancellor'sdepartment classified advisory committee membersas 35.5 per cent Conservative, 30 per cent Labour and 23.5 per cent Liberal with the remainder describedas "1ndcpcndcnt'.8 The bulk of the womenmagistrates appointed after 1920were chosen by these local advisory committees,which were chaired in the counties by the Lords in boroughs by Lord Chancellor's Lieutenantand the the appointee-'usually, though `(bid. pp.223-4. ' Reportof the 1910 Royal Commissionon the Sclcction of Justicesof the Peace,quoted In the Report of the Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,1948, p. 4. Ibid., paragraph18. 146 9 not invariably a local magnate', according to Skyrmc The committccs' exact membershipand deliberations were shroudedin secrecy.Barbara Wootton (who was a LondonJP for manyyears) aptly describedtheir decisionsas 'a type of co-option. 10 The introductionof the advisorycommittees and the abolition of the property qualification resulted, according to Skycme,in the gradual transformation ofthe county benchesfrom the social exclusivity that still characterisedthem at the end of the nineteenthcentury. No longerwas the office of countyjustice the exclusive l l provinceof the landedgentry. However,this effect was by no meansimmediate, andas we shall see,substantial numbers of the womenJPs appointed in the 1920s were linked to county families. The proportion of working class men, and later working class women, also remained below the expectationsof the 1910 Royal Commission,despite appointments such as those of threecolliers to the Monmouth Commissionin 191712and the efforts of the LabourLord Chancellorin 1929.31. No survcyof the occupationalstatus of JPswas undertakcn until 1948when only 15 per centof activemale justices were classed as wage earners (including those who had 13 actuallyretired from their remunerativeoccupation). Beforeturning to examinethe womenappointed as justices after 1919,it is worth pointing out that there was no systematicanalysis of JI's' social backgrounds. ages,or levels of activity before 1948. In that year 65 per cent of male justices who answereda surveywere found to be over sixty yearsof ageand 28 per cent over 14 sevcnty. Anecdotalevidence suggests that the proportionof elderlymen in the 1920son the benchmay not havebeen fundamentally different from the 1940s. For ' Skyrme,History of the Justicesof the Peace Vol. 2, p.229. t° Wootton, Crime and Penal Policy, p.71. Skyrme,History of the Justices of the Peace Vol.2, p. 229. 12Votes for Women,January 1917,p. 231. 11Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,1948, p. 8. 14Ibid.. p.6. The comparablefigures for women were 49.5% and 17.0%. 147 cxamplc,London JI' BarbaraWootton dcscribcd the `two gentlcmcn,one blind and the othervery deaf' ho werere-elected to inspectpublic housesat her first magisterial sessionin 192615.According to one severe(and probably inaccurate) critic of the magistracyin the 1930sit was `not uncommon,especially in the country to find a bench of an average age of 75 to 80, and the proportion of serious deafness 16 [was] generally over 33% and sometimesreach[ed] 100%'. The problem of aged and infirm JPs, particularly those who insisted on attendingjuvenile hearings,was debatedpublicly on severaloccasions during the interwaryears'? and was clearly an ongoing concern. TIIE WOMEN'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE Followingthe RoyalAssent for the SexDisqualification (Removal) Act in December1919, Lord Birkenheadset up his own centralWomen's Advisory Committeeto recommendwomen for the Commissionsof the Peacethroughout England,Wales and Scotland. The reasonsfor the appointmentof this committeearc not entirelyclear, particularly since the relevantfile is missingfrom the Public Record Office. However,we cansurmise that Lord Birkenheadwas underpolitical pressure to place women on the bench despite (or becauseof) his comments in debatethat the bencheswere pretty full andthat he would not makeappointments on sex grounds t8 alonc. He may havefelt it inexpedientto wait for the deliberationsof the Lords Lieutenantand their local advisors to seewhere and when they might appoint women, 11Wootton, Crime & Penal Policy, p. 15. "'A Barrister', Justice in England, p. 14, italics in original. " For example,by Lco Pagein an addressto the Magistrates' Association, reprinted in Page,For Magistratesand Others. Page,a barrister, was Secretaryof the Commissionsfrom 1939 to 1944. Sec also the report of the l TowardLeague Conference on the reform of the courts of summaryjurisdiction held on 3 April 1935,University of Warwick Modern RecordsCentre: MSS 168/4/4/1. 'Progressive' 1Ps,such as GertrudeTuckwell, took a self-imposedretirement from the bench rather than continue into their seventieseven before the statutory retirementage was introduced. " Reportedin The Vote,30 May 1919. 148 especiallyin view of the fact that somecommittees met as infrequentlyas once n year. Leavingit to the local advisorycommittees could also result in somecapricious decisionsor even a complete failure to appoint women in counties and boroughs wherelocal opinionwas againsttheir introduction. In 1921Sir l lugh Bell, the Middlesbrough industrialist and Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire, confessedin private conversationthat he was `dead agin `cm' although he recognised that he should obey the Lord Chancellor and ensurethat women were appointed to 9. eachpetty sessional division' On the other hand, the legislation having passed,there was an expectation among its advocatesthat women would take their placeson magisterial benches without further delay. Additional pressurecame from women's organisationsand via parliamentaryquestions from sympatheticMPs and it was intensifiedin March 1920 whenthe Chancellorof the Duchyof Lancasterannounced the appointmentof the first twenty four womenmagistrates in the CountyPalatine. The Lord Chancellor's office did not want to appearto be laggingtoo far behind.They may also havehad doubtsabout the type of womenlocal committeesmight recommend,who might not be up to the standardof distinguishedpublic serviceor `exceptionalprivate gins'20 which the Lord Chancellor himself had set. The compositionof the Lord Chancellor'swomen's committee not only paralleledthe advisorybodies in the counties,but alsowas analogousto the multitude of women'scommittees that had burgeonedin Whitehallsince the onsetof the First World War. Indeed,its membershipof `the greatand the good' wasmost typical or "Fates Library,New York University:Elizabeth Robins Papers, series 1, box 7.1 am gratefulto AngelaJohn for this information. 2°According to a letter from the Lord Chancellor's Office to Lords Lieutenantsthe Lord Chancellor had felt it necessaryto signal the passageof the Act by placing on the Commissionof the Peace'a limited numberof representativewomen who had either distinguishedthemselves in the public service or by the possessionof exceptionalprivate gifts'. LMA: LCGLCTY/36. 149 thosebodies and Gertrude Tuckwcll's account of her recruitment to the advisory committee is perhapsinstructive of the workings of government. Having n et Sir Hobert Morant, permanentsecretary at the new Ministry of Health through Violet Markham,she had been invited to join oneof his department'scommittees, but when nothing came of this Sir Robert offered her to Sir Claud Schusterfor the Women Justices' Advisory Committee. After lunching with SchusterMiss Tuckwcll agreedto ' join it and she was subsequentlysworn in as a JP for the county of London. GertrudeTuckwell waspassionately devoted to the projectof improvingthe condition of working class women and as president of the National Federationof Women Workers (NFWW) she tried to extend to them the protection of a trade union. Tuckwell was to display similar commitment to her role as a JP, promoting among otherinitiatives, the establishmentof the Magistrates'Association and the useof probation.In 1920she organised a lobby in favourof the JuvenileCourts (Metropolis)ßi1122 and she advocated the compulsorytraining of magistratesand a fixed retirementage many years before these measures were introduced.According to her unpublishedmemoir, Gertrude Tuckwell madea point of retiring from the Benchat the ageof seventyand was strongly of the opinion that JPsover the ageof 23 sixty-live should not appearin juvenile courts. Tuckwell's colleagueson the committeewere carefully selectedin orderto establisha political andgeographical balance. The first sevenchosen had strong family andpersonal connections to the political andjudicial clitc aswell as public profilesof their own. Lady Crewe,who wasappointed the committee'schaimman, wasthe wife of the Lord Lieutenantof Londonand the daughterof Lord Roscbcry, 11TUC Library: GertrudeTuckwcll papers,unpublished autobiographical typescript. 22See Chapter Three. 21TUC Library: GertrudeTuckwell papers,unpublished autobiographical typescript. 150 24 the formerLiberal PrimeMinister. Shehad previously led the QueenMary's Work for WomenFund set up to financework schemesfor womenmade unemployed on the 25 outbreak of war in 1914 According to the Daily Express her committee had `presentedthe first governmentreport drawn up solelyby women' in 1915. The newspaperwent onto describeher in conventionallygendered terms as 'one of the most tactful of hostessesand one of the wittiest women in England.' 11 e report then commentedthat: 11erwedding in 1899was the socialevent of the year. Sheis credited with keenpolitical acumenand with beingof muchassistance to her husbandin his career.26 LadyCrewe's attributes and her qualificationsfor membershipof the committeewere thusdescribed to the readersof the Daily Expressas a blendof personalachievement anda properfeminine commitment to supportingher husband'sactivities. MargaretLloyd George,the wife of the PrimeMinister, wasevidently chosen by the Lord Chancellorto representWales as well as the Liberal Party. In its reportof the committee'sappointment, which appearedon the front page,the Dally Erpress her 'interested in described rathervaguely as ... manyaspects of women'swork and welfare'27.In manyways her careerwas inextricablylinked to her husband'sbut Kenneth 0. Morgan understatedher work when he wrote `she was, in a humble way 28 Beforethe First World War had for ... somethingof a political animal' she stood electionto the executiveof the Women'sLiberal Associationof Englandand Wales on a pro-suffrageplatform and she undertook public speakingfor the temperance 11crstepdaughter, Lady Cynthia Colville, also becamea prominent JP in London. Pugh, Womenand the Women'sMovement, p. 18; Mary Agnes I lamilton, AlaryMacarthur: A Biographical Sketch,London, Leonard Parsons,1925, pp. 137-8. Other committee membersIncluded Mary MacArthur, Marion Phillips, Violet Markham, Lady Midleton and May Tennant,all or "hon) were later madeJPs. Daily Express,24 December 1919,p. 1. r Ibid. KennethO. Morgan (ed.) Lloyd George: Family Letters 1885 - 1936, Cardiff, University of Wales Press.1973, p.3. 151 causefor manyyears. From 1919onwards she was a memberof the Criccicth Urban 29 District Council of which she was chairman in the early 1930s. I1cr political daughter commitment was also evident in her enthusiasmfor her youngest Megan's careeras an MP. Whilst MargaretLloyd George'spolitical arenawas predominately that of her immediatelocality and Walesrather than Westminster and the Empire,she was undeniably a `political animal' with a careerof her own. Elizabeth Haldane, appointed to the Commission of the Peacein Scotland, was the sisterof the former Liberal Lord Chancellor.Educated with her brothers,she had neverthelessbeen denied the opportunities for a university education and career (which they had enjoyed) becauseshe had to care for her mother. Like so many women of her generationand class, she took up social work and alter working with OctaviaHill sheset up a housingproject in Edinburghand wasa hospitalmanager. ElizabethHaldane gave evidence to the RoyalCommission on the PoorLaws in 1909, servedon the Civil ServiceRoyal Commission herself and was awardedthe Companionof honour for her involvementin extendingnursing services during the First World War. Thusher backgroundand political connectionscould not havebeen moresuitable for serviceon the Lord Chancellor'sCommittee. Shehas been describedas `a staunchbut non - militant supporter of women's ribhts'30and one of her colleagueson the committcc,Beatrice Wcbb (who wasalso a family fncnd) 31 claimcdshe was a `sturdy,kind anddircct' woman The other membersof Lady Crewe's committee were Beatrice Webb, Mary (Mrs. I lumphry) Ward and Lady Londonderry. Jane Lewis has analysedextensively the socialactivism and public carccrsof Mrs. Webband Mrs. Ward (tobcthcrwith 21NLW: MS 20473E. Seealso Dame Margaret: TheStory of his Alother by ViscountGnynedd, London,George Allen & Unwin, 1947,p. 200. 30Europa Dictionary of Women,London, 1983. The Diaries of Beatrice Webb Volume11 edited by Norman & Jean Mackenzie, London, Virago. 1983,p. 145. 152 that of Violet Markham who joined the committee at a later date) in 1llontenand Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England. All three had been anti. suffragists:Ward composedand Webb (as Beatrice Potter) had signed the 1889 AppealAgainst Female Suffrage32 and Markhamhad workedwith Ward in the NationalWomen's Anti-Suffrage League. However, both Markhamand Webblater recanted,Webb by 1906 and Markham by 1918. According to her autobiography, Markham `came slowly but surely to changemy mind and to changeit so fundamentallythat I find it difficult now in retrospectto give accountof what 33 originally took me into the other camp' Mrs. Ward, however, remained resolutely opposedto women's suffrage although she had always believed that women had a role to play in the public work of a citizen at a purely local level34. Apart from her anti - suffrage stance,she was best knownfor her novelsand her work asthe founderof the PassmoreEdwards Settlementin London. Ward wasas well connectedas the othercommittee members, beingthe granddaughterof ThomasArnold, nieceof MatthewArnold and the mothcr- 35 in-law of G. M. Trevelyan. Along with BeatriceWebb, she had long beenfriends with LouiseCreighton, the founderof the NationalUnion of WomenWorkers (NUWW), later the National Council of Women (NCW). Interestingly, Mary Ward'srole asa former leadingmember of the NUWW was mentionedin the Daily Express'scoverage of the women'scommittee's appointment, although she had brokcnwith the organisationas far backas 1907when Mrs. Creightonand the '2 Patricia I lollis, Womenin Public, London, GeorgeAllen & Unwin, 1979, pp.322.328. " Violet Markham.Return Passage,Oxford University Press,1953, p. 95. ' Lewis, Womenand Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, p.228. Is lohn Sutherland,Mrs. Humphry Ward, Eminent Victorian, Pre-embnenlEd»wardian, Oxford, ClarendonPress, 1990, p. 40. 153 NUWW Council decided to support the causeof women's suffrage36.In the event, Mrs. Ward's membershipof the Lord Chancellor's committee was short lived: she was already ill and died in the early months of 1920. At her funeral membersof the I Icrtfordshireconstabulary escorted the coffin, perhapsin recognitionof the fact that 37 shewas at least nominally a Justice of the Peace. Violet Markham, another Liberal and former anti-suffragist, took Ward's place on the committee. As already mentioned, she had already changedher views on women'ssuffrage and had also revised her opinion regardingwomen's capabilities as 38 a result of her experiencein the First World War. Whether she can be regardedas a 39 feminist remains a moot point On joining the committee she was initially concernedthat her nomination should be to the County Commission of the Peace ratherthan the ChesterfieldBorough bench `which is a body of small reputeor 40 standinglocally'. However,she evidently accepted the latter. Markhamhad already collaboratedwith Lady Crewein the CentralCommittee for Women's Unemployment41was alsofriendly with ElizabethHaldane, with whom she corresponded. Accordingto GertrudeTuckwell, BeatriceWebb was at first reluctantto take up anotherofficial committee while she was involved in the Poor Law enquiry. but sheagreed to takepart on conditionthat the actualwork of drawingup the list of Labournominations was performed by Tuckwcll and her associatein the NFWW, 16Ibid., p. 249; Daily Express,24 December 1919,p. 1. According to Sutherlandthe final break with the NUWW came in 1912. "Sutherland,Airs. llumphry Ward,p. 375. " Markham,Return Passage, P. 225. "See discussionin the editor's introduction in I lelen Jones(ed. ) Duty and CitfresLhlp, The Correspondenceand Papers of Violet Markham, 1896 - 1953, London, The Il istorian's press, 1994, 18-21. Ibid., p. 104. Letter dated22 February 1920 from Markham to Mr. Robson. 411familton, Afary Mfacarthur,p. 138. 154 Mary Macarthur.42 AlthoughMrs. Webbdid takethe oathas a J[' for the countyof Londonand remained on the Commissionof the Peaceuntil her retirementfrom it in 1926,she does not appearto have regardedit as an important part of her public work. In its report,the Daily Expressreminded its readersthat `Mrs. SidneyWebb' was `like her husband,famous as a Fabianleader and economist'; her nameand carccr were inextricably linked to that of her spouse. In 1920 Sidney Webb was invited by Durham miners to be their candidatefor the seat of Scahamharbour. Beatrice was muchoccupied with helpinghim in his parliamentarycareer in the early 1920s,43 an activity which may well have precluded her from a more active role on the bench. The final member of the original Lord Chancellor's Women's Advisory Committee was Lady Londonderry. In many ways the archetypal Conservative political hostessand a memberof oneof the country'sleading landed and industrial families,Lady Londonderryhad useful connections in the north of Englandand NorthernIreland and served as a JP in both CountyDurham and County Down. In 1919she had barely begun her role as hostess,but was well known for her war work aspresident of the Women'sLegion, which shehad foundedin 1915to recruitwomen 44 cooksfor the army. However,Lady Londonderryhad also bccna committed suffragist, or in her own words, `an ardent supporter' of Millicent Fawcctt43 In 1912 shehad made her views public in respondingto an anti-suffragistletter in Tic Times.46 "1TUC Library: GertrudeTuckwell papers,unpublished autobiographical typescript. 41Mrs. Webb spentsome time in the County Durham constituencyorganising local women's sections of the Labour Party. LisanneRadice, Beatrice and Sidney IVebb: Fabian Socialists, London, Macmillan, 1984, p.224. " A. SusanWilliams, Ladies of influence: Womenof the Elite In Interwar Britain, I larmondsworth. penguin Books, 2001, p. 14. 's Marchionessof Londonderry, Retrospect,London, P. Muller, 1938, p. 104. "Ibid., p. 105. 155 The committeewas later enlargedto includeLady Salisburyas a second Conservativerepresentative and, as already stated, Violet Markhamreplaced Mrs. Ward. In manyways, the type of womenchosen to serveon this centraladvisory committee(and in the process,be madeJPs) was replicated both in their choiceof nomineesand in the kind of womenappointed to the Commissionof the Peace throughoutEngland and Wales over the next threedecades. Generally they had good political and/orsocial connections and had provedthemselves in sonic form of voluntarywork within the community. Fromthe distanceof nearlythirty years,Tuckwell's reminiscencespaint a happy picture of the committee's work. `Lady Crewe was invariably courteous,and in her Lady Salisbury interested' ... perfect unobtrusiveway. was graciousand she recalled,adding that sheenjoyed some good Scottish delicacies including haggis at ElizabethHaldane's home. Shecould not rememberany real contentionofthe committee`though it took sometime to settlethe variouslists': this remarksuggests that theyprobably proceeded by drawingup lists of nomineesseparately before 47 amalgamatingthem into one. Thusthe committee'sproceedings were apparently uncontroversial,although unfortunately Tuckwell's recollectionsappear to be the only dctailcd extant account of its activities. Perhapsthcrc was a little controversy as, writing to fellow Liberal Elizabeth Haldane, Violet Markham revealingly cxprcsscd the hopsthat: We shall avoid getting the list too aristocratic. I get dreadfully bored with the typ48ofwoman who `presides'just becauseshe is her husband's wife... The committee'sappointment seems to havebeen initially welcomedin some quarters.Writing in the Women'sFreedom Lcaguc newspaper The J'oge,J. Theodore "TUC Library: GertrudeTuckwell papers,unpublished autobiographical typescript. 4' Jones,Duty and Citizenship,p. 104. 156 Dodd, writing under the heading `Women Magistrates: I tow to Obtain ilicm' welcomed its establishmentas `a wise and forward step'. lie claimed that: So much injustice has been done by the old - fashionedsystem of Lords Lieutenant permitting the to nominate ... county magistratesthat Lord Birkenhead deservesthe grateful thanks of the community.49 Dodd's argumentwas the familiar one, that the old system favoured the selection of Conservatives,therefore any innovation was to be welcomed. I iowcvcr, elsewhere the committee's very existencewas questioned.The National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC) was not enthusiasticand regretted the fact that separate arrangementshad been made for women. Commenting on the committee's appointmentthe NUSEC paper Common Causeasked rhetorically: Does the Lord Chancellor think it is an improvement, or is it merely the old impossibility of dealing with men and women in the sameway? Lord Birkenhead's `avowed anti-feminist opinions' were also a matter for concern andCommon Cause was additionally critical of the selectionmade of womento advisehim, andin particulartheir lack of experiencein police court work.5° By April the WFL hadalso lost patiencewith the process.The Vote complainedthat the appointmentof womenJPs was `singularlyslow' and the WFL conferencecalled for the abolition of the Lord Chancellor'scommittee, which it 'consideredto be an entirelyunconstitutional and unsatisfactory body'. 51 1iowever, the WFL did submitnames of its membersfor inclusionin the list of womenJI's, notablyMargaret Wynne Nevinson, so we canconclude that it wasnot entirely alienatedfrom the process. The NCW also sent in a large number of names,and Althoughsome of its membersmay haveharboured doubts about the process,no "The Vole, 9 January 1920 p.461. 1'0Common Cause, 2 January 1920 p.501. 51The Vote,9 April 1920,30 April 1920. 157 objectionswere raised at its Public ServiceCommittee, with the exceptionof some disquiet in May 1920 that few women magistrateshad so far beenappointed. 32 It wasnot just the feminist organisationsthat wereconcerned about the separatearrangements for appointingwomen JPs. A questionon the subjectwas put to the HomeSecretary in the Commons53 and concern among Lord Lieutenantsmay have prompted the Circular Letter sent by the Lord Chancellor's office in June 1920. The letter made clear the rationale behind the committee ` to signalise the passingof the [SexDisqualification (Removal)] Act by placingupon the Commissionof the Peacea limited numberof representativewomen' without addingto the laboursof the local advisorycommittees by gettingthem to makerecommendations `so few of which could be accepted'. However, the temporary status of the central women's committeewas emphasised by the suggestionthat if the local oneswere to co-opt 54 womenmembers there would be no furtherneed for it. I can find no evidenceof the centralcommittee's continuing existence after the compilationof the July list althoughit is possiblethat its membersmay have made recommendations for advisory committeeappointments. In 1921the Secretaryof Commissionsin the Lord Chancellor'sOffice forwardedto the Lord Lieutenant,Lord Crewethe list of names recommendedto the `former Women's Advisory Committee' (my italics) for ss appointmentas magistratesin London. We can surmise that, its task completed, the centralcommittee had now beendisbanded. From that time, womenmagistrates were appointedin the sameway asmen andat leastsome of the Lord Lieutenantsseem to havecarried out the instructionto co-optat leastone woman onto eachof their local advisory bodies. $2LMA: ACC/3613/1/77PSMC minute book, 12 May 1920.Sec also lists of womennominated by the NCW andforwarded to the Women'sAdvisory Committee in ACC/3613/03/002/I). 11Reported in The Vote9 April 1920. 14LMA: LCC/LCTY/36. "LMA: LCC/LCTY/69. 158 1920 TILL LIST OF (JULY I shall now turn to the list of womenrecommended by the CentralAdvisory Committee. 6 Their names,which were grouped under county headings,were each accompaniedby a synopsisof varying lengthof their own achievementsand experiences.Their family connectionsor detailsof the achievements,occupations or statusof relatives were not included, although theseoften featured in presscomment. The synopsesvaried in style and the level of detail from the description of Miss Stclla Fox of Cornwall - `interestedin philanthropicschemes in the County' (or evenmore terselyin the caseof Lady Lambtonof Durham,`County work') - to the meticulous listing of offices held which accompaniedthe namesof someof the Labournominees. Mrs. Fergusonof Darlington,for example,had apparently belonged to over a dozen differentcommittees. The disparityin detail perhapsreflects the different statusof the womeninvolved; the Duchessof Devonshirewas presumed to needlittle introductionto the Derbyshirebench other than her `public and countywork' whereas the claimsof someof the lessprominent women to be mademagistrates had to be carefullyestablished. It also reflectsthe way the committeeset aboutits work and the way in which informationabout candidates was gathered and disseminated. In addition, Labour nomineesmay have placed emphasisupon membershipof specific bodiesbecause of the importance of formal democracyand committee proceduresin tradeunion and labourorganisations. The descriptionsarc in any casedeficient in that they do not alwaysgive all rclcvantexperience and rarely give any indicationof the nomincc'spolitical leanings (cvcn though this considerationwould have been a major factor in their nomination) exceptwhere actual membership of a political committeeis cited. Naturally,the list 96 LMA: ACC/3613/03/002/13,typescript list in the NCW archive. 'Tile list is also printed, with some in Skyrme,History Justices Peace Vol. 3 omissions, of the of the pp. 1292 - 1322.See Appendix B. 159 doesnot give us any indicationof the women'sfuture activities in or out of the magistrates'courts. Therefore, where possible, I have drawn upon other information to build up a fuller picture of their backgroundsand activities. As alreadyexplained, the 1910Royal Commission had hoped that A's would be drawnfrom all socialclasses. Whilst therewere women on the 1920list from every class,the nomineeswere predominantly drawn from the middle and upper classes. On the English list nearly a quarter (22.6 per cent) were describedwith titles rangingfrom `honourable'to `countess'or `marchioness'.Of course,not all the titles were old, hereditary ones,nevertheless the surfeit of titled ladies causedsome 57 criticism at the time and it is likely that many more of the nomineeswere connected %6thlanded families than can be ascertainedfrom the counting of titles. For example, oneof the new JPsfor Kent, Mrs. Lucy DeaneStrcatfield, well known for her pioneer work asa womanfactory inspector in the 1890s,was apparentlya relativeof Lord Falmouth.58 In somecounties the wife of the Lord Lieutenantwas nominated, includingthe Duchessof Northumberlandand the Marchionessof Camdcn.39 The appointmentof the first womenJPs therefore does not seemto havealtered radically the traditionaldomination of the countymagistracy by landedfamilies, at leastin the early years. In contrast,few of the womenon the list can be identifiedas coming from workingclass backgrounds. Many of the Labournominees actually belonged to the ranksof the middle class,for exampleDorothea Rackham of Cambridge,u Ncwnham graduatewho was president of the Cambridge branch of the Women's Co-opcrutivc Guild (WCG), and Mrs. Donaldson of Peterboroughwho was the wife of u pro- 111folrord Knight, Advancing Women,London, Daniel O'Connor, 1921, p.72. Kent & SussexCourier, 22 October, 1920. » Lady Camdenwas not sworn in as a JP, although her nameappears on the 1920 list. 160 suffrageclergyman60 and Christian Socialist. Thosewomen whose working class credentialscan be establishedwere mainly drawn from organisationssuch as the WCß and the NFWW which would have provided them with the requisite skills and experiencefor work asa magistrateand brought them to the attentionof membersof the Lord Chancellor's Women's Advisory Committee. For example, Mrs. Ada Prosser,who was made a JP in Gloucester,had been educatedat elementaryschool. Shewas active in the NFWW andbecame a memberof its executivein 1918,which undoubtedlymeant she had contact with GertrudeTuckwcll and Mary Macarthur.She was also to becomenational president of the WCG in 1922.61An indication of the rarity of working class nomineescan be inferred from the way Mrs. Smith of Brighton wasalone described in a list of candidatesproposed by the NCW as `a working woman'62 Mrs. Smith (a PoorLaw Guardianwho wasalso proposedby the Women'sFreedom League) was madea JP, but threeother NC\V nomineesin Brightonwere not; perhapsbeing a `workingwoman' was to her advantage. It is possibleto concludethat the majorityof nomineesbelonged to the middlingranks of society,although the term `middleclass' actually conceals a wide varietyof backgroundsand social experiences. In sometowns and cities membersof powerful commercial families were nominated, for example Mrs. Barrow Cadbury was madea JP in Birmingham. Many of the women had close personal tics to the country'spolitical elite. In additionto the pecrcsscsalready mentioned, thcrc were severalwives of formeror currentcabinet ministers or MI's, suchas May Tennant (who wasalso related by marriageto HerbertAsquith) the Liberal I lilda Runciman, and Mrs. SpenderClay of Surrey whose husbandand sister in law (Lady Astor) were I Later Canonof Westminster. SeeChristine Collette, For Labour and For 11'omen, Manchester University Press,1989, Appendix 1, pp. 193-203. " 11ho's Who in Gloucestershire,Hereford, Wilson and Phillips, 1934. a2LMA: ACC 3610/03/002/13. 161 bothConservative MPs. Lady Emmott,one of the R's appointedin London,was marriedto a former Speakerof the I louseof Commons.Wives of MPs andof more minor political figuressuch as mayors continued to featureamong the womenA's appointedby countyadvisory committees in the following years. Therewere a few professionalwomen on the list includingthree doctors (Miss Martindale of Brighton, Miss Scharlicb of Marley Street and Dr. Wilson of Shcfrcld), two collegeprincipals (Miss Penroseof SomervilleCollege, Oxford and Dr. Lane. Clayponof King's Collegefor Womenin London)and oneheadmistress (Miss Faithfull of Cheltenham). During the 1920smore women doctors and educationalists were to find their way onto the magisterial bench, for example Dr. Louisa Garrett Andersonand Jane Frances Dove (headof WycombeAbbey School)in Buckinghamshire,Dr. Ethel Williams in Newcastleupon Tync and BarbaraWootton in London. Theremay have been others on the Lord Chancellor'slist that had some professionalexperience, perhaps before marriage, but this was generallynot mentionedin the citations. Volunteerexperience, on the otherhand, figured very largely. The most commonlycited voluntaryactivity of the new JPswas serving as a PoorLaw Guardian(PLG). Forty-five of the nominccs in England (26.2% of the total) were describedthus. The role of Guardian ensuredthat thesewomen would have had a relativelyhigh public profile locally (eventhough Poor Law electionswcrc not alwayscontested) and would havewhat the selectorswould regardas relevant cxpcricncc.It was,of course,not uncommonfor malemagistrates to be PLGs:after all, the PoorLaw hadonce been the responsibilityof Jl's63 PLGscontinued to feature largelyin lists of womenmagistrates until the replacementof Boardsof Guardiansby " For an exploration of the way in which their experienceas PLGs may have influenced the approach of women magistrates,sec Chapter Five. 162 PublicAssistance Committees in 1930. Fewerwomen were directly electedto the County and County Boroughs that formed thesenew committees although sonic former women PLGs were co-opted onto them. Similarly, thirty-oneof the nomineeswere councillors. Male iPs, particularly in boroughs,were often councillors,seemingly rewarded for their political work with a place on the bench. It appearsthat the women were being drawn from a similar - albeitmuch smaller - volunteerpool asthe men. Of the councillors,eleven were also Guardians.It is probablethat the figuresactually understate the involvementof the women in local politics; many more may have tried and failed to becomea councillor. particularly in the cities where contestedelections were more common. One of the better-knownnew JPs in London was the trade unionist Margaret Bondfield; the fact that shehad been an unsuccessfulLabour candidate for the LondonCounty Council is 64 understandablynot mentionedin the citation, nor is the fact that Mrs. Peaseof Surreywas a local councillor. However,involvement in council work by eithersex, but particularlyby women,was not necessarilyparty political. At leastsome of the increasingnumbers of womenwho wereelected councillors in the yearsimmediately afterthe First World War stoodas Independents,sometimes with the backingof the local Women's Citizens' Association, NUSEC branch or NCW. 63 Perhapsthe best- known `Independent'who becamea JP was Eleanor Rathbonc of Liverpool, who was appointedin the Duchyof Lancaster.Other women stood as `Ratepayers'candidates' or `municipalreformers', descriptions that did not imply that they lackedpolitical views,but that they werenot explicitly labelledas personally attached to a " For details of Bond(ield's political careersee Margaret I3ondfield, Aly Life's Work, London. Hutchinson,1948. 61330 women were electedto Rural and Urban District Councils in the year 1919.20,compared to 215 in 1914.5. Hollis, Ladies Elect, appendix B. 163 Wcstminstcrbased party66. It wasalso a commonpractice to co-optwomcn onto councilcommittees, especially in placeswhere few hadbeen elected, and to committees,such as Education or Child Welfare, where they were thought to have specialexpertise. Nevertheless, despite the imperfectionsin the data,we can concludethat politics musthave played nearly as large a part in the selectionoIthe first women magistratesas it did in the caseof men. Indeed,there was a danger that women were being appointed as a reward for political service,the muchcriticised criterion which, it wascommonly supposed, influencedthe choiceof magistratesmade by local advisorycommittees. I Iowever, the Lord Chancellor's list for England rarely mentions political affiliation, explicitly stating party membershipin only seven instances,six of which arc Labour, one Liberal,and four of which refer to nomineesin London. This may be due to reluctanceon the part of nominees- or the organisationsthat put their namesforward - to mentionpolitics given that the `political' natureof appointmentswas a sensitive issue,or it may reflect a generalperception of womenas essentiallyapolitical. As alreadymentioned, several of the womenwere relatedto politicians, locallyand nationally. Somewere described as `mayoress',but thereis ambiguity whether that indicated that they were themselvesmayor or that they had acted as a mayor'sconsort for a malerelative or friend. In additionto the wives of peersand MPs,the list containedat leastone seniorpolitician's daughter,Lily Montagu,who ran Girls' Clubsin London. Membersof political families continuedto feature amongthose nominated to the benchthroughout the periodstudied. Wivcs and widows of scnior clergymen also fcaturcd, including thosc of the Archbishopof Canterburyand the former Bishopof London. Mrs. Donaldsonof M -Municipal reformers', who stood in the London County Council elections, were in fact mostly Conservatives. 164 i'ctcrboroughwas a bishop'swife. Clcrgy wives canalso be found in the ranksof for early women JPs appointed on the advice of local committees, example Mrs. Robinson,wife of the Dean of Wells, who was appointed in Somersetin 192167and the lion. Mrs. Nardcastle,wife of the vicar of All Saints,Maidstone, who was the first womanon the Maidstoneborough bench. Mrs. I Iardcastlc,whose husband later becameArchdeacon of Canterbury, was made a county magistratein 1927. She was alsothe daughterof the first Earl Goschen,a former Chancellorof the Exchequerand 68 so hadpolitical, aswell asecclesiastical connections. Many of the women magistratesappointed later weredaughters or wives of clergyor wereinvolved in Churchwelfare organisations, particularly the Girls' FriendlySociety (GFS) and the Mother's Union (MU). The Lord Chancellor'slist alsoincluded women who hadbeen co-opted onto local governmentcommittees, most commonly those running education services. The abolitionof SchoolBoards by the 1902Balfour EducationAct hadreduced the numberof electedwomen in chargeof schoolsbut educationauthorities had respondedby co-optingwomen onto thosecommittees where it was felt a feminine inputwas required. Thirty eight of the nominees(22%) weredescribed on the list as having been involved in education or youth work, nearly half of whom (16) had served as co-opted committeemembers and the resteither as volunteers (for example in girls' clubs,on juvenile employmentcommittees or as schoolmanagers) or, in a few cases,as professionals.Experience with youngpeople would be regardedas particularlyrelevant for thosemagistrates who sat in the newjuvcnilc courts,a task for which, as we have seen,women JPs were regardedas most suitable. Hospital 67? he Vote3 June 1921. Mrs. Robinson's sister, Miss Faithfull, was Principal of CheltenhamLadies' college and also a JP. "Kent CountyYear Book 1934-5, Maidstone, Kent Messenger. 165 committeeor RedCross work was alsoa commonexperience for the new women magistrates:twenty-three of the nominees' citations mentioned this type of activity. As onemight expectin a list of this naturecompiled in 1920,war work figured strongly in the citations. The activities concernedwere mostly voluntary and philanthropic in nature, rather than professionalor military. Examples included collecting for prisoner of war parcels, assistingBelgian refugeesand service on a VAD committee.The extensionof statecontrol in war time, coupledwith the pre-war Liberalgovernment's welfare and labourmarket reforms, had given rise to manynew opportunitiesfor womento serveon official bodiesand quasi-judicial tribunals such as county agriculture committees,war pensionscommittees, profiteering committees andNational Insurance tribunals. As youngworking classwomcn were broughtin to manufacturemunitions or work on the land,their older middle classsisters were increasinglyneeded as volunteer organisers or overseers. Indeed,no lessthan 10% of the womenon the Lord Chancellor'slist aredescribed as havingbeen on a National Insurancecommittee, while 22% hadbeen involved in decisionson pensions.Eleven of the nomineeshad been on wartimeFood Committees and ten on the county agriculturecommittees established to co-ordinatework on the land. Fourteenhad scrvcd on a tribunal of some kind. Oneremarkable feature of the careersummaries given on the Lord Chancellor'slist is that they indicatethat only a small numberof the womenchosen to be magistrateshad any direct experienceof the criminaljustice andpenal systems. Of course,in someways this shouldnot be surprising,no doubtmany of the men madeJPs in this era had little knowledge of the justice system either. Furthermore, prior to the SexDisqualification (Removal) Act womenhad hadno formal rolesin the policecourts except those of defendantand witness. As well as beingbarred from the 166 magistracyand judiciary, womenwere unable to act as lawyersor evensit upona jury. Women police were a recent, and in some areas,a barely acceptedinnovation, but were rarely to be seenin court. Some magistratesalso adopted the practice of clearingthe court of all femaleswhen a caseinvolving sensitiveevidence of a sexual nature(for exampleregarding a chargeof `indecentassault') was to be heard.This practiceparticularly enragedfeminists and purity organisations69who argued that, since the witnessesin such caseswere usually female and often very young, the presenceof a sympatheticwoman in court wasessential. The I LomeOff ice concurred,and issued a circular in 1909recommending that `modest'girls neededto be accompaniedby a police matron or suitable women if their mother or a friend was not available.This advicewas reiterated in 1919,yet the ejectionof womenfrom courtscontinued and in somecases in the 1920seven female magistrates were asked to leave70 Nevertheless,many women had for someyears performed unofficial dutiesin the courtsas volunteerprobation workers or as membersor a court rota establishedby women'sorganisations to providesupport for femalewitnesses, 71 and in sometowns and cities in recentyears women probation officers had been employed,although in manyparts of the countrythey were still unheardof. Only six of the nomineeson the Lord Chancellor's list arc describedas having taken part in police court rota work, and although some of the others may have done so but not mentionedit, its relevancemakes that possibility lesslikely. Only four of the womenproposed to be JPsare describedas havingtaken part 72 in prison visiting (Geraldine Cadbury and Mrs. Priestmanof Birmingham, Mrs i9 The National Vigilance Association argued in 1886that a woman or girl had the right to some friendsof her own sex in court when the assumedright to exclude women Is exercised'. Women's Library: NVA minutes, 12 November 1886,. 7°LMA: ACC/3613/1/77, PSMC minutes,27 February 1919. 71The NUWW (later NCW) first introduceda rota in Cambridge in 1913. Sec Chapter One. 77Geraldine Cadbury's work as a volunteer probation officer Is discussedin ChapterThree. 167 Firmstoneof Winchesterand Mrs. Jeffriesof Ipswich)and merelytwo were acknowledgedto belongto a penalreform group- Lady Rylesand Margerytry - both on the London list. Nevertheless,despite this apparentlack of previous experienceor eveninterest in the criminaljustice system,many or the new women magistrateswere to become deeply involved in the work, visiting prisons, acquainting themselveswith penal issues,and in many casesbecoming active in organisations 73 such as the Howard Leagueand the Magistrates' Association. Other nomineesmay havegained experience of the legal systemin otherways, notably May Tennantand Lucy DeaneStreatfield, who were both appointed to the Commission of the Peacein Kent. While employed as Factory Inspectorsby the Home Office in the 1890s,they had beenpersonally responsiblefor conducting prosecutionsof offending employers in court,a role that hadcaused some comment at the time.74 It is worth pointing out that quite a few of the first womenmagistrates were connectedby blood or marriageto menmagistrates or to lawyersor judges. Margery Fry herselfwas a judge's daughter,and according to her biographer. Shewas perhaps a formidablefigure from the other sideof the table her features her father'sjusticiary magistrates' ... took on someof aspect,she seemed a tall womanas shesat. Eierlegal connectionsadditionally proved useful to her in her work as secretaryof the 75 PenalReform League. Miss Stephenson,nominated for Wiltshire on the Lord Chancellor'slist, wasalso the daughterof a judge. Local advisorycommittees sccm to havecontinued to appointwomen with judicial connections,for exampleRachel Wcighall,the first womanmagistrate in Ramsgate,was relatedto the Recorderof 76 Gravcsend, and the first woman JP for the Cinque Ports was the wife of Mr. Justice SeeChapters Five and Six. Tý Their courtroom work is describedby McFeely in Lady Inspectors, pp. 16-17& 34-36. 751 luws Jones,The EssentialAmaleur, pp. 122,113. 76The Times,8 May 1922,p. 7. 168 Sargant.77 Many others were daughtersof JPs. This evidenceof family relationships reinforcesthe impression that the women magistratescame from the samesocial. political and evenjudicial, elite as the men. Severalmarried couples could now actuallyappear on the i3cnchtogether, includingsome of the LordsLieutenant and their ladies,Mr. and Mrs. Tennantin 78 Cranbrook,Kent, and Mr. and Mrs. SpenderClay in Surrey. At first this did not appearto causea problem, although there was some concern in 1921 when a couple 79 sat alone in a court in Brentford. However, the practice of husbandand wife being appointedto the sameCommission was later consideredwith disfavour by the Lord Chancellor's Departmentand couples who were both JPs in the same Petty Sessional district were askedto give undertakingsnot to sit on the Bench at the sametimc. ßo Onefurther element of the first womenmagistrates' experience and backgroundneeds to be examined,their involvementin women'sorganisations. As mentionedabove, feminist bodies such as the Women'sFreedom League, the NCW PublicService Committee, the NUSECand local Women'sCitizens' Associations hadcampaigned for the admissionof womento the magistracyand hadsubmitted lists of suitablenames to the Lord Chancellor'scommittee. Branchesof the Women'sCo- operative Guild, the Railway Women's Guild, the NFWW and the Labour Party did likewise-81One might expect,therefore, that membersof theseorganisations would featurein the list. In fact, membershipof a women'sorganisation is mentioned specificallyin 39 citationson the Lord Chancellor'slist for England- 22.6%of the total. " TheVote, 14 October 1921. "Kent & SussexCourier, 4 February 1921;29 October 1920. 7' The Times,4 July 1921,p. 20. 20Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,1948, p. 33. 61Details of London candidatesare in LMA: LCC/LCTY/36 and the list of the NCW's recommendationsis in LMA: ACC/3613/03/002. 169 Of the organisationsmentioned, the most frequentlycited is the National Council of Women; fourteen of the women on the list held office in the NCW, locally or nationally,and two morewere described as havingbeen involved in the Womcn PolicePatrols movement which was led by the NCW. The prominenceof this body maybe accountedfor in severalways. The NCW had beenenergetic in compiling namesof candidatesit felt were suitable for the magistracy, a processco-ordinated by its PublicService Committee. 82 Establishedin 1910,the committeewas madeup of womenalready engaged in public work, particularlyas councillorsand PoorLaw Guardians,and had members in manyparts of the countrywho sentin namesfor consideration.Its excellentnetwork of middle classsocial activists and its thriving local branchescontributed to the NCW's successin getting so many nominees appointed;but so did the personalconnections and prominence of leadingmembers, includingthe president,Lady Selborne,who was madea JP in Hampshire. Crucially,NCW membersoften possessedthe type of previousexperience in local government,education or youth work that was seenas appropriatefor the magistracyand somemay alsohave been involved in the rotasestablished by NCW branchesto supportwomen and girls who appearedin court. Although mostof the namesthe NCW put forward for the Lord Chancellor's list did not appearon it, many subsequentlybecame JPs after recommendationby local advisory committees. lt is difficult to fathomwhy someof their nomineeswere made JPs, while others,with equally strong qualifications were not. Miss Scott of Tunbridgc Wells, for example, who wasa PoorLaw Guardianand town councilloras well as the long serving secretaryof the Public ServiceCommittee, was not picked. Partof the explanation '2 LMA: PSMC Minute book, 12 February 1920. The committee was renamedthe Public Serviceand Magistrates'Committee in 1921. Their list of nomineescan be found In LMA: ACC3613/03/002/13. 170 maylie in the fact that Lord Birkenheadapparently had no intentionof appointing largenumbers of womento the magisterialbench. In cilect a quota wasapplied. After the NCW, the most frequently mentioned society was the Women's Co- operativeGuild with elevencitations. Labourwomen's sections and women'strade unionorganisations were mentioned in ten cases,but this grouplargely overlapped with the WCG one. Again, evidence from London suggeststhat many of the nomineeswhose nameswere sent in by the WCG and the Labour Party teere not successful,although they may havebeen subsequently appointed through local 83 advisorycommittees. Accordingto Gaffin andThorns, despite the presenceof a substantialmiddle class element among the leaders,the WCG membership was predominantlyworking class,but was biasedtowards `the upperbracket of the 84 manualwage earning group'. It is likely that male working class magistrateswere drawnfrom the samesocial strata. IndividualWCG membersmay or may not have hadstrong feminist convictions, but the organisationencouraged its membersto discussa rangeof topicssuch as 'womenin local govcrnment','womcn as PoorLaw Guardians'and even women's suffrage as early asthe 1890s.85 Memberswere also 86 encouragedto standfor local governmentoffice, includingas PLG. Thereforeit was inevitable that some would find themselvesonto the magisterial bench once women were admitted. 1' LMA: LCCILCTY69. This file containsnames suggested to the Lord Chancellor's Committee thatwere not in fact selectedfor the list. Severalof them,including some nominated by Labourand ! or Co-operativeorganisations later became JPs. " JeanGain and David Thorns,Caring and Sharing: The Centenary 1listory of the Co-operative Women's Guild, Manchester,Co-operative Union Ltd., 1983,p. 19-20. " Ibid., p.44. "Jill Liddingtonand Jill Norris,One Hand Tiedbehind Us, p.138. 171 NotableGuildswomen who weremade magistrates in the early yearsincluded 87 sufi'ragistsl lannahMitchell and SelinaCoopcr. EleanorBarton, who in the Lord Chancellor'scitation wasdescribed as vice-presidentof the NationalGuild, was the mostprominent member to becomea magistrate.Bom Nellie Stocktonin Manchester,Mrs. Bartonwas from a working classbackground. She joined the Guild in 1901 and becamesecretary of the Hillsborough Branch in Sheffield. By 1914 she wasNational President and significantlyshe also servedon the Guild's Citizenship sub-committee. Later, in the 1920s,she took over as National Secretary. According to Gillian Scott, Mrs. Barton had shown `acute sensitivity to the sexual oppressionof working class women' in her evidence on behalf of the WCG to the 1910 Royal Commission on Divorce, but by the 1920shad largely abandonedher feminist 88 convictionsas shebuilt a careerin the LabourParty. Be that as it may, Mrs. Barton apparentlytook an interestin her work asa JP andgave evidence on behalfof the WCG to a numberof official enquiriesincluding the DepartmentalCommittee on CorporalPunishment in 1938.89Altogether there were 137magistrates who belonged to the WCG in 1939 when the organisation had over 87 000 members90 A small numberof the citationsmentioned activity in the Women'sInstitutes movement(the WI). In 1920 the WI was still a relatively new movement, the NationalFederation having been formed only four yearsbefore, so a largeamount of involvcmcnton the part of thoscnominatcd to the magistracyin that yearcannot be cxpcctcd.As PatThane has pointed out, the WI `shouldnot be overlookedwithin the largenetwork of organizationsseeking to encouragewomen to exert their civil 17 The Life Times RespectableRebe/: Selina Jill Liddington, and of a Cooper. 1864 - 1946, London, Virago, 1984,p. 335. Selina Cooper was nominatedby the Nelson Weavers' union and by the local Labour Party. She becamea magistratein 1924. 's Gillian Scott, Feminism and the Politics of Working Women,London, UCL Press, 1998,pp. 170-1, 178. The WCG was opposedto the birching of offenders. '0 Gatlin & Thorns,Caring and Sharing, pp. 88,268. 172 1 drawn from rights'. Ilowever, the WI leadershipin the counties was oven the very social group from which the magistracy itself sprang 'county councillors, membersof parliament, the "landed gentry", the peersof the realm and the officers ofthe interest in Crown', 92a group that might appearto have more than a little vested the statusquo. Perhapsinevitably, therefore, the number of county women magistrates with WI responsibilities rose in the interwar period. By 1934 there were several 93 County WI Federation 'chairmen' on the bench The 1920 list included Lady Denman,the first chairman of the National WI Federation. Whilst there are no grounds for assumingthat all the women nominated were feminists (even according to the broadestdefinition of that term) it seemshighly likely that the descriptions in the Lord Chancellor's list considerably understatedthe involvement of the appointeesin women's organisations,particularly in more overtly feminist bodies such as the suffrage societies. At least three of the successful candidates(Mrs. Nevinson, Mrs. Smith and Miss Tooke) were membersof the Women's FreedomLeague, yet there was no mention of this fact, perhapsbecause of its history as a militant suffrage organisation. Only two women, Mrs. Rackhamof Cambridgeand Mrs. Fawcett, were actually describedas belonging to the 'constitutional' National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. In fact, this organisationwas not mentioned at all under its new title (NUSEC), except in the case of one of the Welsh list, Mrs. Coombe Tennant. however, other evidence suggests that a considerableproportion of the women on the Lord Chancellor's list had in participated suffrage campaigns,although levels of commitment and activity obviously varied. Most of Mrs. Rackham's new female colleagueson the Cambridge "Thane, 'What difference did the Vote make?' p.270. n F.O. Thomas,The Changing Village: an essayon rural reconstruction, London, Nelson, 1939, in Lynne Thompson ' "Conservative pp.72-3, quoted women" and feminist history: the caseof the Institute in England Wales, Women's movement and 1915-1945' (unpublished paper). 93For example,Mrs. holden of Dorset and Mrs. Greenall of Lincolnshire. 173 Benchhad actively supported women's suffrage, Ethel Benthamin Londonhad servedon the NUWSSExecutive and Lucy DeaneStrcattcld hadbeen president of the Sevenoaksbranch in Kent. Yet none of theseroles were explicitly mentioned in the citations. Onecan only speculatewhy suffrageactivity was not specifiedin the Lord Chancellor's list: perhapsit was not seenas strictly relevant to the appointment of magistrates,or wasseen as possessing less cache than elected offices on councilsand PoorLaw Unionswhich werestill, like the Commissionof the Peace,mainly the provinceof men. Anotherpossibility is that membershipof, andsympathy with, women'sorganisations were assumed. It is, after all, unlikely that womenwho were completelyopposed to the conceptof equalcitizenship would haveaccepted nomination,indeed The Votereported that the Marchionessofßute refusedsimply on the groundsthat shedid not approveof womenmagistrates. ' Thereforeit is possible to concludethat eventhose women who hadnot beenactively involved in the suffrage movementor in feministorganisations, were broadly sympathetic with their aims if not their methods,or at leasthad accepted the notion that womenhad a contributionto maketo public service. In anycase, suffragists disagreed amongst themselves and not all hadsupported the NUWSSline. This wasespecially true of Labourwomen who, consciousthat therewere still menwho werenot enfranchised,had campaigned for adult asopposed to women'ssuffrage in the periodbefore the First World War, for examplemembers of the People'sSuffrage Federation, formed in 1909. This body's foundersincluded Mary Macarthurand Margaret Bondticld, both of whom wereon the Lord Chancellor'slist for appointmentas JPs. 95 Me Vote, 14 January 1921 p.330. JuneHannam & Karen Hunt, Socialist Women,London, Routlcdgc, 2002, p. 122. 174 The Lord Chancellor'slist gaveno indicationof the agesof the appointees. but of the twentyseven individuals whose age I havebeen able to discover,rnren werein their forties or fifties, sevenwere over sixty (including the eldest,Dr. Scharlicb,who was seventy-five)and five in their thirties, the youngestbeing thirty. four. Datathat I havecollected on otherwomen who becameJPs in the 1920s demonstratesa similar pattern,96 except that the appointmentof womenover seventy wasa rareoccurrence. The likely explanationfor this changeis that the Lord Chancellor'slist, evenmore than other, more routine appointments to the commission of the Peace,may havebeen used as a type of honourslist, to recognisethe contributionswhich individual womenhad madein their chosenfield (suchas that of the seventyfour year old Mrs. Fawcett) despite the oft - expressedcontention that a placeon the magisterialbench should not be regardedas the `knighthoodof the 97 underlings' Local committeeswere less likely to makenew magistratesof the over-seventies,although at this stageexisting ones were allowed to carry on 98 unhindered. The backgroundsand experienceof the twenty nomineesin Walesfollow a similar patternto their counterpartsin England. Most of themhad experience in local governmentor voluntary organisations,and in some cases,their sixcial suitability for work in juvenile courtswas stressed. Lady Cory of Glamorganwas cited for her `publicand county work' but in the caseof Lady Rhonddaonly her directorshipof `theAnglo - ArgentineCoal Companyand other industrialundcrtakings'99 was mentionedand not her involvementin feminist organisationssuch as the National Overall, i have identified 6 women appointed in their thirties, 31 in their forties, 23 in their fillies and 15 aged60 and over. "This phrase,or somethinglike it, is supposedto have been first used by 11.0. Wells. It is used in this ricular form by `A Barrister' in Justice In England p. 13. Compulsoryretirement was not introduced until after the 1948 Royal Commissionrecommended it. 'ý Skyrme,History of the Justices of the Peace Vol. 3, p. 1322. 175 Women'sCitizens' Association,of which shewas shortly to becomepresident. 1icr earlier militant activities as a member of the WSPU and consequentimprisonment were certainly not mentioned. WOMEN MAGISTRATES AFTER 1920 The questionof how representativethe womenrecommended by the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee were of the early women magistrateswere needsto be addressed.The data that I have collected on those appointed by local advisory committeessuggests that they werenot untypicalin socialclass terms and with regard to their previous experience,although the evidencethis assertion is basedon is somewhatbiased towards the `great and the good', that is the more prominent of the womencitizens appointed to the bench.100 In the caseof the CountyCommission for Kent, I haveobtained information on twenty-fourout of the forty-onewomen who becameJPs before 1932. This evidenceseems to confirm the generalpicture conveyed in this chapterof mainly well connected,well-to-do women (and a few lessaffluent membersof the WCG or LabourParty) who broughtvaluable voluntary and committee work expertiseto their work on the bench. The Lord Chancellor's advisors had not set this pattern, rather theyfollowed that which hadbeen established in the precedingyears by the appointmentsof mento the Commissionsof the Peace,in which party political considerationsseem to haveplayed a largepart, togetherwith the old boys' (or old girls') nchvork. Likewise, there are few surpriseswhen a larger group of women A's is analysed.Those women magistrates listed in the Ilutchinson's 1934Woman's 117ro's 100Sec Appendix D. 176 Who"' for whom biographicalinformation has been found havesimilar profilcs to thosediscussed above. In the counties women JI's were overwhelmingly middle or upper class; some were married to landowners,some to professionalssuch as clergymenor doctorsor lawyersand manyto councillorsand JI's. Countrywomen sometimesexpressed an interestin farming,gardening and evenhunting in their Who's Who entries. Involvement in philanthropic voluntary organisationssuch as the British RedCross Society, `rescue work', the NSPCC,Girl Guidesand nursingand hospitalcharities also featuredstrongly. In both countiesand boroughs many women magistrates,both marriedand unmarried, continued to haveexperience as PLGs, school managersand as local councillors or had experienceof local government committees,especially those concernedwith education, maternity and child welfare. Some(usually unmarried) women JPs had worked as teachersand a few weredoctors. Wheremembership of women'sorganisations was specified, the NCW and the WI werethe mostfrequently cited bodies,with the formerpredominant in urbanareas and the latter in the country, and the WCG continuing to be cited by a number of (mainly) boroughmagistrates. As in the Lord Chancellor's list, party affiliation was rarcly mentioned in Il7ro's Whoentries and when it was, it was usually in connection with formal office, mostcommonly in Conservativeand Unionist Women'sAssociations and morerarely in the Labourand Liberal Parties.Only a few mentionedtrade union activitiesand court-relatedwork such as prison visiting was still remarkably rare. Occasionally involvement in pressuregroups was mentioned, for example temperancesocieties or the Leagueof Nations Union. Of course,evidence drawn from Who's ff%o is highly partial and self selective (many women JPs had no entry at all or a simple name and 101The WVoman'sWho's Who, London, Ilutchinson 1934, p.678-749. 177 address)but it canbe usedas a roughguide to the backgroundsand prior cxpcricncc of the women magistratesof the 1930s. The geographicaldistribution of the early women magistrateswas very uneven.Some petty sessionaldivisions were well covered(such as the boroughof Cambridge,for which therewere five nomineeson the Lord Chancellor'slist). Others still had all-male benchesin the mid-1930s. Nevertheless,most Lord Lieutenants seemto have complied with the Lord Chancellor's wish in 1921 that women should be put on the countyadvisory committees to recommendother membersof their own 102 scx. However, there was much talk that the bencheswere already well staled and the numbersof women appointed rose only slowly after the initial burst of activity. As shown in Chapter Two, these issuesgave the feminist organisationsa focus for continuedcampaigning in the 1920sand 1930s,to achievean increasein the number of womenJPs and to ensurethat at leastone, and preferably more, were appointed to cachborough bench and county division. It is evidentthat the new womenmagistrates of the 1920sand early 1930s weremainly middle agedand middle class,with the necessarytime, money,domestic help- andsometimes, enthusiasm - to devoteto their new role. While somedid not find the work of the petty sessionalcourt to their taste and soon gave it up, 103and a few merely treated `JP' as an honorific title, many of the appointeeswere to take their newresponsibilities very seriously,studying the law, attendingconferences and lectures,visiting prisonsand other institutionsand attending their local courts regularly. Whetherthey really werea new type of magistratein strictly social tcrms is a mootpoint. Only detailedresearch into the socialbackgrounds and political 102The Times, 16 September1925, p. S. 103 Lady Denman. GervasI Iuxley, Lady For cxample, Denman 1884 -1954, London, Chatto 1t` Windus, 1961, p. 109. 178 allegiancesof a similar groupof maleJPs would determinewhether thcrc wasany discernabledifference in this regard. No official surveywas conducted until the 1940swhen researchwas undertakenfor the Royal Commission on Justicesof the Peace. Its resultssuggested that a rathersmaller proportion of womenmagistrates thanmen came from wageearning sections of the community(7.7% comparedto 15%) and that the proportion of women without `gainful occupation' was far higher thanamong men. 104 However, the findingswere complicated by the different waysin which the Commissiondefined the socialclass of womenand men. While menwere classifiedaccording to occupation,women were classified twice, by 'actual occupation'and by `sectionof the community'. As the Reportadmitted, this resulted in less reliable figures for women as opposedto those for mcn.1°5 Indeed, over 10% of femalejustices were unclassified by the secondmethod. Nevertheless,there were clear differences between women magistrates and their malecolleagues. The Royal Commission'sdata suggests that women magistrateswere, on the whole, moremiddle-class than their malecounterparts and it is probablethat they weremore time-rich. Consequentlythey were likely to havehad moreexperience of voluntarywork and lessof the world of businessand of waged work. The sameresearch showed that a higher proportion of female than male 106 magistrateswere under sixty yearsof age. Taken together, theseresults indicate importantdifferences between the sexeson the bench. On average,a woman magistratein the 1940swas younger and more middle classthan her malecounterpart andhad more time (and,probably, energy) to devoteto her official dutics. Thcs= factorswere of utmost importance in allowing women magistratesto nuke thcir mark on the administration of justice in the three decadesafter their first appointment. Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,Cmd 7463,1948, p. 5.6. 10sIbid. 10'Ibid. 179 CIIAPTEIR FIVE `A SIGNAL SUCCESS'?1 WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE OF THE, MAGISTRACY, 1920-1950 The importance that contemporary feminists attachedto women's work in the magistracymay be inferred from comments such as that of Dame Maria Ogilvie Gordon JP, made nearly two decadesafter the 1918 Representationof the People Act. Speakingat a NCW conferenceon the statusof womenheld in 1937,Dame Maria (founderof the NationalWomen's Citizens Association and one of the first women Ps to be appointed)gave an up-beatassessment of her work andthat of her fellow women magistratesclaiming that `the most signal successthat had been achieved by womenin recentyears was in their unpaidposition as magistrates'. One wondersto whatextent other women JPs - andtheir malecolleagues - agreedwith her asscssmcnt. This chapterwill endeavourto exploresome of the experiencesand work of womenmagistrates, their attitudes,their reactionsand thoseof their malecolleagues duringtheir first threedecades of activity. Severalaspects of the magistrates'roles and relationshipswill be consideredboth inside and outside the courts. The initial receptionof womenin the courtswill be examinedtogether with the attitudesthat womenmagistrates themselves developed and displayedtowards their work. It will be arguedthat the earlywomen JPs approached their new role in a mannerinformed by their previousinvolvement in philanthropyand in feminist campaigns,particularly the women'ssuffrage movement. The explorationwill be precededby some The Times7 May 1937,p. 9. Ibid. reflectionsconcerning one of the main sourcesfor the early womenmagistrates' experiences,namely their autobiographicaland other writings and biographies. The notion of `experience'is fraughtwith difficulties but womenmagistrates (andsome men) sometimes recorded their thoughtsand impressionson paper, particularlyin their autobiographicalworks. Over six hundredwomen magistrates have been identified in the course of this research,about thirty of whom either left publishedmemoirs dealing to a greateror lesserextent with their work asA's or providedcontemporary records of their views in journals, speechesor in evidenceto committees. A further dozen or so have been the subject of published biographies by authorsranging from family membersor friends to academicresearchers. Relevant memoirs generally took the acceptedform of biographical narrative, emphasising`action, information, world eventsand goals' 4 `Theirauthors perceived that their life andexperiences were worth recordingas individual and exceptional,an assumptionoften groundedin the fact that their lives' work hadbeen performed in an arenafrom which womenof previousgenerations had been excluded, such as politics, academia,the medicalprofession and, not least,the magistrates'bench. `heir assumptionof the mantleof `pioneer'thus validated the potentialimportance of their memoirs to the reading public and therefore to themselves. For some authors, who devoteda chapteror moreto their work asa magistrate,this wasa major part of their livcs andseemingly of greatsignificances But for others,particularly those who had parliamentarycareers, Appointment to the Bench was less significant, an cxtrcmc examplebeing Margaret Bondfield whose only referenceto her appointmentas a A' I The memoirsof two male magistrates,Basil llenriqucs and Claud Mullins, are also significant in the context of this study. K. Reynolds& N. Bumble,Victorian Heroines, New York UniversityPress, 1993, p. 137. For example,Ilannah Mitchell, Margaret Wynne Nevinson, Louisa Martindale and Lillian Faithfull. I lowever, Mrs. Nevinson's accountis more concernedwith her general principles, rather than the detail of court room work, perhapsbecause she was already elderly when she becamea magistrateand was a writer of other works, including fiction andjournalism. 181 cameon the title pageof her book. Generallythe biographieswritten by someone other than the subject give only passingattention to their work as a magistrate,with the significant exception of Janet Whitney's Geraldine S. Cadbury (1948). However,some of the most significantearly women magistrates did not leave a memoir,for exampleGeraldine Cadbury and Mrs. Rackham(whose no-nonscnse views, according to her niece, were that she was much more interestedin the present thanthe pastand thought that too manypeople had written their memoirs)6 But, as Julia Swindellshas pointed out, autobiographycan appear in the guiseof any disciplineand some of the other sourcesupon which this chapterwill draw also 7 contain autobiographicalelements drawn from personalexperiencC Although GeraldineCadbury did not write a work explicitly concerningher life, her published bookon thejuvenile courtscontains a shortpassage about her own work as a magistrate.8 Her commentsas a memberof variousHome Office committees, recordedin reportsand minutes,are also illuminating. Similarly, while Mrs. Rackhamleft no personalmemoir, her opinionscan be ascertainedfrom the many articlesshe wrote on the magistracyfor the Women'sLeader. Evidenceof the attitudesof otherwomen magistrates appeared in the feministand non-feministpress in letters and articles and can often be gaugedin a close reading of the minutes of their organisations. Magistratememoir writers of both scxcsnot only includedtheir personal experiencesin their books. They also were apt to draw upon the legal discoursesof their timt whenreferring to their work in court and frequentlybetrayed their political attitudesand social prejudices. No memoiror biographycan presenta complete pictureof a life uncomplicatedby theoryor subjectivityor in isolation from its social, `The Women's Library: taped interview with Miss Tabor by Brian i larrison. November 1975. 'Julia Swindells, The UsesofAutoblography, London, Taylor & Francis, 1995, p.3. Secabove, pp. 135-6. 182 political andmoral context. In her secondvolume of autobiography,Lilian Faithfull. the former headmistressof CheltenhamLadies' College, included a chapter entitled `Women and the Law'. She openedthe chapter with her appointment to the magistrate'sbench and her initial reactions,preceded by a quotationfrom Deuteronomy,thus explicitly placing her views in a Judaic - Christian context. Aller someobservations upon her work as a magistrate,Miss Faithfull turned to the theory which underpinnedher conception of the magistrate's role: `we want to create order wherethere has been disorder, peace and harmony where there has been conflict, the 9 reign of law where there has been lawlessness' Drawing upon the works of Shakespeareand other writers, she continued her relatively abstractdiscourse upon justice, law and order for several pages,eschewing the anecdotalapproach adopted by othermemoir writers andrevealing the extentof her formal literary and religious cducation. Lessexplicitly intellectualapproaches can also revealthe author'sclass bias as well astheir generationalperspective. In recountingher experienceof the London juvenile courtsLady CynthiaColville identifieda seriesof socialchanges that had,in her opinion,brought about a deteriorationin the behaviourof youngpeople; the `abdicationof parents', the growth of peer pressure,working mothers, and `the increasein the broken homes enormous number of ... the root cause' of the 'serious increasein juvenile delinquency'. Shewent on to bemoanthat `womenhave lost to a largeextent that amazingvocation for fortitudeand endurance that was once,perhaps, the greatestglory of their sex'. Instead: The over-indulgent parents,the absenteemother, the lack of any fixed standardof right and wrong, the silly sexy stories that constitute the bulk of light reading matter, the dramatic presentationof violence... these ignoble ideals of popular literature and thought undoubtedly contribute to ' Faithfull, Lilian M. The Evening Crowns the Day, London, Chatto & Windus, 1940. p25. 183 lowering is a general of standards,and nowhere this ... more observable thanin the caseof the adolescentgirl of today.1° Writing her memoirs in the 1960s,Lady Colville was obviously disturbed by what she perceivedto be socialtrends of the day,which in her view could only havenegative effects. Thusshe revealed her prejudicesas well asan elderlyautobiographer's inability to cometo termswith youngergenerations. It is generally recognisedthat one of the main weaknessesof memoirs as accuratehistorical source material is that they arc written retrospectively,usually towardsthe endof a long andeventful life and with the benefitof hindsight. Biographiescan presentfurther difficulties. Firstly, the original sourcessuch as diaries or letters have been filtered through another mind and often are made to conformto the presentationof a relativelyunambiguous reading of a character, complementaryor otherwise,and the narrativeof a life story. A biographernaturally emphasisesthose aspects of their subject'sactivities on which they placegreatest importance,or believetheir readerswill. A relevantexample is ViscountG%%yncdd's accountof his mother,Margaret Lloyd George,which concentrateson her domesticity while giving scantattention to her public work. lie concludeda brief list of her VA activities,including the Women'sLiberal Association,Women's Institute and local governmentas well as the CaernarfonCounty Bench, with the comment `about these " achievementsand honours she never talked'. His partiality is clear, while shemay not havespoken about these aspects of her life to him, it is possiblethat shedid talk Megan, about them with other family memberssuch as her daughter, whose career as an MP she apparently encouraged. '*Cynthia Colville, Crowded Life, London, Evans Bros., 1963, pp. 139-142. II Viscount Gwynedd,Dame AMargaret.p. 200. 184 Secondly,the very selectionof biographicalsubject is in itself problematic. As Liz Stanleyhas pointed out the `worthy' candidatesfor auto/biographicalstudy arc 12 usually from a relatively privileged social position, well educatedand scll connected.Women magistrates form no exceptionto this rule. They wereanyway predominatelydrawn from the upperand middle classes,although there were one or two exceptions,notably Hannah Mitchell, who wrote her own lively account of her " life, and Selina Cooper, the subject of a biography by Jill Liddington. Oral history, with its ability to record`history from below' andthe life experiencesof the not so greatand good can be usedto supplementwritten memoirsbut, sincethe first women magistrateswere appointed over eightyyears ago, its usehas not beena viable option 14 for this study. One is therefore inevitably left mostly with the views of the most articulateand loquacious of the womenmagistrates who cithcr left evidencein contemporarysources such as newspapers,journals, diaries and evidence to I lome Office committees,or who havebeen the subjectof auto/biographicalwriting, generallywomen of highersocial status whose lives were regardedby themselvesor othersas somewhatexceptional. Despitethese difficulties, it is possibleto constructfrom the availablesources a picture of the work of the early women magistratesand ascertainsome of their (and their male colleagues)thoughts and feelings about it. However, it is impossible and probablydangerous to maketoo manygeneralisations. The earlywomen magistrates were,despite their relativelyhomogeneous class backgrounds and sharedexperiences of womanhood,a very diversegroup. Oneof the starkestdifferences is immediately Liz Stanley TheAuto/biographical '1', ManchesterUniversity Press, 1993,p. 8. 13 Mitchell, The (lard Way Up; Liddington, The Life and Timesof a RespectableRebel. Commentsof two working classwomen JPs,Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Yearn, were also reproducedIn Life As WeHave Known It by Margaret Llewellyn Davies, London, Virago, 1977. Both membersof the Women's Co- operativeGuild, their memoriesare mostly concernedwith their involvement in the labour movement. An interview was conductedwith Mrs. J. Pepperof Canterbury, a London JP appointed in the 1970s, for comparativepurposes. 185 obvious: the varying degreesof commitment that they had to the work or a magistrate. LadyDenman quickly decidedthat it was not for her. Accordingto her biographer, after her appointment: Trudie duly took her place on the Bench at Hayward's I Icath. It was not long before she resigned. She thought that the Chairman was weak and allowed the Clerk to bully witnessesoutrageously. Since the Chairman was unlikely to resign and the Clerk could not be removed, she felt she had better things to do than sit in Court fretted and frustrated by matters which she had no power to alter.'5 Onewonders how manyother magistrates experienced similar frustrationbut chose insteadto sit and suffer in silence. As usual,it is the silencesand omissionsin the historical record that are really interesting. Not all JPs thought that their magisterial work was worthy of much comment. Hilda Runciman, who was a member of two benches(in Londonand Northumberland) nevertheless made little referenceto this role in her diaries,which arereplete with informationabout her husband'spolitical contacts.A rarecomment concerned a `tediouslylong session'in Northumberlandin 16 which therewas `nothingof greatinterest'. On the otherhand there were women - includingsuffragists - who seemto havereally enjoyedplaying the part of magistrateand even made it one of the main foci of their public work. Notableexamples include Mrs. Keynes,Mrs. Rackham, Margery Fry, Miss Tuckwell, Miss Hartland (the Secretaryof Gloucester's Women Magistrates'Association) and several other lessprominent women who took an active role in the Magistrates'Association, the NOW's Public Serviceand Magistrates' '? Committee (PSMC) and other public forums. One such was Miss Tookc, a W1.'L memberwho representedthe GatesheadBench on the Council of the Magistrates' Association.The fragmentaryevidence about Miss Tooke,mostly in the form of local 15Gervas I luxley Lady Denman GQE, p. 109. "Newcastle Upon Tyne University Library: Ref WR Add 6,11ilda RuncimanDiaries, 8 May 1931. The work of theseorganisations will be examinedin Chapter Six. r yr 186 ýý b 18 newspapercuttings, suggeststhat she was a committed feminist and 'colourful personality'19who clearly enjoyed her work on the Bench and was forced to give up againsther will in 1950 after thirty years becauseshe was over eighty. 'I am not 20 retiring or resigning' she told the press,'I have been taken oft' Miss Tooke was obviouslythoroughly dedicated to her role asmagistrate and a little resentfulthat it had beentaken away from her by the new rules introduced after the Royal Commission. JOINING THE BENCH The senseof commitment of some of the early women magistratescan be gaugedfrom their reactions to appointment. Many were aware that the letters'JIl" shouldnot be treatedmerely as valedictory. Mrs. ElizabethAndrews, a Labour organiserand JP in the Rhonddadistrict of SouthWales, wrote that `beinga magistratebrings great responsibility. Many seemto look upon this appointment moreas a personalhonour than an opportunityfor serviceto thosewho havefallen by the wayside'. 1 Despiteher very different socialstatus, Lady StellaReading made a similar point whenshe told the AmericanBar Associationthat `to be appointeda JP is an honour - but it is an honour which can only be won by personal merit and can only 22 be retainedby hard work'. There was already a voracious appetite for hard work amongstthe charityworkers and PLGswho madeup the bulk of the new women Shewas also the subject of a profile in The Voteand sometimescontributed articles to that paper. "The GatesheadTieres, 31 January 1947. mArticle from unknownpaper dated 18 May 1950in cuttingsbook, Gateshead Public Library. 2' ElizabethAndrews, A WVoman'sWork Is Never Done, Glamorgan,Cymric Democrat Publishing Company,1957, p 41. 22 it 's the Job that Counts: Extractsfrom the Speechesand {tiritings of the Dowagcr Countessof Reading BaronessSwanborough in Colchester,1973. , printed p. 134. The speechquoted here was delivered in 1964 in New York. Two Lady Readingswere both JPs; Stella was the secondwife of the first Marquis (Rufus Isaacs)and Eva (nee Mond) was married to the second. Stella, «ho established the WVS in the late 1930s,took the title BaronessSwansborough when she becameone of the first womento sit in the I louse of Lords with fellow magistrateBarbara Wootton. Eva was presidentof the NCW from 1957to 1959. To distinguish them in this text I shall use their first names. 187 magistrates,evidenced by their willingnessto undertaketraining and learnnil about the job23 Iiowever, when the first women JPs were appointed there were some who wereundoubtedly especially conscious of the fact that they wereto be permittedto go wherenone of their sexhad been before. For former suffragistsin particular,their chanceto sit on a magistrates' bench, so long symbolic of male power and of women's exclusion from citizenship, was deeply significant. Yet many of them seem to haveapproached this new work with a greatdeal of humility as well as enthusiasm. Chairingone of the first conferencesof womenmagistrates, Mrs. Fawcettwas reportedto haveexpressed her ignoranceconcerning her new role and willingnessto 24 learn from the speakers. Although she was already in her seventies,she becamea regularattender at the Iiolbom benchwhere she heard education summonses. Accordingto her biographer,Ray Strachey,`Mrs. Fawcetttook greatpains to follow future defaulters up the careersof young ... andtook muchpersonal trouble to secure goodopenings and a freshstart for someof the boyswhose cases came before her. HannahMitchell temperedher professionof humility with somepride in her understandingof humannature. `I am not going to pretendthat I addedmuch wisdom or lustre to the magisterial bench', she wrote, `but my suffrage cxperience and Poor Law work had taught me a lot about my fellow men and women'. 26 Mitchell thus explicitly recognisedthe significanceof her earlieractivities with regardto her new role. Indeed,she had briefly found herselfin the dock of the magistrates'court some yearsbefore as a resultof pro-suffrageactivity. Shewas by no meansthe only 23See Chapter Six. 14The Times, I December1920, p. 9 n Ray Strachey,Afillicent Garrett Fawcett, London, John Murray, 1931, p.337.8. 26Mitchell, Tire Ilard Way Up, p.227 188 womanJP of her generationwho could claim experienceof both sidesof the law und wasentirely typical in respectof her first-handknowledge of poor law administration. JaneHarrison, a renowned Cambridge classicist and suffragist was not unwilling to admit her inexperiencewhen she was appointed to the Bench. 1, too, am a Justice of the Peace. I mention this not as an empty boast, but in all humility becausemy short experienceas a magistratetaught me much. I should like every young man and woman to go through this experiencefor a year or two and not wait until they are sixty and it is too late to becomea good citizen. I must say at once that I was quite useless on the Bench. I have really no head for business,and am prone to observe only the irrelevant. A candid friend told me that I had beenchosen just "to representArt and Letters" and that therefore only an elegant indolence was expectedof me. Still, I like to rememberthat I saveda poor Armenian from a fine. 7 Harrison's stylistic modesty in this ambivalent passageis carefully constructedand shouldnot be takentoo literally. Yet thesecomments may suggestthat her feelingsof constitutionalinferiority werestrongly entrenched, even internalised. She hints that in someways the eraof equalcitizenship had come too late for someoneof her generation. It is a moot point whether a man with an equivalent career to I Iarrison's would haveadmitted to suchemotions in a memoir:was her lack of a `headfor business'a consequenceof her genderedsocialisation or the constructionof an academicstereotype - the absent-mindedprofessor? Ultimately, as Mary t3cardhas pointed out Harrison's memoir `is a brilliant piece of writing from an elite culture in ironic highly how which seif-depreciationwas prized.., a wonderfulexample of ... 2 confessioncan be the mosteffective form of boasting' It thereforeserves as an excellent reminder of the multiple meaningsof autobiographical works. r lane i larrison Reminiscencesof a Student's Life, London, I logarth Press, 1925,p. 31. u Mary Beard, The Invention ofJane Harrison, Cambridge,Mass., I larvard University Press,2000, p. 9. 189 WORKING WITH MEN Havingtaken their placeon the magisterialbench newly appointedwomen then had to negotiatetheir relationships with their male colleagues,both fellow magistratesand clerks. This sectionwill examinethe reactionsof somemen - so far asthey can be ascertained- andthe difficulties that aroseonce the sexeswere mixed upon the bench, as well as the perspectivesof women magistratesand their reactions to the problems. Time and Tide was of the opinion in 1920 that certain' gentlemenseem to find the presenceof womenmagistrates less subversive than that of womenjurors'. But despitetheir `friendly courtesy' the magazinesuspected that the underlying attitude was the same. They scarcely feel that it is fitting that women should have the power to judge casesin which men only are involved; on the other hand they believe that their point of view will be of some value when adjudicating in casesof a domestic nature. They are, however, most exercisedas to that type of caseclassified as "unpleasant". They dislike thesecases themselvesand dislike - exceedingly- the idea of having to listen to them 29 in the presenceof women Indeed,some men made their oppositionto womenmagistrates unequivocally clear. Whenthe writer E.M. Dclaficld wasappointed in Devon(under her real name. Elizabeth Dashwood) a fellow magistrate resignedin protest30and the Kingston bench 31 allegedlyrefused to allow a womanjoin them Evidencesuggests that someclerks, solicitorsand even policemen made their objectionsto womenmagistrates clear in court. Generally,initial malehostility to womenmagistrates seems to havebeen more covert than overt although there were noteworthy exceptions, such as the solicitor who complainedthat the presenceof a womenJP hamperedhing in the 29Time and Tide Volume 1, p.519 (5 September1920). '0 Powell, Life of a Provincial Lady, p.56. 31The Vote, 16 June 1925. 190 32 presentationof a client's case Male colleaguesmay havemade remarks in private 33 or to oneanother of which we haveno historicalrecord The recordedmemories of womenmagistrates rarely - if ever- refer to anytension between the sexes;t lannah Mitchell recalledthat her colleaguesliked her `becausethey liked a good laugh'.34 In public malejustices were more likely to hold the line that theywelcomed the new female additions to their benches. The attitudeof the Chairmanof the benchwould no doubt be influential and the welcomefrom somemen was probably genuine. The Mayor of Gatcshcadwas reportedto have said in 1920 that `the innovation of the appointment of lady magistrateswas in harmonywith the spirit of the times' and alsopaid tribute to 35 women's social and philanthropic work, war work and service in local govcmmcnt We canonly speculatewhether these remarks reflected his real views, or werean exampleof the `political correctness'of the time, althoughMiss Tookeof Gateshead attestedthat her malecolleagues were welcoming. `I put down a gooddeal of my successto the fact that North countrymen are much more progressivein their ideas 36 andconsequently easier to work with' shetold readersof The Vote Undoubtedly,as Timeand Tideappears to suggest,there were many subtle forms of antipathy to the introduction of women magistrates. Latent hostility some yearsafter their introduction is evidencedby remarks made to ai lomc Office Committeeby the Chief Metropolitan(Stipendiary) Magistrate, Sir Chartresl3iron, in 1928. Sir Chartresmade no direct objection to women magistratesyet criticised `cvcry ideas sort of crank ... you get peoplewith pre-conceived ... unmarriedwomen who think they have a mission to manageother people's children' and rejected the Reportedin the Women'sLeader, 3 December1922. A rare exception is the view of Sir laugh Bcll reported by Elizabeth Robins. Mitchell, The ! lard Way Up, p.227. "Gateshead Library NewspaperCuttings Book, 1914-22,volume 2, p. 63. u The Vote, 12 September1920, p. 194. 191 suggestionthat womenJPs could help in affiliation cases.'There arc very nice points of law which arise. I do not seehow womencould help us at all. '37 I3iron's views wereprobably shared by a majority of his colleagueswho seemto havebeen resistant to anyinvolvement in their work by lay magistratesin generaland womenin 38 particular. However,there may havebeen some improvement in relationsbetween lay andstipendiary magistrates in Londonduring the 1930sas, according to MadeleineSymons a few yearslater, they were `mostcordial' 39 Criticism of womenJPs in Londonwas not confinedto stipendiaries.A lay magistratewrote to the Home Office in 1930 complaining that women on the Juvenile Court panel failed to turn up for court sessionsbecause they made their social engagementsa higher priority. At first sight his allegation might seemjustified given the largenumber of well connected,society ladies appointed in London. I lowcver, the Clerk to the JuvenileCourt at Bow Streetrefuted his accusationand repliedthat `If I haveto makea comparisonI shouldincline to the view that the womenare keenerthan the men'. 40Home Office opinionas reflected in the PRO files tendsto indicatethat officials viewedthe complainantrather than the womenas the problem, althoughthey took actionto ensurethat the courtswere adequately covered during the August holiday period. The arrival of womenon the magisterialbench inevitably gave rise to considerablediscussion about social etiquette, particularly concerning items of apparel. In January 1921 The Times reported that: "PRO: 11045/13777:minutes of evidenceto the Ilome Office committee on the Metropolitan Police Courts, 10 December1928 nos. 96 & 136. " Seesection on the Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Bill. There were exceptionsto the generalantipathy of metropolitanmagistrates towards women and lay JPs, notably Cecil Chapman,Clarke I lall and Claud Mullins. 39LMA: PSMC minutes, 17 December 1936. 40PRO: 11045/15746/5. The complainanthad absolved Lady Jersey,Lady St I Iciicr, Dr. Scharlicb and Dame Millicent Fawcctt from his criticism. 192 Sir IIcnry Mather-Jackson,presiding at Monmouth Quarter Sessions yesterday,rebuked the women magistratesLady Mather-Jackson,Mrs. Jamesand Mrs. Parry for not removing their gloves. `If you had been witnesses' he said, `I should have askedyou to take off your gloves'. Miss Jamesapologised, but Sir I Ienry said he was not sure if it was 1 contempt of court. It is possiblethat, in this period,presiding magistrates and judges routinely bullied women witnessesin court over the question of their attire. In 1932 The Times reporteda casein Aldershot where the Chairman of the Bench criticised a female 42 witness for not appearingin a hat and disallowed her expensesclaim as a result In November 1942 a similar incident in a court of the King's Bench, when a young 43 woman was ordered by the judge to cover her head, led to questionsbeing asked in parliament.According to Mr. Burden, a Labour MP, the Archbishop of Canterbury hadruled that, giventhe wartimeshortage of materials,women could go to church hatless4' The following month the Lord Chancellor announcedthat `in view of a in habitsit insist certainchange social seems... unnecessaryto on strict compliance [with the] practice'of wearinghats in court45 however,despite the Lord Chancellor'sruling, headwearremained a matter for concernfor womenJPs after the SecondWorld War. Ihre GloucesterWomen MagistratesAssociation discussed the questionas to whetherbare female heads constituteda contemptof court at a meetingin 1946.46Later, in the 1960s,Mrs. Anncrsley,Chairman of the Benchin RonaldBlythe's Akenfreld, said `noneof us womenmagistrates wear hats - we're uniqueI think! I won't wearone. I get confusedin a hat. My headgets hot and I get hopelcss.'47 For Mrs. Annersieya hat The Times,6 January 1921,p. 6. 12The Times,30 August 1932,p. 8. " Ibid., 17 November 1942, p.5. N Ibid., 26 November 1942, p. 8. 45Ibid., 10 December1042., p. 8. 4611110LC02/4596; GCRO:GWMA minutes2 July 1946. '7 Ronald Blythe Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (I larmondsworth: Allen Lane. 1969)p. 231. 193 wasevidently an emblemof femininity that impededher ability to think clearly: for others it was more a mark of class. Writing in the 1970sabout a magisterial career that beganin the 1930s,Charis Frankenburgalso rejected convention and demonstratedher awarenessof the role of dressas a socialemblem. `There is divided opinion on whether a woman magistrateshould wear a hat in court' she wrote. 'i never did, as certainly in a district such as Salford, a hat is a caste mark and separates the wearer from her clients.'48 However, it seemsthat the practice died very slowly amonglady magistratesand the debateas to whetheror not to weara hat continued 49 into the 1970sin some areas, indicating the slow pace of change in an innately conservativesystem of justice andthe importancewhich continuedto be attachedto gcndereddistinctions of dress.Unlike the wig and gown of barrister and judge, the hatsof womenmagistrates, be they fussyor plain, were signalsof genderand class ratherthan professionalism and authority. In the early dayssome male magistrates seem to haveconveyed an attitudeof condescensiontoward their new colleaguesborne out of the kind of chivalry that manyfeminist women in the 1920sfound so irritating. JaneHarrison told the story of an occasionwhen a police constablerefused to repeatthe `foul' languageor a prisoner to the court. The clerk addedthat he had had the "language" typed and a copy would be handedround if the Bench desired. The Bench did desire, and it was circulated. The unknown to me has always had an irresistible lure, and all my life I have had a curiosity to know what really bad languageconsisted of. In the stablesat home I had heard an occasional "damn" from the lips of a groom, but that was not very informing. Now was the chance of my life. The paper reachedthe old gentlemannext to me. I had all but stretchedout an eagerhand. IIc bent over me in a fatherly way and said, "I am sureyou will not want to seethis". I was pining to read it, but sixty "Charis U. FrankenburgNot 014 Madam, Vintage, Lavcnham,Galaxy Hooks, 1975, p. 145. '9 Conversationwith Fr. Paul Gibbons JP, Maidstonc, May 2001. 194 yearsof sex-subserviencehad done their work. I summonedmy last blush, cast down my eyesand said, "0 nol No. Thank you so much." 50 Elate with chivalry he bowed and pocketedthe script. This amusing and possibly apocryphal story from I larrison's mcmoirs was obviously consciouslycrafted as an entertaininganecdote for readersabout her time as a magistrate.However, it doessuggest the continuedprevalence of `Victorian' attitudes amongstthe older generationmost likely to be still on the benchin the 1920stowards whatwas fit languagefor a womanto hear. It may also suggestI larrison's consciousnessof her socialisationand her inability to rejectthe patriarchaldictates of appropriatefemale behaviour, or perhapsmerely reflects the myth that shewas consciouslycreating. One wonders how much older than her the `elderly' and 'fatherly' gentlemanwas, since she was herself aged seventy when she was appointed in 1920. Similarly Mrs. Fawcett,another elderly woman, spoke of a `dearChristian (who) for inexperienced I in gentleman wasmoved with compassion... me, as was 5' the moreseamy side of Londonlife' Like manynew magistratesof both sexesshe seemsto haveappreciated advice from a moreexperienced member of the bench,but her confessionof ignoranceof the `seamyside' is still revealing,if disingenuous. It is significant that this anecdotecomes from Ray Strachey's highly respectful biography of Mrs. Fawcett. It would not have done the lattcr's public image very muchgood to admit a detailedknowledge of `the seamyside' of life. Womenmagistrates were aware that the conccmwith 'chivalry' hada darker sideand that it did not necessarilyoperate in their favour. As Timeand Tide foresaw in 1920, `unpleasant' cases,that is those which involved sexual matters, causedthe mostdifficulty in relationshipson the Bench,yet thesewere preciselythe onesfor S0I Iarrison, Reminiscences, p. 34. 51Strachey, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, p. 338. 195 which feministsargued the presenceof womenmagistrates was most needed.The demandfor womento taketheir placein the courtsas JPsand jurors had stcmmcd largelyfrom dissatisfactionat the handlingof sexualassaults and other violence 2 againstwomen by all malecourts. But accordingto Timeand Tide men were `convincedthat all decentwomen will makea point of withdrawingfrom courtswhen suchcases occur' but that womenmagistrates' `special value as women will lie just at 33 thosetimes when it is most ardently hoped that they will withdraw'. On this matter women'sorganisations in the 1920swere clear and unanimous in their view, with no discernabledifference between organisations such as the NUSECand WFL on the one hand and bodies such as the NCW, which some historians have characterisedas `conservative'rather than feminist, on the other.The feministpress, including Me Voteand the Women'sLeader frequently reminded their readers,who musthave includedmany women magistrates, as well ascourt visitors and voluntarysocial workers,that womenshould remain in courtand resist attempts to removethem. This wasthought especially important in casesof allegedsexual assault upon young girls in which witnesseswere assumed to be especiallyvulnerable. The NCW (which had organisedrotas of court visitors in manytowns in orderto addressthis issue)made similar exhortations, reminding membersthat home Office advice from 1909 onwardshad been that a suitablewoman (such as police matron,woman police or probationofficer or rota member)should remain in court in suchcircumstances. Yet therewas still considerablepressure upon women magistrates of all social classesto withdraw from court in the 1920s. Mrs. Scott of Stockport, a former felt hat workerand WCG member,was compelled to resistattempts by her malecolleagues to 92 The NVA first expressedconcern about the treatmentof women witnessesin Court and their need for support in 1886 (Women's Library: NVA minutes, 12 November 1886 Box 109). " Time and Tide Volume 1, p. 519. 196 54 gether to stepdown during `indecency'cases. In DevonElizabeth Dashwood (E.M. Delaficld) faced similar pressurebut she `felt strongly that it was her duty, as had her, "unpleasantness" it the Clerk told not to avoid ... was surely wong that a ss female,witness or accused,should give evidenceto a room full of mcn'. i icr stance befits a regular contributor to Time and Tide, but not all women were as tough minded. In 1925 it was reported that a woman magistrate in Southport had staycd away at the Chief Constable'srequest from a casein which a man was accusedof indecentassault on two twelve yearold girls. This episode,together with the exclusion of women (but not of men) from a coroner's court in Birkenhead, caused consternationin the feminist pressand in the NCW (whose local rota member had 56 also been removed from the Southport court). An `Open letter to women magistrates'in The Votecriticised the Southportmagistrate's decision and claimed that womenwould not receivejustice unlessthere was a womanon everybench. " The manyreplies received by The Voteto its `openletter' indicatethe strength of feelingamong women magistrates. In Gloucesterthe membersof the Women Magistrates'Society expressed unanimous agreement with the paper'sviews. 58 Some correspondentsto The Voteclaimed to havefound less hostility from malecolleagues and were able to sit in all cases. `As far as this bench is concerned,no difference is madebetween men and women magistrates' wrote one woman JP; another statedthat shehad been `received with the greatestkindness and courtesy'. I lowcvcr, another letterrevealed that a womanmagistrate had beenasked by the Clerk to leavebut had refusedand had also had to resistattempts by the Chairmanto clearthe court of " Llewellyn Davies, Life as ire Have Known 11, pp. 98.9. 51Powell, Life of a Provincial Lady, p.56. I Time and Tide, 13 February 1925, The Vote 13 & 20 February 1925; L.MA: 1'SMC minutes,26 March 1925. 51The Vote,,26 March 1925 p. 100. "GCRO: 06156/1 Minutes of GloucestershireWomen Magistrates' Society (GWMS) 7 April 1925; The Vote24 April 1925 p. 135. 197 59 womcn. It seemsthat evenstrong-minded feminists faced a toughbattle with some of their colleagues,whose motives, they suspected,were not purely 'chivalrous' but were due to a generalreluctance to discusscertain matters, particularly sexual ones, in front of womenor to recognisethat womenmight hold a diffcrcnt point of view. III addition,feminist suspicionsabout the treatmentof womenand girls (especiallysex abusevictims) by all-male courts had been fanned by coverageof casesin the suffrage presssince before the First World War and were still deeply felt. Like ElizabethRobins, some women JPs may havefeared that `sexantagonism' was 60 enjoying a new vitality in 1920sBritain. It was not just in casesinvolving girls that feminist magistratesinsisted upon their right to sit in judgement. In 1925 Mrs. Juson Kerr, a member of the WFL executive,refused to retire whentwo otherfemale magistrates had done so in a case 61 of indecentassault by a manon a boy. The following year Mrs. Greenof Colchester stayedon the benchduring the hearingof `allegedunnatural offences' (that is, sexual assaultsupon boys) committed by a soldier. A fellow magistrate,Mr. I lutton, respondedby withdrawingfrom the court himselfl TheJustice of the Peace commentedthat his actionwas misplaced but claimedthat womenJPs generally preferredto withdraw from exceptionallynasty cases of `unnaturaloffences or 62 indecencybetween males' Presumably,this view was groundedin notionsof what was`proper' behaviour for womenas well aswhat was fit materialfor mixed companyto discuss. Mrs. Green, a member of the NUSEC and of the council of the Magistrates'Association, evidently held no truck with theseconventions. 'As a woman magistrate,I have a duty to all young people, and that duty, I think, should be "Ibid. p. 130. 60 Anon. (Elizabeth Robins) Ancilla's Share, London, I lutchinson, 1924, p. xxxvi. 61The Vote 12 November 1926,p. 356. 61 11045/24609, from PRO: cuttings The News of the World, 7 November and TheJustice of the Peace, 27 November 1926. 198 performed,irrespective of what and againstwhom the chargemay be' shesaid. 63 Thus, by their actions, Mrs Green and magistrateslike her were manifesting their right to equal citizenship in a thoroughly practical way. Although,as the Southportincident indicates, not all womenmagistrates were as bold as Mrs. Juson Kerr and Mrs. Green, comment upon thesecases supports the view that many women JPs saw their presencein court as a vital sign ofequal citizenship,expressed through the conventionallanguage of both `duty' and `right'. Pressreaction to Mrs. Green'sstand was generallysympathetic and emphasisedthe TM conceptof `duty'. The NCW's Public Service and Magistrates' Committee, to which over five hundred women JPs belonged, congratulatedMrs. Green for insisting on her `right' to remain on the bench and urged others to follow her example: as the committeeremarked on the relatedquestion of the withdrawalof womenfrom jury service,`the time haspassed when women should be expectedto evadeunpleasant duties,if the canby performingthose duties, render service to the community' 65 Mrs. Greenherself had been more forthright. `I am againstwomen magistrates leavingCourt when objectionable cases are heard. They are shirkers'she said 66 Undoubtedly,many other women magistrates shared her assertiveapproach to her role as JP and they therefore must have surely createdsimilar shock waves on their local benches.Only a greatdeal of tact-a vital attributefor womenwho movedinto sucha malt-dominatedworld - would kccp the courtsrunning smoothly: many women JPs were doubtlesswell aware that `discretion is the better part of valour'. It wassexual matters - the `unpleasant'cases - that weremost likely to bring the tensionsbetween male and female magistratesto the fore. The Vote, 12 November 1926,p. 356. The Women'sLeader 19 November 1926,p. 366. ssNCWV News January 1927 p. 18; LMA: PSMC minutes,10 July 1930. "The Vote, 12 November 2936, p.356. 199 ROUTINE WORK Most of the routine work of JPs in the 1920sand 1930swas not 'unpleasant" or `objectionable' so much as dull. Shorn of most of their administrativc responsibilitiesby the creationof the countycouncils in the late nineteenthcentury, countrymagistrates in particularwere left with little but minor criminal matters(dealt with in the petty sessionalcourts), the remand of prisoners, signing papersand licensing.Those in the vicinity of a penalinstitution might alsohave visiting duties. In additionthere were a numberof committeesto which magistratesmight belong;the local advisory committee (which advised the Lord Chancellor on candidatesfor appointmentas JP), the Standing Joint Committee (made up of JPs and County Councillors),and probation committees As Eva Readingrecalled in her memoirs`work on the benchwas largely routineand had its longueurs'67 In the 1960sMrs. Annerslcyin RonaldBlythe's Akerf eld describeda typical day in rural Suffolk. The scenedescribed can have changedonly a little from the interwarperiod when motor"rclatcdoffences would havebeen a little lesscommon. An averageday at our court isn't very spectacular. Four licensing extensions,three motor-car slight accidentswith written-in pleas of Guilty £5 £10 £20 £30 license Then five bicycles - - - - each and endorsed ... with insufficient breaksor something. Then the young man who got drunk on a Saturdayand shoutedyou-know-what, or perhapshe hit somebodywith a brick. Then you might have a defendedcase of dangerousdriving, which will take time, or a bit of breaking-and-entering. We have dear never any of these young modern protesters- they don't We have for come our way. to passplans pub alterations. No murders -I have had in never a murder case twenty-rive years - and no poachersnow. lead-stealing No from the church roof - that was the most popular crime in Suffolk just after the war. But there has been a great increasein from stealing valuable things inside the churches,and the thieves arc rarely ever caught. We alsoget casesof animalcruelty but nevercases of child cruelty.6* 67 Eva, Lady Reading,For the Record, London, I lutchinson, 1972, p. 195. `ý Blythe, Akenfield, p.249. 200 On ClareSpurgin's first day as a magistratein ChippingCamden in the early 1940sthe benchdealt with two casesof riding a pedalcycle without a light, threeacts 69 of indecency,two maintenanceorders and one affiliation order. In Crnnbrook. Vita Sackville-Wcstfound that `stealingbicycle lamps was the standardcrime of young Kentishoffenders'. 70 Of course,conditions varied and the work of a magistratein a large town or city would be very different from that in small rural backwaters. Levels of criminal activity weremuch greaterin major cities andcourts would meetmuch morefrequently. In both rural andurban areas the mattersmagistrates dealt with were mainlyminor ones,but few of the memoirsexpress much boredomexcept where motoring offences were concerned. Perhapsthe women magistratesfound some interest in the work, were compelled to carry it on by their senseof duty or simply preferrednot to mentionthe duller aspectsto their readers. In both townsand countryside road traffic matterstook up a lot of magistratcs' time in court. This wasthe caseeven in the early 1920s:Jane Harrison mentioned the `dull hours- mainly spentin fining undergraduatesfor exceedingspeed limits' in 7' Cambridge. Pressreports from the early 1920sindicate that the Oxted Petty Sessionsin Surreydealt with moreroad traffic casesthan any other class orofl'ence, perhapsbecause the busy Westcrham to Reigate road ran through its patch. Furthcr south, in Brighton, Hilda Martindale also found motoring offences `extrcnmely 72 boring'. But howeverdull they may havebeen, these matters were a causefor concernfor magistrates,both male and female. In 1929 the Magistrates' Association weresufficiently worried about motor speedregulation, traffic control and the stealing " Clare Spurgin, My Journey, privately printed at Oxford University Press,1986, p. 68. Clare Spurgin wasa Gloucestershiremagistrate and active memberof the Magistrates' Association. 70Victoria Glendinning, Vita: Life of Vita Sacsrille-West, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983, p.351. I larrison, A Student's Life, p.32. Martindale,A WomanSurgeon, p. 204. 201 of motor-carsto highlight thesematters in their annualreport. Women magistrates As broughta differentperspective to thesediscussions. a whole women w%-ereless likely to drive and more likely to be victims of road accidentsas pedestrians,although femalemagistrates were more likely thanmost women to be motoristsbecause orthe preponderanceof the middle classamong their ranks. Hilda Martindalealleged that one woman on her bench, a non-driver, was particularly biasedagainst motorists as a 73 resultof her classprejudice Moreover,many women magistrates had a background in purity, temperanceand charitable work, ensuringa familiarity with drink -related socialproblems, which may well havecoloured their approachto licensingmatters. It is remarkablethat womenmagistrates in Gloucestershirediscussed the role of alcohol 74 in roadaccidents in 1939,thirty yearsbefore the introductionof the `brcathalyscr'. PRISON VISITING Amongthe manyother community roles performed by magistratesoutside the pettysessional courtroom, women magistrates arguably took prisonvisiting most scriously. Althoughcounty justices had largelylost thcir powersin rclation to prisons in 1877,they retained the right to visit and inspect prisons and `visiting justices' were 75 appointed for that purpose. According to the gendercdpractices of the interwar period women were usually only appointed as visiting justices if women prisoners were incarceratedin the gaol concerned;hence the appointment of extra women magistratesby the Lord Chancellor'sCommittee of 1920in London(for l lolloway), "Ibid. 7' GCRO:GWMS minutes, 27 July 1939. 's Skyrme,History of the Justices of the Peace Volume11, p. 195. These official visitors, %%horetained somepowers, for examplethe ordering of punishments,are distinct from the many unofficial visitors who went to prisons,perhaps to perform some kind of social work, and from magistrateswho visited prisonsas part of a training regime. fw: e` Jl 202 76 Durham,Leeds and Birmingham. Mrs. BramwellBooth of the SalvationArmy was the first visiting justice at Holloway in 1921,followed six monthslater by Margery Fry-77 In 1930 Mrs. Dewar Robinson, a long-serving member of the Women's FreedomLeague, was appointed Chairman of the I Iolloway Visiting Justices Committee,which by thenconsisted of ten menand ten women. In addition,many womenmagistrates made unofficial visits to prisonsin orderto familiarisethemselves with the conditionsof institutions to which they habituallysent offenders. Feministwomen magistrates in the 1920sappear to haveapproached the task of prisonvisiting in a mannerhighly reminiscentof womenI'LGs in the late nineteenthcentury. The wordsof MargeryFry, who addressedthe NUSEC Summer School on `The Criminal: Institutional Treatment', echoedthe exhortations of Louisa Twining to womenworkhouse visitors andGuardians. Women visiting magistrates shouldbe `thorough'and `seeeverything' including punishment cells and padded cells. Theyshould `inspect and taste the food,enquire what useis madeof handcuffs andgive prisonersthe chanceto makecomplaints'. Shefurther recommendedthat womenjustices should provide books for the prisonlibrary andorganisc concerts, 78 althoughshe admitted that thesewere `just palliatives'. Miss Fry's approachwas evidently grounded in the tradition of women's philanthropy in that it persistently conflated the role of official inspector with that of voluntary social worker and was basedon gcndercdnotions of wherewomen's expertise lay - in the kitchen,in the smalldomestic details of life, and in the ability to listen to complaintsas a mother listensto her child. The maternal paradigm used by Miss Fry would have been instantly recognisedby her audience,most of whom had beenpoor law guardiansor voluntary "' Ibid., p.235. r 1fuwsJones, The EssentialAmateur, p. 118. 1 Women'sLeader, 8 September1922 p. 248. 203 socialworkers before their appointmentas justices, although they werenot necessarilymothers. To an extent the apparently special expertise of women was a useful excusefor women to become involved in matters such as the inspection of prisonsfrom which they hadbeen excluded. However, women J['s really bclicvcd that `a woman'stouch' would makea greatdifference by addressingthe small matters so often ignoredby men.It is significantthat oneof the earliestactivities of the GloucesterWomen Magistrates' Society (whose founder, Miss I lartland,had attended the SummerSchool) was to raisemoney for a pianofor the local gaol, while Lillian Faithfull undertookto supplyplants after the governorhad suggestedthat they would 79 be welcome. Evidently there was no public money for these items or the books and concertsMiss Fry had recommended. The State relied at this time, not only on the unpaidwork of middle classwomen as magistrates,but alsoupon their wealthand generosity. Womenmagistrates did not restricttheir involvementto women'sprisons, althoughtheir right to affect or evencomment on the runningof penalinstitutions for menwas far harderto establish.Louisa Martindale was oneof the first womento be appointedto the commissionat LewesPrison, probably not until the late 1930sor 1940s:`it had always been thought unnecessaryto have a woman on that committee, as Lcwcs Prison is nowadaysfor men only'. She appearsto have followed Miss Fry's instructions,listening to prisoners'complaints, which `they lovedto pour out, tasting the food and inspecting the library. Miss Martindale was obviously not disposedto be foundthe food `quite `plentiful bread by too critical, she excellent'and ... the made "GCRO: GWMS minutes3 July & 16 October 1923,1 January 1924. 204 the cook was the best I ever tasted,especially during the war' while the library was 80 `surprisingly adequate'. One wonders how searchingher inquiries were. Mrs. Helena Dowson, a leading suffragist who was appointcd as Visiting Magistratein Nottinghamin 1921,was lesseasily satisfied with her monthly excursionsto the city's prison. `I beganto feel after a time that thesevisits were rather perfunctory and that I should like to get in closer touch with both the warders 8' and the prisoners' she recalled. Her familiarity with a `welfare league' that had been set up in a New York prison prompted her to launch a similar experiment in Nottingham.Fourteen men with no previousconvictions were chosen by the governor and chaplain to take part in the scheme,which becameknown as the `league of honour'. The men elected the officers and set the rules and chose the name of the organisation.Details of its proceduresare vague, but it seemsthat membersplayed gamessuch as chess and dominoes and were sometimes joined by 'decentpeople' - presumablyvolunteers from outsidethe prison- but not by the governoror his stuff. Eventuallythe prisonhad two leagueswith a total of 226 members.Mrs. Dowson claimedthat the organisationgave the men `a public opinion and in additionto mental health,something to look forwardto and a reasonableinterest in the corporatelife of the prison' andthat shehad learned that prisonersdid not want to be preachedto or 82 patronised,`just treatedas human beings'. 1Icr initiative in establishingthe league waswell reportedin the feministpress and informationwas disseminated to other 83 womenmagistrates. It could be interpretedas yet anotherform, albeit subtle,of surveillanceand control over prisoners,but its establishmentby Mrs. Dowsonis also Martindale,A WomanSurgeon, p. 202-3. "I lclcna Dowson, 'The Leagueof I lonour in Nottingham', The Afaglstratc VII April 1925,p. 79. from Mrs. Dowsoncame a Liberal Unitarian backgroundand served on the NUWSS cxccutive. She later becamea city councillor. t2 Ibid. " For example,by NCWNews, January 1926. 205 indicativeof the way in which feministwomen in the cra immediatelyaflcr the First World War took so readily to the problem of penal reform. Magistratememoir writers generallysaid little or nothingabout unofficial prisonvisits, eitherbecause they did not undertakethese duties or regardedthem as unimportantor unworthyof comment. The numberof womenmagistrates who visitedpenal institutions either officially or unofficially cannotbe ascertained althoughtheir organisationswere keento promotethem andthe local groupsin Gloucestershireand Hampshire certainly arranged regular outings to prisons,borstals and reform schools. According to the barrister and JP Leo Page,only about one per cent of JPsvisited a prison annually84but he gave no hint as to what proportion were men or women. However, it is likely that women magistratesvisited prisons more thanmost of their malecounterparts because they hadgreater time to devoteto their dutiesbeing less likely to havebusinesses to run or professionsto pursue.The importancethat the moreprominent women magistrates attached to an understanding of prisonconditions can be gaugedfrom the fact that manyof themwere members of the HowardLeague for PenalReform, including Mrs. Rackham,Geraldine Cadbury. Mrs. Wintringhamand, of course,Margery Fry. Penalreform wasa causein which women magistratescould give their newly won citizenship practical effect, away from the dull routine of minor criminal and administrative matters. It was an opportunity for themto think creativclyand to campaignfor a causc,as so manyof themhad for women's suffrage. Mrs. Dowson's dissatisfaction with her routine visits is indicative of an unwillingness,at leastamong some of the more imaginativewomen magistrates, to acceptthe penal statusquo, leading them to embracemodernist perspectiveson prisonreform. Among the manymatters taken up by womenmagistrates in the " Page, For Magistrates and Others, p. 92. 206 interwarperiod were the careof womenon remandand the arrangementsfor prisoners 85 who gave birth. Their approachwas seldom basedon the abstractionsof social theory, but on practical knowledge gained by seeing the prisons for themselves,albeit influenced by their personalphilosophies. In this sensethey closely resembledthe ladieswho, a generationbefore, had turned from workhousevisiting to electedoffice on boardsof guardiansin order to exert real influence over poor law policy in accordancewith their experienceas visitors. TIIE IMPACT OF NATIONAL EVENTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE Fromthe sourcesconsulted it would appearthat major nationalevents had little direct impact on the day-to-day experiencesof women magistrates,although new socialphenomena such as massunemployment and the growingpopularity of the cinemahad some effect. Magistrateswere required from time to time to deal with mattersarising from labourdisputes, yet the memoirsof womenJPs rarely mention this. The General Strikein 1926was only of shortduration, and although the activitiesof somepro- tradesunion JPs were brought to the attentionof the government,none of themwere 86 women. However, in her autobiographyLeah Manning recalled with relish her unequivocalsupport for the strike, which had evidently attractedthe attention of the local Chief Constable. In Cambridge we set up a General Strike Committee: it met in Clara Rackham'sbasement kitchen. It was full of lively, exhilarating talk and the delicious smell of hot coffee and frying sausages.Undergraduates worked with us all evening, rolling and preparing for delivery the Strike Bulletin... Every night I would ride to London on the back of Stubbs's motorbike to pick up the bulletin. What a fantastic timel 13LMA: PSMC minutes 18 November 1920,13 July 1924.See also a letter from Miss Kelly in The Alagistrate,December 1930/January 1931 p.436 and Magistrates' Association Annual Report 1938. " PRO: 110144/12050. 207 On the May 11, Mr. Pearson, Chief Constable, for ... morning of or sent me and told me I must stop what I was doing immediately; it wasillegal and I ran the risk of losing my scat on the Bcnch - and no doubt I should have done if the strike had lasted another day. Dcspitc this warning, Manning continued to expresssupport for the miners. 'For the next six monthswe all went aroundwearing miner's lampsin our lapels,running jumble sales,concerts, plays, whist drives,dances - anythingwe could think of to help those splendid men.'87 This is an intriguing anecdote,firstly becauseit is not clear in what senseher activity wasillegal, or evenif it really was. Secondly,despite extensive research on Mrs. Rackham,I have found no suggestionthat she was similarly %%umcd.In any case,Cambridge was remote both geographically and socially from the coalfield areas thatwere at the centreof the GeneralStrike and the miners' dispute. It is highly likely that working class women JPs in the areasmost affected by labour disputes, who did not leavememoirs, experienced far sharperdifficulties in carryingout their dutieson the bench. Casesarising out of industrialdisputes could be highly politicised. The Nelsonmagistrate Selina Cooper was involved in sucha casearising out of a disputebetween Lancashire weavers and their employersin 1931. In this cascno fcwcr thanfourtccn magistratcs hcard the cascagainst Ramsdcn Butterfield (a formerweaver who wascharged with assaultingthree police constables)with membersof the manufacturinginterest outnumbering Labour magistratcs. $* The economicdepression of the early 1930smust surelyhave had some impact on the early women magistratesand their work, although there is a paucity of evidenceof this in their memoirsand records.Again, the impactwould havevaried geographicallyin that the degreeof industrial decline and consequentunemployment 87 Leah Manning, A Life for Education, London, Gollancz, 1970, p.61-2. 11 The story is told in full in Liddington, Life and Timesof a RespectableRebel, pp. 357.375. 208 differedfrom regionto region. Most of the publishedrecollections on which this chapteris basedare from womenmagistrates whose service on the benchwas performed in some of the more economically favoured parts of the country. One of the few who did servein oneof the `distressedareas', Mrs. Andrewsof the Rhondda in SouthWales, merely pointed out that `in the courtsyou arc facedwith the most intimate human relationships and some of the most tragic human problems' and that 'dealing with young offenders needsa great deal of patience,an open mind [and] a knowledgeof social problems as they affect young people'.89 Even as a possible causeof juvenile delinquency the problem of unemployment did not figure largely in the deliberationsof the organisationsof women magistratesin the 1930s. The impact of the cinema certainly appearsto have concernedwomen magistrateswho worriedabout the effect on impressionableyoung people of what theysaw on the screen.Gloucestershire's women magistrates received regular reports on the dangersposed by the latestcinema releases90 while in BirminghamJPs set tip a CinemaInquiry Committeeof which Ethel Shakespear,a leadingmember of the city's 91 NCW branch,was a vice-president In 1931the Birminghamcommittee and some NewcastleJPs lobbied the HomeSecretary to expressconcern about the contentof 92 films and its effectson children They demandedthe establishmentof a government inquiry to examinethe licensingof films, but wereclearly disappointedas soon afterwardsan unofficial nationalCinema Enquiry Committee was established. Lady Nunburnholme,a JP from the EastRiding of Yorkshireand Chairmanof the NCW's 19Andrews, A Woman's Work is Never Done, p.41. 90GCRO: GWMS minute book 1929-1931passim. 91Women's Library: NVA records, File 51-1. 92The Vote,24 July 1931,p. 241. 209 Moral WelfareCommittee, represented the NationalVigilance Association on this body. 93 The moral puritans in the NCW - many of them magistrates- reactedto the cinemain a similar way to its predecessor,the musichall, seekingto curb what they 94 sawas the excessesof `indecency'in popularculture, yet in the guiseof protection' Somewomen magistrates clearly held puritanicalviews aboutthe cinema,but their concerncan be seenas similar to worriesabout the effectsof television,videos and computergames upon children in morerecent times. Writing in The Mote,Miss Tooke of Gatesheadfulminated about the `eyesightdamage, the smoke laden evening atmospheretrying the chest, and the opportunity offered for the easy spreadof any infectious disease',but above all about `the mental and moral influences'. Even the posterswere to her mind `indecent'. Furthermore,Miss Tookeclaimed that `magistratesoften hearin the children'scourts of petty larcenycommitted for money "to go to the pictures"or haveexcuses for breakingand entering"we saw it on the pictures"'. However,`indecency' seemed to be Miss Tooke's main concern. 'In 18 films sexor indecencywere emphasised, in 14drunkenness; in 11there was a strong clementof fear,in 10 unhealthyexcitement, in 7 murder,- thesewere all shownto children.'95 In contrast, the Gloucestershirewomen magistratesheld the view that `thehorrifying films did moreharm to somechildren than those of an immoral 6 nature'. Their concernsabout the cinemamay be understandable,if exaggerated, but they undoubtedly emphasisethe social distance between older women R's and the ' Women's Library: NVA records, file 51-2. Another leading light of the NCW, Mn. Ogilvie Gordon JP, chaireda meetingon `the influence of the cinema'. 9' For the action of NVA activists againstmusic hall and popular entertainment,sec Lucy Eiland, `FeministVigilantes of Late Victorian England' in Smart (ed.) Regulating Womanhood. ", The Cinemaand the Child' by J.M. Tooke 1P, The Vote,24 July 1931.p. 241-2. % GCRO: 06156/1 GWMS minutes27 June1933.1lowever, they were also very concernedabout posing shows' at country fairs. 210 youngpeople who enjoyedthe film entertainment,yet alonebetween the juvenile courtjustices and those who appearedbefore them in court. The outbreak of the SecondWorld War was, of course,the most important eventto takeplace during the first thirty yearsthat womensat on the magisterial bench,an eventthat undoubtedlyimpacted upon their work. Already in 1938the Gloucestershirewomen magistrates were concerned about the influx of men into the county, brought in to build factories and aerodromes,which might prove such temptation(and danger) to younggirls that extrapolicewomen might be necdcd.9' When the war actually started the normal round of magistrates' conferencesand meetingswas disrupted, particularly the national ones organised by the Magistrates' Association,98 which were affected by travel restrictions. The NCW's Public Service andMagistrates' Committee suffered reduced attendance. In Gloucestershirewomen JPshad to makedo with a sandwichesrather than luncheonat their quarterly 9 gatherings,thanks to the restrictionsof rationing Womenmagistrates noted changes in the natureof their routinework after the outbreakof the SecondWorld War. ClareSpurgin's first day in 1943included three chargesof absencefrom HomeGuard duties and onecase of misuseof motor fuel, 100 offenceswhich would not have figured in peacetime. Louisa Martindale noted defendant had A totally new type of ... peoplewho sold their dress coupons,grocers who had obligingly given more thanthe exactamount of rationedfood, farmerswho haddiluted their milk to makeit eke out or householderswho had infringedthe blackoutrcbulations. 101 GRCO: 06156/1 GWMS minutes4 January 1938. Magistrates'Association Annual Report 1940. MA conferenceslater resumed,although there is no evidenceof the women's meeting continuing. '9 The society met over lunch at a Gloucestercafe on the day of the Quarter Sessions.GCRO: GWMA minutes,2 July 1940. 10°Spurgin, Afy Journey, p.68. 101Martindale, A WomanSurgeon, p. 204 211 As Smithieshas demonstrated, the war itself causedparliament to add considerablyto the list of offencespunishable by law, for exampleoffences against 102 morale and breachesof rationing or blackout rcgulations. In addition, higher incomesenabled people to indulgemore in pastimesthat werealready potentially or 1°3 actuallyillegal, suchas gambling, prostitution and out-of-hours drinkinb. Conscientiousobjectors had to be dealt with as well as people accusedof breachesof industrial discipline, for example the refusal to work. It was left to magistrates- mostlyvolunteer laymen and women- to administerthe criminal law and punishthe 104 offenders. In 1940 alone 300 000 people were dealt with in the courts. Women andmen JPs must have noticed a greatincrease in their court work, as well as having 105 a lot more official papersto sign. Meanwhile,there was muchdisruption and dislocation to both the probation 107 scrvicc106and to approvedschools and Borstals as staff left to join the services. The much-anticipatedCriminal JusticeBill, which had proposedthe abolition of birchingfor youngoffenders, had been shelved. Onceagain, as in the First World War,there was concern that therehad beena markedincrease in juvenile delinquency. Accordingto HomeOffice figures,the rise in offendingwas mostmarked in those agedeight to thirteen yearsand amongstolder girls. The number of girls aged fourteento seventeencommitting an indictable offence per 100 00 girls in the age grouprose from 90 in 1938to 214 in 1941. The rise in juvenile crime was undoubtedlya causefor concern for magistratesand governmentalike, but it could 101 Edward Smithies,Crime in Wartime(London: GeorgeAllen & Unwin, 1982) p.3-4. `o3Ibid. to Ibid. p.8 los TheTimes, 6 January1942, p. 5. The powerto signofficial paperswas an aspectof a JP'srole that wasseldom commented on by womenmagistrates. 106The effects of war upon the probation service are coveredby t3ochel in Probation A AJtercare,p 160-5 107Magistrates' Association Annual Report 1942. 212 not simply be blamedon the War. The numberof offendersonly droppedslightly after its peak in 1941androse again to similar levels in 1948.108 Women magistrateswere naturally concernedabout the increasing number of girls comingbefore the juvenile courts. However,Miss YounghusbandJP of the NationalAssociation of Girls' Clubsemphasised that it wasstill only a small proportion of girls who `got into trouble'. Nevertheless,she detecteda change in the type of difficulty that led to them being brought before licr juvenile court in West London. Before the war stealing from storeswas the commonestoffence, but by the time of her speech(1942) she was seeingmore girls 'in need of parental protection or beyondcontrol', girls accusedof breaking and entering unoccupied housesor `shoplifting on a serious scale' and `15 or 16 year old girls from good homeswho for no apparentreason stole from employers'. Miss Younghusbandcould not accountfor 109 the latterphenomenon, except to suggestthat `perhapsit was the strainof wmr'. By this time therewere frequentcomments that magistratesin juvenile courts 10 weretoo lenienttowards young offenders. This was refutedby anotherwoman JP, JoanThompson of Hendon,in a speechto a conferencecalled by the NationalCouncil of Civil Libertiesin November1943. Indeed,far from seeingthem as too lenient, Thompsonargued the opposite, issuing a left-wins critique of some of her fellow justices,whom shesignificantly characterised as `the old men' and 'old fashioned',as well asbelonging `to the well-to-doand privilegedclasses'. Such people have little understandingof the strength of the home tics among working folk, and of the interdependenceof the family unit; they don't realise how much it meansto a child when the father is away fighting and the mother has to leave early in the morning to go to the factory and comeshome exhaustedand irritable... They haven't the imagination, or the right kind of experience,to put themselvesin the 10ýAppendix 11of criminal statistics(1947) reproducedwith provisional figures for 1948 in Memorandumon Juvenile Delinquency, London, I IM SO, 1949. 109The Times, 1 October 1942,p. 2. 1° For example,ibid., 14 September1942, p. 5; 16 September1942 p. 5. 213 child's place, and hencesometimes treat them, and their parents,with a cold, uncomprehendingcruelty that makesone shiver. Or they deliver lectureswhich are so hopelessly silly, to anyonewho understands,that it ' 11 makesone writhe in one's chair with hopelessindignation. Thompson's speechis interesting in severalways. Firstly, she signified the morereactionary type of JP as 'old men', andby inference,the more 'advanced'type asyoung, female and lessprivileged. This polarity wasoften evidentin the pronouncementsof penal reformers. Later in her speechshe urged, as many penal reformersand those on the left of politics did in the 1940s,for changesin the way A's were recruited and appointed, with more younger people, women and working class representativesbeing chosen.Such criticisms prompted the Labour Government in 1946to appoint the first Royal Commission since 1910 to `rcvicw the present for Justices Peace arrangements the selection and removal of of the ... and to report whatchanges, if any,in that systemare necessary are desirableto ensurethat only the ' 12 mostsuitable persons are appointed'. Secondly,she put the blamefor rising levelsof juvenile delinquency(which sheanyway claimed had been `wantonly exaggerated') on the disruptioncaused by war to patriarchalfamily life, citing the samefactors (fathers in the army andmothers 3 in the factory)as Cecil Leesonhad during the First World War.' lt might therefore be concludedthat, although Thompson was clearly a socialist and penal reformer (she stronglydenounced the useof the birch), shewas not muchof a feminist. I Howwwever, herviews would havewon muchsympathy among Icft-leaning women in the 1940s. MadeleineSymons, Cicely Craven and Margery Fry of the I cowardLeague expressed similar concernsin the 1940sand Fry published a popular version of Dr. John "' Joan B. Thompson,Justices of Peacein the Juvenile Courts, London, Labour ResearchDepartment, 1944,p. 2. 12 Royal CommissionReport, Cmd.7463,1948 p.A2. "' Cecil Leeson,quoted in Juvenile Delinquency in Certain Countries at 11'ar,Washington. U. S. Departmentof Labor Children's Bureau, 1918) p. 8. - 214 Bowlby's famousreport Maternal Loveand Mental Health (which associatedmental disorders,including delinquency, with `maternaldeprivation' in youngchildhood) in 114 the early 1950s. The urge to restore the patriarchal family after the disruptions of war wasclearly shared by somewomen magistrates. Finally, Thompson'sremarks about some of her fellow magistrateswould probably have made her rather unpopular with them, if they got to hear what she had said. The treatmentof Mrs. Noble of South Shields, who in 1938 had protested publicly aboutcolleagues' decisions to orderthe birching of two boysand was l1s reprimandedby the Lord Chancellor's Of iice, demonstratedthat public criticism of one's fellow JPs was regardedwith disfavour. Apart from worries about juvenile crime, the most marked effect of the outbreakof war on womenmagistrates was a revival of concernamongst them about the sexualvulnerability of teenagegirls andthe greateropportunities for prostitution at a time of massevacuation and the large-scalemobilisation and movement of troops aroundthe country. The reasonsfor their concernare reasonablyclear. Many middle classwomen magistrates had entered public work throughtheir involvementwith organisationswhich soughtto rescueprostitutes and `fallen women' and/ or prevent their `fall' in the first placc, in bodics such as the Girls' Fricndly Socicty (GFS), girls' clubs, the Charity Organisation Society and Ladies' Associations. Organisationsof this typewere prevalent in the townsand cities andeven rural partsof late nineteenth ' 16 centuryEngland, a formativeperiod for the first generationof womenmagistrates. Amongthe manywho 'cut their teeth' in suchwork at the time were Mrs. Rackham "' I luws Jones,The EssentialAmateur, p.218-9. "3 PRO: LCO2/1461. 16 PaulaBartley, Prostitution: Prevention and Reform in England 1860-1914,London. Routlcdgc. 2000, p.73. The GFS was associatedmore with rural areasand with the Church of N gland. see Brian Harrison 'For Church, Queenand Family: The Girls' Friendly Society 1874-1920' Past and Present 61.1973. 215 who 'did the GFS' beforeher marriagein 1901117and Mary Neal and Lily Montagu "ß who wereboth girls' club organisersin the 1890s. As Paula Bartley has shown, the ideological stanceof the preventive and rescueorganisations was contradictory, `a complexmix of classprejudice and gender solidarity'.' 19On the onehand they hadtried to `unitemiddle-class and working. class in a Christian campaign against prostitution' whilc at the samc time imposing `their own definition of what was consideredto be correctforms of behaviour",120 a definitionunderpinned by their own classbackground. These notions, often coupled with a feministdistrust of any stateregulation of prostitution(the origins of which can be traced back to the campaign against the 1860sContagious DiseasesActs led by JosephineButler) continued to inform the outlook of many of the older women magistrateswho werestill activein the 1940s.Miss Tookeof Gatcshead,for example,had vociferously opposed Section 40D, a measurethat feministshad regardedas a virtual re-enactmentof the CD Acts, during the First World War.121 Otherwomen magistrates had been associated with vigilanceorganisations and had expressedparticular enthusiasm for cinemacensorship and other morality measuresin the interwar period, as well as persistently campaigning for the appointment of 122 women police. However, attitudes towards sexual conduct were already becoming somewhat heterogeneousand even the views of womenmagistrates were not monolithic. Many continuedto seethe preventionof prostitutionin both its `professional'and its The Women's Library: taped interview with Miss Tabor by Brian I larrison. Montagu openedthe West End Central Jewish girls' club in Soho at the age of 19 in 1893.Iris Dove, ` Sisterhoodor Surveillance?the developmentof working girls' clubs in London, 1880-1939' University of Greenwich PhD thesis, 1996 p. 131. Mary Neal founded the EspcranceClub in London with EmmelinePethick during the 1890s. For further details on the previous experienceof women magistrates,see Chapter Four. 11"Bartley, Prostitution, p.73. 120Ibid. p.74-6. 121Gateshead and District Biographies, p. 253 (GatesheadPublic Library). '2 GCRO: GWMA minutes,passim. The campaignfor women police is examined in the ChapterSix. 216 `amateur'forms as the key problem. Ilampshirewomen magistrates were worried aboutgirls who were`hanging around' military campsand passeda resolutionfor the 123 appointmentof women police in the county. In London the increasein both supply and demand for commercial sex in wartime concernedmagistrates but the problem wastaking on new dimensions,particularly because the prostitutesseemed younger than hitherto and the customerswere more likely to be 'foreigners' such as black 124 American soldiers. As perspectiveson the problem differed, so did the treatment of prostitutes by magistrates. Generally, they tried to be sympatheticbut firm especially when dealing with young offenders. Basil Henriques found the casesof younger prostitutes 'heart- rending' but he appearsto have followed the rules and dispatchedthe offenders to 125 approvedschool. His colleagueLily Montagu,whose approach he clearly favoured,`always tried to find somethinggood about every girl or child and to say somethingencouraging and helpful to them'126 although according to Barbara Woottonshe `appeared to find no problemin expressingthe requireddisapproval of sexualaberrations in firm, but kindly terms'. however, BarbaraWootton confessed to greaterdoubts, albeit over thirty yearsaller shebecame a juvenile magistrateat the endof the war. `I hadgreat difficulty in producingconvincing reasons why these youngpeople should not behaveas they preferred'she recalled, `provided always that theytook adequateprecautions against saddling themselves and others with responsibilityfor a new life'. As shepointed out, a girl earnedmore in one night sleepingwith an American airman than in a whole weck of factory work. 127Barbara '" 11R023M57/1: IIWMS minutes, 11 January 1943. 'I' Edward Smithies,Crime in Wartime pp. 139 &. 142; c.f. Basil I lcnriques, Indiscretions of a Magistrate, London, Ilarrap, 1950,p. 87. "" 1lenriques, The Indiscretions of a Magistrate, p. 82-3. 126Ibid., p. 84. 127Wootton, Crime Penal Policy, 157-8. C; and p. , , 217 Wootton'sdoubts were expressed long after the eventund at a time ruhensexual moreshad altered a great deal since the 1940s. But it is unlikely that she was the only woman magistrateto question, if only to herself, the acceptedmethods of dealing with suchcases during the upheavalsof wartime. DOUBTING JUSTICES Most of the earlywomen magistrates who left a recordof their feelingsseem to have appreciatedtheir opportunity to exercisetheir right to serve. Published memoirs andprinted speeches that celebratedtheir entry into the public sphereof the courtroomwere not, however,very suitableplaces for confessionsof doubt. Nevertheless,there are hints that not all of them were over-enthusiasticabout the work. As a busydoctor, Louisa Martindale found her dutieson the Brightonbench 128 somewhatonerous and time-consuming. Of course,the fact of her careermade her somewhatunusual in the ranksof womenmagistrates, most of whom wereretired or marriedand/or comfortably off womenwho did not haveto cam their living. Yct she cannothave been alone. Womenmagistrates could be calledupon far moreoften than their malecounterparts simply becausethey werefewer in number,for example becauseof Home Office guidelines requiring a woman justice in all juvenile cases. A female JP could also find herself rather isolated on an all-male bench. Ethel Leachof Yarmouthcomplained of havingto `plougha lonely furrow' thereas the only woman magistratefor over five years. How would a man like to be the only one among forty women magistrates? Sometimes,she added,she had turned back from the court door, not daring to face the difficult and delicate situation alone.129 '21Martindale, A WomanSurgeon, p. 20I I. '" The Vote, 1 January 1926,p. 7. 218 MargaretWynne Nevinson also appears to havefound the work distasteful,claiming that she`was not muchdrawn to the work of magistrates;like manywomen and men I dislike sitting in judgement on my fellow sinners' and that she 'hated the squalor and evil auraof a court'. Apparentlyit wasonly becauseof her senseof Christianduty and `that women must acceptthe responsibilities of enfranchisement', that she 13° acceptednomination in the first place, although she was proud of her position. Vita Sackville West, who becamea JP in Kent in the 1940s,expressed unease abouther role, and in passingdrew attentionto the dramaticconstruction of a police court, in a letter to her husband,Harold Nicolson. I am somewhatagitated, becausethe police telephoned for nie to take a rather complicated casethis morning. I rather hate thesecases, although the human aspectof them always interestsme objectively. I don't like it when I am the only Justice, as I was this morning, and have to sit in a large armchair behind a table, while the wretched delinquent standsbefore me and the room is full of police officers and the Clerk of the Court and his Clerk and the Detective Superintendent,all bringing chargesand evidenceagainst the prisoner, and all the ponderousweight of the Law and its apparatusof which I am a part. I always feel that here is a wild animal trapped and caged,and that if it sprang at my throat it would be seizedand restrainedby a dozen strong hands; and above all I feel "There but for the graceof God and B. M. 's marriage settlement,go I". "Take your handsout of your pocketswhen I icr Worshipspeaks to you!" Oh darling,it makesme feel like a characterin a Galsworthyplay. 13 SackvillcWest expresses a mixture of fearand pity towardsthe defendantin this letter,her only detailedcomment on her work asJP. The text is ambiguous,but it is possiblethat her dislike of hearingcases alone stemmed from her sensethat responsibilityfor decisionsmade in thesecircumstances could not be shared,a sense of isolationnot dissimilarto Mrs. Leach's. I Icr admissionof distaste,cvcn fear,is fairly unusual,although the suggestionof a causalrelationship bct%vccn povcrty and crime was a widespreadsentiment among women magistrates. '"'Recollections of a PioneerJP' by Margaret Wynne Nevinson, The Vote, 17 April 1931,p. 125 "' Nigel Nicolson (cd.) Vita and Harold: The Letters of Vita Sachillc Westand Harold Nicolson. 1910-1962,London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1992,p. 392. Letter dated 14 December 1949. 219 Evidentlynot all womenmagistrates were blind to the imperfectionsof the systemof which they had become a part. Strong criticism cane early on from the South Wales suffragist and Liberal parliamentarycandidate Mrs. Coombe Tenant `appalled' who,after only threeyears as a JP claimedto be at the amountor power in the handsof untrained local magistrates. Any industrial two magistratesmay order the removal of a child ... to an its Can if school againstthe will of parents ... anyone suppose this power had been exercisedagainst the children of well-to-do parentsit would 132 have remainedwithout safeguards? Althoughher statementcan be constructedas a plea for moretraining, it also hints at a deeperunease with the social bias of the criminal justice system. Socialist woman magistrateswere also apt to detect class prejudice and reflectedupon its inequalities.Speaking at a conferenceof magistratesin 1927 GertrudeTuckwell admitted that there appearedto be 'one law for the rich and anotherfor the poor'. Shecontrasted the plight of childrenprosecuted for playing football in the streetswith those who had accessto the playing fields of Eton and harrow. `If you visit the metropolitancourts, you find that the greatproportion of culpritsbelong to the "havenots", who aretrying to get thosethings which seemthe 133 birthright of others'. However, Tuck-well's prescription was not to reject the systemaltogether, but to engagewithin it in a `spirit of socialreform'. Like many left-leaningwomen magistrates of this era,notably Miss Fry and Mrs. Rackham.her answerto uncomfortablequestions about the criminaljustice systemwas csscntially Fabian:gradual change - from within. Reformingwomen throughout the 1920-1950 periodremained optimistic that this approachwould succeedin the legal system,as it 112! 'omen'sLeader, 8 February 1924,p. 22. 133 GertrudeTuckwell, `Towards Justice', The Magistrate, January 1928, p.215. 220 Apparentlyhad in local government. Only the practical engagementof progressive women and men as magistrateswould produce the required change,albeit slowly. The doubts, however, did not go away, but becamemore insistent in the post. war erawhen rising living standardswere accompanied by further increasesin cringe rates. In Blythe'sAkenfield Mrs. Annersleyconfessed that shewas `so movedby the plight of manyof the peoplewho comeup, yet shewas `harderthan I usedto be. Like Vita Sackville West, the responsibility for decisions weighed on her mind: `1 alwayscome home frightfully worried andwretched if I've sentsomeone to prisonor 134 a detention centre'. Barbara Wootton was critical of many aspectsofthc systcm as she surveyedit after retirement in the 1960s,yet it is significant that she had remained 135 a part of it for over forty years. Perhapsthese publicly acknowledgeddoubts were merelythe visible tip of a very largeiceberg of magisterialconcern, or perhapsthey wereconfined to a minority of JPspredisposed to questionthe Stateand its institutions;it is impossibleto makea definitivejudgement from the extantevidence. Neverthelessit is evidentthat evensome of the earliestwomen magistrates were not contentto merelytake part in the existingcriminal justice system,but wereintent uponfomenting change within it whereverpossible. WOMEN MAGISTRATES - TIIE VERDICT To what extentwas Dr. Ogilvie Gordoncorrect in her assessmentof the work of womenJPs as a `signalsuccess'? As indicatedin a previouschapter, women werestill a minority on the Commissionsof the Peacein the late 1940sbut they were conventionally expectedto be part of most juvenile courts and domestic hearings. Thesearrangements and the presenceof womenon the benchhad become 114Blythe, Akenfreld,p. 252. 13SWootton, In A World I Never Made, Chapter9; Crime and Penal Policy, passim. 221 commonplaceand accepted. There no longerseemed to be bitter battlesover the presenceof womenin sexcases as there had been in the 1920s. More womenwere being electedto positions of responsibility in the magistracy, as chairmen (not merely of juvenile courts),advisory committee members and as the bench'srepresentatives 136 on StandingJoint Committeesin the counties. BarbaraWootton felt that, as a women magistrate,she had moved from `a peculiarity' to a commonplacecreature in the forty or so years she spent on the bench. In my experiencea woman is as likely to occupy the Chair as a man, and in the regular meetings which it is the practice for the Chairman of the London Juvenile Courts to hold it could certainly never be said that more attention was paid to the contribution of one sex than to those of another. But she added in a footnote: Alasl No sooner had I written thesewords than I found lying on the table in a Justices' room in a court where I have been regularly sitting (and in I have the Bench) which many years' seniority on ... a notice giving particulars of the Court's Annual Dinner "gentlemen only"137 Inequalitytherefore seems to havepersisted, despite the ostensiblygcndcr-blind cultureof the post-waryears. Commentators,however, were not gender-blind;the relativemerits ofmnle andfemale magistrates were not infrequentlydiscussed. Leo Page'sstcrcotypically masculineview wasthat womencould be madeinto teamplayers, but only 'if they havebeen brought to understandthe necessityfor its.138 In a speechto I Iampshirc WomenMagistrates he elaborated. lie said that women are either very good or very bad at d isio and he doubts whether it is valuable to have women on the Bench. But 'M The membersof the GloucesterWomen MagistratesSociety realised the importanceof having a womanon the SJC,but were hamperedby the small number of women county councillors. Miss Kcr 1P was electedto the committee in 1926. GCRO: GWMS minutes, 13 April 1926. 1" Wootton, In A World 1 Never Made, p. 154. "' Page,For Magistrates and Others, p. 182-3, (speechto the annual confcrcnceof women prison visitors). 222 women are keener on the right treatment: in DIIA'39 work they are untiring, selfless and indefatigable; and they are better than men because 140 they are willing to learn. This suggeststhat Pagebelieved, as so many Victorians had, that women had their own `propersphere' to inhabit,that their naturalattributes included and ability for hard work and attention to detail. Fundamentally,he saw women as most suited to the philanthropic aspectsof a JP's work. Undoubtedly some women magistrateswould have concurredwith him; their backgroundsin those kinds of public service regarded as `women's work' may have prompted more enthusiasmon their part for the 'social work' part of thejob. However,generalised accusations that they failed to distinguish betweensocial work andjustice cannot be valid, given that so many of them were highly intelligent people, well educatedin constitutional theory. Basil Henriques,a Londonsocial worker and JP, wasalso unafraidof pontificatingon the quality of womenmagistrates. `I havesat with manywomen justices,and I havefound that, perhapslike the men,they are eitherextraordinarily goodor elseextremely feeble', he wrote. Ile singledout someof the women chairmanof LondonJuvenile Courts as `exceptionallygood'. Although he did not mentionany by name,the dedicationof his book to CynthiaColville, `%vhohas bccn my friend andcolleague on the benchfor nearlya quarterof a century' suggestsone personhe hadin mind. But otherwomen magistrates did not `seemto havestudied the lawsas carefully as they shouldhave done', a criticism he doesnot apply to men. Worstof all somewomen were apt to `cometo their conclusions,not on the cvidcncc beforethem, but on what their feelingsprompt them to rind'. I icnriqucsthus was constructing women as basically unreliable and emotional. However, like Page,he 17' DischargedPrisoners' Aid Societies. ! lampshire women magistratestook a great interest in these organisationsand followed up the casesof l lampshire women who had beendischarged from Holloway Prison. 10 IIRO: IIWMA minutes,9 January 1939,emphasis in the original. 223 felt that womenreally cameinto their own on the questionof the 'treatment'of `sometimes insight'. i is offenders,on which women ... showremarkable therefore 141 concludedthat `the courts are better for their assistance'. i laving judiciously weighedthe evidence,Henriques appears to haveachieved a guardedacceptance of his femalecolleagues. Although the evidence is at times ambivalent, it can be inferred from their actions that the first generationof women magistrates,particularly those associated with women'sorganisations or with a backgroundin suffragework, saw themselves asrepresentatives, even protectors, of womenand childrenin court. This belief motivated them to remain in court when `unpleasant' caseswere heard and legitimated their interest in the conditions of women prisoners and child offenders. However,as HannahMitchell admitted,`I hadalways pictured myself as"counsel for women'sdefence" but found myselfquite often wholeheartedlyon the man's side, beingrather quicker at seeingthrough the "helplesslittle woman" than someof my 142 malecolleagues'. Classand generational differences undoubtedly impeded any impulsetowards gendersolidarity. Basil Henriqueswas one of severalcommentators who allegedthat his female colleaguescame down harder on female offenders. They seemto take the attitude that the very depraved girls who sometimes come to court have offended against their sex, and they arc far less understandingof them than men are.143 it may havebeen impossible for somewomen magistrates to overcomeage and class barriers in order to empathisefully with thesegirls, although many would strive to accomplisha greater understandingof them. I lcnriques, hie Indiscretions of a AMagistrate,p. 14.15. 112Mitchell, The Hard Way Up p.235. '41Ibid. 224 Of course,this is oneof the manyaspects of this studyabout which it is impossible,even dangerousto generalise. No doubt there were as many different approachesas there were JPs and the samemagistrates might react in completely differentways in what appearedto be similar situations. Yct the conclusionreached by Anne Worrall after interviews with women magistratesin the 1980smay well apply also to this period: Women magistratessuppress their empatheticunderstanding of women's in becausehaving position society ... enteredthe masculine world of the criminal justice systemby virtue of their womanhood, their ability to sustaintheir authority and credibility within it is dependenton their denial 144 of that womanhood. Wortall argued that they lacked the confidence to expressdifferent perspectives becauseof a lack of `will to experiencethe discomfort of conflict'. Instead,like HannahMitchell and so manyof her contemporaries,the later generationof women magistratesresorted to the useof an apparentlygender blind 'commonsense' to resolvematters. Perhaps this prohibitedwomen magistrates from makingthe distinctivecontribution to thejustice systemthat feministshad hoped for. Usingsources produced mainly by a small minority of womenmagistrates and someof their colleaguesand allies, this chapter therefore suggeststhat their cxpcriences,as far asthey canbe ascertainedfrom suchambivalent material, were variedin contextand in content. They held a variety of political views and their degreeof commitment to the work varied. Some served on rural benches,others in majortowns and cities. Somespecialised in juvenile work, othersengaged in a broad rangeof activities. Some becameprison visitors and immersed themselvesin the questionof prison reform. There were those who appearedto have thoroughly "4 Worrall, `Sistersin Law', p. 123. 225 doubt enjoyedtheir work on the benchand those who expressed and uncertaintyabout thecriminal justice systemand their own role within it. Experiencesalso variedover time: the earlypioneers of the 1920shad to confronthead-on attempts to removethem from the benchin casessuch as sexualassault, while the womenmagistrates orthe 1930shad to copewith the depressionand those of the 1940swith the effectsof Urar. The evidence left by the early women magistratesis partial and fragmentary. Nevertheless,it is possible to make some generalisationsabout the their experiences andapproach. Those women magistrates who left a recordof their impressionsseem to havehad a positiveapproach to their duties,even if thoseduties were at tines dull. Withoutbecoming self-important, they were fully awareof the significanccof their new role and were determinedto becomesuccessful citizens. 'Bose who had been activein the suffragestruggle often demonstrateda heightenedsense of duty not only towardsthe statewhich hadnow admittedthem to citizenship,but also towardstheir fellow womenwho camebefore the courts,although attempts at gendersolidarity couldbe underminedby the fact that womenmagistrates, unlike defendantsand witnesses,were overwhelmingly middle class. Womenjustices made significant use of their previous experience,often in local government,poor law administrationor voluntarysocial work in their magisterial work. However, this approachlaid them open to the charge that `women foundit moredifficult thantheir malecolleagues to differentiatebetween judicial and welfarefunctions and therefore tended to becomemore emotionallyinvolved in cases 143 comingbefore the bcnch'. However,most commentators seemed to agreethat women magistrateswere a success,perhaps because they had proved less disruptive thanhad been feared. As the next chapterwill demonstrate,their enthusiasmfor 145Skyrme, History of the Justices of the Peace Volume 2, p. 236. 226 seeminglypractical solutions and the right `treatment'of ofTcndcrs,coupled with n desireto do thejob properly,brought women magistrates and their organisations further into a network of penal and judicial reform movements,while providing them with greateropportunities for training thanhad hitherto existed. 227 CHAPTERSIX BEYOND TIIE COURTS: WOMEN MAGISTRATES' ORGANISATIONS ANI) CAMPAIGNS Previouschapters of this thesishave examined the waysin which women's organisationslobbied for the appointment of women magistratesand worked with other interest groups in promoting penal reform (including the development of the probationsystem and separatejuvenile courtsand changes to prisonconditions). Prominent among the first women magistrateswas a group of women, mostly former suffragists,who becamevery interestedin the role of the JI'. For some, the magistracybecame the main focus of their public work, the principal expressionof their citizenship and a vital outlet for their feminist energy in the decadesafter the vote was `won'. This group,including outstanding women such as Mrs. Rackham, MargeryFry andMrs. Keynes,were part of a muchwider networkof organisations whoseindividual membershippotentially and actually included a largeproportion of the womenJPs of Englandand Wales.' This chapterwill chartthe networkof organisationsthat leadingwomen magistratesused to promotethe messageof penalreform, encouragemore consistent application of the law in courts acrossthe country, and, crucially, to provide training for women(and, eventually, for men) forty yearsbefore the introductionof the official governmentscheme for training lay magistrates.In additionto analysing networksof womenmagistrates, this chapterwill examinetwo of key campaigns mobilisedby thesenetworks that havenot featuredelsewhere in this study:the campaignto alter court proceedingsin domesticcases and the campaignfor the Seediagram in Appendix C displaying the full network of organisationsrclcvant to the work of womenmagistrates. appointmentof women police. These exampleswill demonstratethat, far from bcing quiescentin the two decadesafter 1918, women's organisationspursued fundamentallyfeminist objectives in relation to the legal system of England and Wales,and that womenmagistrates frequently took the leadin thesecampaigns. Organisationsfeatured herein range from nationalbodies, some of which had a local branchnetwork, such as Women'sCitizens Association and the National Council of Women, to purely local clubs, such as the GloucestershireWomen Magistrates'Society. Somewere pre-existing bodies, for examplethe two former suffragesocieties that remained in businessafter 1918 (the Women's Freedom League and the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship). Others were new organisations. Most of the bodies featured in this chapter were women-only, although someof the local womenmagistrates' societies invited mento their meetings,albeit with little response.The Magistrates'Association is an obviousexception, but it is includedhere because its inceptionin the yearfollowing the appointmentof the first womenmagistrates was no coincidenceand because its individual membershipin the earlyyears was aboutone-third female. Some of the organisationshave been traditionallyregarded as `feminist', while others,most obviouslythe NCW. havebeen viewedas insufficientlyradical for sucha description. The preciserationale of these organisationsvaried but they all playeda part in the disseminationof informationof interestto magistratcs,in organising confcrcnccs and training activitics and in raising 2 The HampshireWomen Magistrates' Association agreedin 1936 to allow men to attendtheir meetingsas 'honorary members' but the responsefrom male colleaguesappears to have beenpoor. In April 193925 women attendedand 3 men to hear Madeleine Symons speakon the Criminal Justice Dill, in June 1940 there were 20 women and one man and in January 194123 women and 3 men (I IRO: 23M57/1). 229 awarenessof the magistracyand locatingpotential recruits for the bench,as did the Women'sCo-operative Guild andWomen's Institutes Membership of the organisationsnaturally overlapped, particularly of the NUSEC,the WFL andthe NCW, so that personalfriendship networks of women magistrateswere also established. Relationships between the organisationsw ere thereforeoften quite harmonious and joint ventureswere organised, for example a meeting held in Portsmouth by the WFL and the local WCA to demand the appointmentof more women JPs. There were links between the bodies at the national level too. The WFL was affiliated to the NCW and from 1923 was representedon the latter's Executive Committee.s To a largeextent the activitiesof someof thesebodies can only be guessedat dueto the lack of detailedevidence. Only two local womenmagistrates' societies, thoseof Gloucestershireand Hampshire, left records,although there are clear indicationsthat similar bodiesexisted in otherparts of the country. For example,Mrs. JusonKerr, a WFL member,promoted meetings of womenmagistrates in EastKent addressedby Miss Tooke,a memberof the Council of WomenMagistrates of 6 Northumberland,Cumberland and Durham Only a few NCW branchesor WCAs (notably Cambridge) have extant archives, although their activities can be traced throughlocal newspaperreports. Ilowever, a full set of minutesof the NCW's nationalPublic Serviceand Magistrates'Committee (PSMC) in the London MetropolitanArchives provides a greatdeal of insight into the perspectivesand activitiesof its members. I Four. SecChapter The Women's Co-operativeGuild also passedresolutions at its annualcongresses on subjectsrelated to the criminal justice system,for exampleexpressing opposition to the birching of young offenders,Gaflin & Thorns, Caring and Sharing, p. 108. Eustance,`Daring to be Free', p.367. Ibid. p.315. 6 TheyVote, 3 December 1926,p. 383; 27 January 1928,p. 25. 230 TIIE SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES: WFL AND NUSEC The former suffragesocieties played an importantrole, particularlyin the 1920s,in maintaining the network of women JPs. Once their original objective was obtainedin 1918and 1928they turnedtheir interestto otheraspects orequal citizenship,among which the magistracyfeatured prominently. Although the membershipof both the WFL and the NUSEC was falling, both organisations producedjournals throughout the decade,respectively The Vote and the Women's Leader,which regularlyfeatured items relevant to the magistracy. A reading of editions of The Vote published between 1919 and November 1933 (when it was replacedby a more cheaply produced publication, the JITL Bulletin) would suggestthat the work of the courts in general,and of women JPs in particular,was of utmostinterest to WFL members.The inclusionof threeWFL members(Mrs. Nevinson,Miss Tookeand Mrs. Smith) in the Lord Chancellor'sList (1920)was celebrated with full-pageprofiles. In the 1920shardly a month went by withoutthe announcementin The Voteof the appointmentof morewomen to a Commissionof the Peacesomewhere in the countryand featureson womenmayors andparliamentary candidates (many of whom werealso JPs). By the 1930sthe appointmentof womento keyjustices' committeeswas noted. Theseitems were in keepingwith the publication'sdesire to celebratewomen's successes, especially when achievedin traditionallymasculine spheres. More significantly, the paper carried articles on the work of women 8 magistrates, news items about magistrates' conferences,reports of I ionic 0111ce Committeesand featureson penal reform and practice. Apparently, Elizabeth Knight. ' For example,the paper reported the appointmentof three women JPs to the Northumberland ProbationCommittee in 1933. They were the first women to serve on it. The Vote, 20 January 1933. F.19 For example,'A Magistrates' Task', by 'ASC', presumablyAlice Schofield Coates,League president and Middlesbroughmagistrate, The Vote,21 September1928 p.303. ; '. 231 who largely financed The Vote, and the League Secretary,Florence Underwood, were keen supportersof penal reform and worked with the 1ioward League. I lowwever,their dominanceof the Leaguein the 1920s9is not alone a sufficient explanation or the prominencethat the WFL attachedto such matters. The League's stancewas agreed at its Annual Conferenceby the adoption of formal resolution, for example in 1923 it 1° demandedreform of `the entire penal systemof this country'. There is also " evidencethat local branchesexpressed support for penal reform. Ultimately, opinions expressedin the pagesof The Vote must have resonatedwith a majority of its readers. The flurry of correspondencefollowing Mrs. Green's refusal to leave the bench12is an indication that the publication was read by at least some women 13 magistrates,including membersof the Gloucester Women Magistrates' Society. Although WFL membershipdeclined in the interwarperiod from aboutfive to threethousand, it remaineda pressuregroup of somesignificance, one that took a specialinterest in the work of the courtsin generaland in womenmagistrates in particular. Its pronouncementsin the 1920s(both in formal resolutionsand through theeditorial stance of its paper)demonstrate the interfacebetween feminism and `progressive'attitudes towards penal reform. The contribution of the NUSEC to maintaining the informal network of women JPs was twofold. Firstly, it was the first body to organiseconferences and training schools specifically for magistrates. Secondly, in 1923 a regular feature entitled `The Law at Work' began to appearin its paper, the Women'sLeader, a'little magazine(which) circulates among the most respectableconstitutional suffragist-of- ' Claire Eustance,`Daring to be Free', p.327. 10Ibid., p.386. 11Ibid., p.327. 12See Chapter Five. 13The Vote,24 April 1925,pp. 130,135. 232 14 the-pastcircles'. The column's publicationcontinued monthly until the l i'onwu s Leaderunderwent a facelift in 1931when a new editorial policy replacedit with more 15 domestic featuressuch as the `home page' and `children's page'. Together the conferencesand the columnprovided a valuablesource of informationand education to womenmagistrates during the 1920s. The first womenmagistrates' summer school held in 1922at St i lilda's College,Oxford wasa hithertounheard of innovation,although the NUSEC had organisedits first conferencefor womenmagistrates as earlyas November 192016 and suffragesummer schools had been an establishedfact for someyears. One hill cvcn askedthe AttorneyGeneral if similar arrangementscould be madefor male magistrates- an indication that the suggestionthat magistratesshould be educatedor 17 evenprepared for their task was still a novel one. Accordingto the Women's Leader,the 1922summer school was marked by an `eagerthirst for knowledge'by the participants`evidenced by attendanceat lectures,raids on bookstallsand not least ' by snatchesof earnestconversation overheard in the gardenor commonroom'. Miss Fry organiseddaily informal conferencesin addition to the formal sessionsat whichwomen magistrates could discusstheir experiencesand exchange idcas. One participant,Miss Sessionsof Gloucestershire,was so thoroughlyinspired by the event that she subsequentlyformed a society of women magistratesin her home county. Furthersummer schools were held in 1925and 1928,again in Oxford. In 1925around one hundred women attended the school`for magistratesand citizens' to hearseveral speakers including Clarke I lall, Miss Fry, Mrs. Rackharn,Mrs. Geraldine PRO: PCOM9/409: letter from Margery Fry to Alexander Paterson,18 July 1930. ýsThe final 'Law at Work' featureappeared in September1931. Subsequently,in 1933, the 11omen's Leader went into voluntary liquidation and was replaced from April 1933 by The Townswoman,% hich carried on the primarily domestic editorial policy. 1bTire Times, 1 December 1920,p. 9. 17Women's Leader, I1 August 1922,p. 218. 19Ibid., 1 September1922, p. 241. 233 Cadbury,Eleanor Rathbone, the Birminghampsychologist Dr. I lamblin Smith and Mr. BrysonJP (chairmanof the Birminghamlicensing committee). There was sonic but informal criticismthat this heavyprogramme allowed little time for discussion, meetingsalso took placeon similar lines to thoseof 1922.19In 1928'practical problemsof administrationof the law werediscussed by Miss I lartlandand a groupof womenmagistrates', who, accordingto the Women'sLeader, `made us realisethe amount of magnificent work being done by our JPs and the need for more women to bench' 20 Although these help them on the . not all women magistratesappreciated JP idea efforts - one indignant woman apparently wrote to the pressridiculing the and 21 claiming that `common sense' was the only prerequisite for successon the bench . theseearly conferencesand conversationsare neverthelesshighly significant as they took place at a time when the Magistrates' Association had barely began to function and when official training for magistrateswas non-existent. `The Law at Work' column, officially `under the direction of Mrs. C. D. RackhamJP, Miss S.M. Fry JP, with Mrs. Crofts as I Ion. Solicitor' was in practice mainly written by Mrs. Rackham,a Cambridge Councillor and evidently close colleagueof Margery Fry in the Howard League. A former NUWSS executive member,Mrs. Rackham appearsto have put much of her formidable feminist energy into her work as a magistrate,acquiring a better understandingof penal matters and spreadingher knowledge, although she remained active in politics as well, standing as a Labour candidatein several General Elections. Mrs. Rackhamdemonstrated her commitment, as well as a thoroughly modern approach to the role of MI', when The Voteinterviewed her for their series `When I am an MP'. 'I think the wisest course for an MP who wants to be of use is to acquire as much knowledge as possible on 19Ibid., 5 June 1925& 11 September1925. m Ibid., 21 September1928 p.258. 21Ibid., 1 September1922, p. 241. 234 I interestedin I someone subject ... am much criminologyand penalreform, and 22 Mrs Rackham shouldtry to makea studyof that subject'. was alreadystudying the subject,and she passed on her findingsto others,both through"Me Law at work' and throughnumerous lectures and conference papers. She even gave talks aboutthe work of a womanmagistrate and on `How Justiceis Done' on I313Cradio in the 23 1920s,becoming one of Britain's first women broadcasters For Mrs. Rackham an interestin her work as magistratewas not a diversionfrom her commitmentto the women'smovement but a direct expressionof it. Sheoften gaveevidence to oflicial inquiries, representinga variety of organisations(including the Magistrates' Association,the Howard Leagueand the SJCIWO) and was herself a member of the Committee on Sexual Offences Against Young People. `TheLaw at Work' articleswere mainly of interestto actualor potential womenJPs and socialworkers. Their publicationsuggests that the NUSEC continued to attachgreat importance to the work of womenmagistrates throughout the 1920s. Topicscovered included fairly predictableitems (such as thejuvenile courts,police courtvisiting, andthe probationservice) and lessobvious matters (such as prisonsin Australia and capital punishment). Mrs. Rackham also reviewed books of interest to 24 magistrates,for example Cyril Burt's The YoungDelinquent, and provided useful summariesof official documentssuch as the reports of the Prisons Commission. Mrs. Dowson'sLeague of Honourexperiment in Nottinghamwas covered, as weH as a new licensingscheme in Carlislewhere public houseswere publicly ownedand 3 managed. u The Vote, 15 June 1928 p. 186. At the time Mrs. Rackhamwas prospective parliamentarycandidate for Iluntingdon. She also stood in Chelmsford in 1922 and Saffron Walden in 1935. " CambridgeIndependent Press, 11 April 1930. 21 Burt's book was required reading for women magistratesin this period. An approving quote from the feminist paper Time and Tide appearson its dust cover. " Women'sLeader, 22 May 1925,p. 134; 5 June 1925,p. ISO. 235 As a prominentmember of the HowardLeague Mrs. Rackhamnaturally highlightedthat body'sviews on penalmatters, ensuring a significanttransmission of ideasbetween penal reformers and the paper's feminist readership. Occasionally she let slip her personalperspective on penalquestions, for examplewhen she promoted the ideaof life sentencesas an alternativeto capitalpunishment and condemned 26 flogging as `a savagepenalty' Mrs. Rackham's associationwith Margery Fry at the centreof the feminist penal reforming network is highly significant. Both supported the introductionof legalaid for the defenceof poor prisonersin evidenceto the Finlay Committeeof 1925. Miss Fry's influencewas evident in 1931when Mrs. Rnckham usedher column in the Women'sLeader to publicise the work of Mrs. Lc Mcsuricr with youngmale offenders in WormwoodScrubs. (Miss Fry wason the management committeethat wastrying to find more funding for the project.)27 Later, in 1937,Mrs. Rackhamand Miss Fry travelledto EasternEurope together to observepenal conditionsin Rumania,Bulgaria and Hungary. All availablecvidcncc suggests that theyenjoyed a closefriendship as well asa similar political outlook and shared 28 goals WOMEN'S CITIZENS ASSOCIATIONS Less is known about Women's Citizens Associations, which seem to have beenneglected so far by mosthistorians of British women'sorganisations in the twentieth century. Most WCAs (and the National Association) came into existenceat the time of the partial enfranchisementof womenin 1918,although a pioneerWCA 26Ibid., 6 September1929, p. 232; 21 February 1930 p.20. n PRO: PCOM/409; The Women'sLeader 17 October 1931. n 1{uwsJones, The EssentialAmateur, p. 133 & p. 184; Women's Library: taped interview with Miss Mary Tabor (Mrs. Rackham'sniece) November 1975. 236 was formed in Liverpool by Eleanor Rathbonc in 1913.9 Activities Were geared towardsthe educationof womenfor their new role in nationalpolitics and the encouragementof more women to take an active role in local government. I iowcver. WCAs quickly realised that a new opportunity for women to exercise their citizenship asmagistrates had arisen and they wereamong the organisationsthat first put forward the namesof women for consideration for appointment as magistrates. They also organisedmeetings at which women already appointed spoke on their work as JI's. In Kent the MaidstoneWCA (formedin 1918)invited speakerson the criminal law and 30 penal reform as well as on women JPs and jurors in the early 1920S. hic role of local WCAs was analogousto both Women's Co-operative Guild branchesand to Women's Institutes, who organisedmeetings on similar themesand also encouraged membersto becomemagistrates, except that the rationaleof WCAs was lessbroad andmore focused upon citizenship. In manyways they werethe main inheritorsof the non-militantsuffrage tradition in that WCAs wereable to providea local support networkfor thosewomen who becamemagistrates or local councillors,even offering helpto the latter in their electioncampaigns. Althoughsome WCAs were in declineby the 1930s(and some had mcrgcd 31 with local SEC branches)others survived at least until the 1940s, and the NWCA carriedon until the early 1970s.There may havebeen a tendencyfor the subject becomeless matterto obviouslypolitical as the yearswent by, astalks on gardening took the placeof campaignsfor womenpolice, but the CambridgeWCA for one was still hostingtalks on womenand the magistracyin the 1950sas well as on 'the "Pugh, Womenand the Women'sMovement, p. 50-51. 30 The Women's Library: NWCA records, Maidstone WCA minute book 1918-1927. 31 Pugh, Women& the Women'sAfovement, p.242; Kay Cook & Neil Evans`The Pctty Antics of the Bell-ringing BoisterousBand: The Women's Suffrage Movement in South Wales' p. 179. 237 32 modernapproach to child psychology' Accordingto a surveyconducted by the nationalWCA (to which Cambridgewas not affiliatcd) in 1956.7,'judicial %vork'%%US seventhon the list of members' voluntary work behind local government, the care of 33 the elderly,church work, hospitalwork andschool governorship Eventhough by the secondhalf of the twentiethcentury WCAs generallywere suffering from a declinein supportand an agingmembership, their membersevidently still took active citizenship very seriously. THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND MAGISTRATES' COMMITTEE Among the national organisationsthe NCW's Public Scrvicc and Magistrates'Committee (PSMC) was pre-eminentin promotingthe appointmentof womenJPs and in circularisingthose appointed with detailedinformation. (Tic Women'sLocal GovernmentSociety - which hadat first broughtwomen t'LGs together,later supplementedby womencouncillors - waswound up in the mid 1920s, but not beforeit hadorganised a conferencefor womenmagistrates in Manchester.) TheNCW, which actedas an umbrellafor a diversecollection of women's 34 groups,has often been portrayed as a `conservative' organisation I Iowever, it is increasinglyrccogniscd that conservatismwas not inimical to fcminism3S The broad baseof the NCW, the main reasonfor its apparentconservatism, was a weakness,in that policy developmentwas slowedby the needto bet as manyof the groupsin 72 CCRO: RS84/91,Cambridge and District WCA programmes. This WCA was not wound up until 1984. 11 Women's Library: NWCA records: `A Job in Fach l land'; report on members' survey. 1956-7. For example,by Alberti, BeyondSu,,()'rage p. 123. SeeIntroduction above and Pugh, The March ofthe Women. P. 102. There have also beenstudies of in feministsactive extremeright wing groups, such as Douglas's Feminist FrelAorps and Gottlieb's Feminine Fascism. 1lowever,here I am concernedwith conservatismwith a small 'c'. I have not identified a single woman JP who was a memberof a fascist or far right organisation,although very many were active in the ConservativeParty. 238 agreementas possible, but it was alsoa strength.When the NCW backeda campaign it did so with the authorityof organised,middle class,female opinion. As Patricia Ilollis writes, their conferenceswere "the women's movement in Council"M and their well-connectedleaders, though often regardedby the malecstablishmcnt as 37 "dangerousagitators for the feministcause", werethe sisters,wives, daughtersand cousinsof politicians, judges, bishops and lords and therefore commandedsome respect,or at the very least a polite hearing. in government circles. Their power as a feministlobby groupwas therefore second to none,as weretheir networks,both nationally and locally. NCW membersbelonged to any one of the county's three mainpolitical parties,or, in manycases, to none. However,even among magistrates, working classNCW memberswere a rarity. The PSMCwas one of a numberof specialist`sectional' committees of the 8 NCW, eachconcerned with a particularinterest. It originatedas the Public Service Committee,founded in 1913`to watchthe administrationof the law in the Courtsof Law andthe administrationof existingActs of Parliament,to endeavourto secure 39 their efficientworking, andto suggestimprovements', hardly a modestobjective at a time whenwomen lacked any formal influenceover the law eitheras votersor legislators. It was by no meansan insignificant committee; over the years its membershipincluded some of the most formidableNCW activists.40 The first secretarywas Miss Amelia Scottof TunbridgeWells, a PLG and later a local II lollis: Ladies Elect, p.237. 17 A descriptionof Lady Sclbornc JP, sister of Lord Salisbury and NCW president 1920-21.according to ChristopherSykes in Nancy: TheLife of Lady Astor, London. Coll ins, 1972,p. 201. "Glick, The NCJV:The First One Hundred Years,p. 121. '9 LMA: ACC/3613/1/77 PSMC minutes,25 January 1914. 40Mrs. Keynes,who led the committee for a number of years, was NCW president from 1928to 1931. Committeemembers Mrs. Ilartree and Mrs. Carengeyalso served as president (1935.7 and 1949.31 respectively). 239 councillor. The chairman was Mrs. Edwin Gray of York, a leading suffragist who was later appointed as a justice. Mrs. Rack-ham,already a PLG, was an early member. The appointmentof womenmagistrates seems to haveradically altered the committee'sdirection. By 1918the PSMCwas lobbyingprospective hills for the appointmentof womenas magistrates and in 1920it organisedthe submissionof lists of nomineesto the Lord Chancellor's Committee. In 1921 a conferenceon juvenile offenderswas held at which it was agreedthat a sub-committeeof magistratesbe 4' formedto meetone hour beforethe main committeemeeting. The subcommittee alreadyhad 52 membersand in due coursea largervenue had to be found to accommodateall the women magistrateswho attended. Four years later the sub- committee and its parent body merged under the leadershipof Mrs. Keynes but magisterialmatters, if anything,received even more attention than previously(except perhapsin the late 1920swhen the government'sproposed changes to the poor law dominatedthe agenda).Mrs. Keynescombined the compilationof a list of women JPswith a recruitmentdrive so that by 1927there were 555 magistratemembcrs, 42 approximatelyone-third of all womenwho hadbeen appointed to the Commissionof the Peacethus far. Althoughby no meansall of thesewere able to attendthe meetingsin London (about forty women, mainly from the southeastof England and the capitaldid come)each member received a copy of the printedminutes, including verbatimaccounts of guest'sspeeches. Therefore, at a time when training for new JPs was non-existent and diligent noviceswere merely advised to obtain a copy of 'Stone's Manual', the PSh1C provided its memberswith detailed and readableinformation on aspectsof the administrationof justice. Among the manyspeakers who addressedthe committeein " LMA: PSMC minutes,23 June 1921. 12Ibid., 15 May 1927. For details of Mrs. Keynes survey, seeChapter Two. 240 its early yearswere Miss Costin, a reformatory superintendent,Cecil Leeson olthc Magistrates' Association, Mrs. Le Mcsuricr of the Lady Prison Visitors, the chaplain of Hollowayand Geraldine Cadbury (twice). On other occasionsmembers discussed mattersby themselves.Among the numeroustopics for discussionNvcrc (inevitably) juvenile courts, the use of probation, reformatories and prisons, atZcrcarc,licensing andthe Mental DeficiencyAct. Until the summerof 1939the detailedminutes continued to be printed and presumably were circulated to all members. The PSMCalso conducted surveys and canvassed members for their views or for informationabout local practice. Oneearly surveyconcerned the supervision arrangementsfor women held in police cells, to which 32 replies were received, nine 43 of which describes`undesirable conditions'. This information was then used to 4 lobby the Home Office for the appointment of women police. Another survey was concernedwith the appointment of court officers to collect paymentsdue under 5 affiliation and maintenanceorders. The report of the replies received was circulated in the PSMCminutes and it may havehelped to spreadbest practice in this matterto partsof the countrywhere benches were apparentlyignoring i tome Office adviceto appointa collectingofficer. Whetherthis informationreached women magistrates in the remoter rural districts (if there were any) is open to question, since NCW members appearto havebeen mainly concentratedin largercities and prosperoustowns. I lowever,these women were at leastas well informedas their malecolleagues on the stateof the law in this regardand their knowledgeof the mattermay havehelped someof themto arguefor improvementsto the systemin their area, lt shouldtip: notedtoo, that althoughsome historians and contemporaries failed to characterisethe Ibid., 7 December1922. The NCW had anothercommittee devotedto the promotion of the work of women police founded in 1914as the Women Police Patrol Committeeand wound up in 1947. Glick. The NClr- 71teFirst One Hundred Years,pp. 125-6 's LMA: PSMC minutes, 1SJanuary 1925. 241 NCW asa feministbody, the PSMC's surveyswere strongly focused on securingn betterdeal for women,whether they be prisoners,separated wives or unmarried mothers. In the late 1920sand 1930sthe PSMC under Mrs. Keynes concentratedmuch of its attentionon the appointmentof morewomen magistrates and womenadvisory committeemembers. However, it kept a watchingbrief on governmentenquiries (to which many of the committee's representativesgave evidenceand on which sonic NCW membersserved) and on legislationsuch as the Childrenand Young Person's Act. The PSMC also lobbied unsuccessfullyfor legal changesthat would have enabledmore women to serveon juries. Mrs. Keynes wrote NCW published pamphletson both women jurors and women magistrates. By the late 1930sthe committee'schair had passedto Miss Kelly JP, a social workerand Chairman of the PortsmouthJuvenile Court. Sheappears to havebeen 46 anothervery formidablelady, obviouslyfond of plain speaking. Elo«wevver, I have beenunable to find any evidenceof her involvementin feminist activity prior to her 47 membershipof the PSMC During her periodin chargespeakers included Madeline SymonsJP, a member of the government's enquiry into court social services, Lady Ampthill JP from the Home Office committee on corporal punishment, and Mr. Turton MP who spoke about the law regarding prostitution. The inclusion of Dennis Carroll's talk about`the scientific treatmentof delinquency'on the agendain 1937 suggeststhat the women JPs of the PSMC continued to be in the forefront of the movementfor `modern' penal methods. Certainly this seemsto have been Miss `6 See,for example,her evidencein 1925 to the Committee on the Treatmentof Young Offenders. PRO: 11073/116. 47In her evidenceto the committee(ibid. ) Miss Kelly admitted '1 have not got the correct feminist idea that women police will do everything that is not done at the presenttime'. ! lowwwever,her pronouncementson matterssuch as the treatmentof women prisoners could be seenas incorporating feminist sentiments,for examplein The Magistrate, XXX I p.463. 242 8 Kelly's position. In evidenceto the Treatmentof Young OffendersCommittee she expressedstrong support for psychoanalyticassessment of offenders,the abolition of 49 convictions, the renaming of reformatories and improved probation services. TILE MAGISTRATES' ASSOCIATION Another project in which both Miss Fry and Mrs. Rackham were centrally involved was the formation and developmentof the Magistrates' Association (MA). Although open to both men and women, it neverthelessperformed an important role in promoting and sustaining networks of women magistratesin the period 1921 -- 1939. It was no coincidence that the first plans for a body bringing together JI's from all overEngland and Waleswere laid at the sametime as proposalsfor the introduction of women magistrates. The initiative for the MA came from penal reformers. In 1919 Cecil Leeson,secretary of the Howard Association, wrote to the i LomeOffice seekingsupport for the formationof a `committee'of magistratesto spreadinformation on reforms such as probation. Whilst the ilonie Office was able to offer guardedsupport for the scheme,progress was hamperedsince it was unable to S° provide Leesonwith a list of justices. However, there was no such problem with the first women JPs appointed in 1920 as the namesof those on the Lord Chancellor's list werepublished in the press. Leesonand the PenalReform League Secretary, Margery Fry, were by then working towards a merger of their societies and they wrotc jointly to all the new women JPs. Their initiative in contacting the first women magistrates for high may well partly account the proportion of females among MA members duringthe organisation'searly years. 41She was also a memberof the Executive of the Magistrates' Association. "PRO: 11073/116. 50PRO 11045/16943. 243 Oncethe HowardAssociation merger with the PenalKcfomi Leaguewas complete, Leeson,together with Margery Fry and Alderman Wilkins of Derby, turned again to their plans for a magistrates' association. At first responsefrom the majority of (male) magistrateswas poor but a conferencesponsored by the Lord Mayor of London was held on 26`" October 1920 and a provisional committee was elected. Women were prominent in the associationfrom its inception. According to 77se women's' Timesthe first event attracted `a large attendance,which included several andMiss Fry andMrs. Dowsonof Nottinghamwere both clcctcdto the committee (later joined by Miss Tuckwell). The meeting agreedthat the objectives of the associationwould be the `collection of information calculated to promote the efficiency of the work of magistratesand the diminution of crime, and the maintenanceof a permanentoffice for collatingand disseminatingsuch information'.2 At first Leesonworked half time for the l io%%ardLeague and half for the MA, MargeryFry havingarranged for his part-timesalary to be doubledand paid for by the League.53 The following autumnthe inauguralconference took place precededin the morningby a specialmeeting of womenmagistrates, chaired by GertrudeTuckwell. This wasthe first of manyMA sponsoredwomen's conferences in the interwar years, the timing of which may well have helped to ensurethat a high proportionof womenattended the organisation'sannual meeting which customarily followed. Not only were individual women such as Miss Fry, Miss Kclly and Miss Tuckwell prominent in the early leadershipof the MA but women also made up a " The Times,27 October 1920,p. 9. '2 Ibid. " Iluws Jones,The Essenlial Amateur, p. 118; Minutes of Evidence to the Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,1948, appendix III, para. 2334, Cmd 7463. In 1924the MA moved to its own premisesin Westminsterand Leesonbecame its full time secretary. From then on the MA was able to forge a distinct identity separatefrom the Iloward League. 244 strikingly high proportionof the association'sindividual mcinbershipin its curly years. Of 433 individual subscriberslisted in the association's annual report roe 1922, 146, approximately one-third, were women. Of course, it was also possible for benchesto join collectively(although in the earlyyears few did so), which would havegreatly increased the amountof malemembers, but the proportionof women membersis neverthelessremarkable, given how few women magistrateshad been appointedin England and Wales at this stage. however, women w ere not so reell representedin the hierarchyof the MA, holding only six out of the twenty-onecouncil placesin 1923and only oneplace on the executive(held by MargeryFry). Where sub-committeeswere concernedin 1923 women sat on the poor person's defence. probation and juvenile and the treatment of offenders sub-committees,but not on licensingor finance. This distributionseems to suggesta bcndcrcdpattern of 54 responsibilities. Womencontinued to be fairly well representedin the organisation over the next decade.In 1936,by which time manymore womenmagistrates had beenappointed and many more JPs of both sexeshad joined the MA, therewere six womenmembers on a twenty-strongexecutive, giving womena quarterof executive placesat a time whenthey numberedno morethan one in ten of the lay magistracy. Furthermore,the MA appearsto havebeen broadly sympathetic to the agenda put forward by feminist women magistrates. One of the first resolutions adopted by its councilcame from the 1921women's conference concerning the abolitionof sentencesof deathin casesof infanticide. A separateconference for womenmembers took placeannually until at least 1939,with the cxccptionof 1923,w"hcn the opinion `it is inadvisable was expressedthat to make such provision as will in any way tend to distinguishbetween men and women magistrates'. It wasdecided then to (cavethe '4 being The six Miss Fry, Miss Kelly, Mrs. Rackham,Mrs. Dowson, Miss Tuckwell and Miss Rathbone(MA SecondAnnual Report, 1923,p. 2). 245 issueof whetherthere was a women'sconference to the womenmagistrates themselves,and after many letters were received in favour the event went ahead the entire arrangementshaving been undertakenby the women membersof the Council'.55 Clearly there was a demandfor a women'sconference and the MA was responsiveenough to accedeto it. Additionally, women iI's were given space in the MA journal The Magistrate (initially edited by J. St Loc Strachcy) to raise the matters that especially concernedthem, including assaultson women and children and the repealof the solicitation laws, as well as on poor people's defenceand penal rcfomt. Most significantly, the MA backed feminist inspired campaignsfor the mandatory presenceof women JPs in `indecency' cases,for women police and for the appointmentof a woman assistantprison commissioner. WomenJPs had a voice within the MA disproportionateto their numerical strengthon the benches.However, until afterthe SecondWorld War the NIA remaineda relativelysmall andunimportant organisation. Stipendiary magistrates, apartfrom a few maverickslike ClaudMullins, would havenothing to do with it. Lay magistrateswere sometimesput off joining by the cost and the correspondence 56 coursesdeveloped by the associationto train JPs were also said to be 'expensive'. s7 Membershipwas alleged to be particularly poor in the South West of England According to Winifred A. Elkin in 1939 only a minority of R's belonged the majority remain cut off from any opportunity of hearing fresh ideas or comparing their 58 methodswith those of other courts'. No doubt, that was the case for many women magistratesas well as a majority of men. Yet the enthusiasmAmong women for the 53MA Annual Reports 1923 p.5 ; 1924 p.5. 3'GCRO D6156/2, GWMS minutes,25 February 1947. The Magistrate, April-May 1932,p. 586. " Ibid. Jan-Feb1939, p. 166. 246 t, ýl* Magistrates'Association continued to excitecomment, such as this from J.P. Eddy QC in 1963. The aim of the Association has been fundamentally to keep magistrateswell informed on matters connectedwith their duties, and from the earliest days it has been the women magistrateswho took the lead in organising conferencesfor this purpose... In due course, but not without discussion,the men who throughout the centuries had not seemed to regard themselvesin need of particular training to fulfil their duties as magistrates,joined in thesemeetings, but it is noticeable that while only twenty-five per cent of active magistratesat the presenttime arc women, they are commonly in a majority attending conferences.39 Of course,it can be argued that women JPs who were less likely to have substantial businessor work commitmentsin this periodthan their malecolleagues had more time to attend meetings. NeverthelessEddy's comment is still significant. The MA was an integral part of the network of women magistrates,penal reformers and modernisersof the magistracy. LOCAL WOMEN MAGISTRATES' SOCIETIES Thereis evidenceof the existenceof severallocal societiesof women magistratesin the periodbetween 1920 and 1960,in London,Middlcscx, the North Eastof England,East Kent andpossibly Sussex. However, only two, thoseof Gloucestershireand Hampshire, have left detailed records. It is these two that feature in this section. Foremostamong the local womenmagistrates' societies founded in the 1920s was the GloucestershireWomen Magistrates' Society (GWMS). As already its founding mentioned, chairman, Miss Sessions,had attendedthe summer school in in 1922 Miss Hartland, Oxford and together with she called an initial meeting of some of Gloucestershire'swomen magistratesa few weeks later. It wes agreedto meet 51Eddy, Justice of the Peace,p. 181. 247 quarterly and all the county's women JPs were subsequentlyinvited to take part in discussionsof any subject arising out of their work or any difticultics cneountcrcd.' Eight women attendedthe first meeting, but later on, aller more women had been mademagistrates, the attendanceranged between one andtwo dozen. Active membersformed a representativesample of Gloucestershire'swomen magistrates, including Lillian Faithfull, the principal of CheltenhamLadies' College, Miss Pcase,a founder of the Women Police Training School in Bristol, and Mrs. Ada Prosserof the NFWW. Discussion subjectsranged from the more obvious topics of prison conditions, probation, licensing rules and adoption proceduresto reporting restrictions and the sterilisation of mental defectives. From 1924 the meetings took place in the convivial atmosphereof a Gloucestercafe, accompanied by lunch. But the GWMMSwas not merely a talking shop. Already in 1922 membershad visited police cells and they latertoured remand homes, approved schools and prisons. In the early yearsof the organisationthey raisedfunds for a prisonpiano and for probationofficers, cxpcnscs. Typically for womenused to involvementin the voluntarysector, GWh1S members wereusing their own resourcesto fill the gapsin statutoryprovision. GWMS activitiesundoubtedly had a feminist orientation. The suffragist secretary,Miss Hartland,was an activeparticipant of the PSMCand thereforepart of the nationalnetwork of feminist magistrates.Under her leadershipthe G\VMS campaignedvigorously for womenpolice, expressedpublicly its condemnationof the practice of removing women from court in sex casesand pressedfor the appointment of more women magistratesand of women to local advisory committees and to the Standing Joint Committee (SJC). The timing county's of their meetings - which took 60GCRO: 06156/1 GWMS minutes,30 September1922. 248 placein the lunch intervalon dayswhen the QuarterSessions met - cnsurcdthat thcrc wasa substantialpresence of women magistrateswhen the membershipof key committeeswas decided. This mechanismmay well have accounted for the fact that their were women on most of Gloucestershiremagistrates' committees and on the sic 6' . GWMS meeting appearfrom the rather bland minutes to have been largely uncontroversial,with the exception of one occasion in 1930 when a member put forwarda resolutionin favour of the sterilizationof the `mentallyunfit'. Eugenicist policies of this nature were widely discussedin the 1920sand 1930sby penal reformersand were enactedin some of the American statesto which modern magistratescommonly looked for inspiration, notably in California. I lowcvcr, in Britain eugenicistarguments did not sweepall beforethem. Eventhe wcll"knom British psychologist,Dr. Cyril Burt, strucka cautiousnote: `in the existing stateof our popularopinion, and with the smallknowledge that we haveboth of the inheritanceof high-grademental defect and of the psycho-physiologyof the reproductiveglands, it would, to my mind be worsethan useless to championsuch a policy in England'. In any case,he asserted,segregation of suchindividuals wouldbe 2 just as effective. When the resolution in favour of sterilisation was discussedat the both GWMS strong opinions were voiced, in favour and against,and even the sedate formal minutes cannot disguise the heat of the debate. Interestingly, the magistrates were almost evenly split between supportersand opponentsof sterilization, with the latter winning the day by ten votes to nine.63 GWMS had activities many reverberationsoutside their own county. In the 1930sthe GWMS organisedmagistrates' training schools to which women A's in 61[, MA: ACC/3613/1/77PSMC minutes, 15 May 1930. 62 Cyril Burt The YoungDelinquent (University of London Press, 1925.0 edition. 1944)p. 320.21. 6' GCRO: D6156/1GWMS minutes, 14 October 1930& 14 April 1931. 249 neighbouringcounties and boroughs were invited. The first `school' took placein Bristol in 1933 and the secondfour years later in Birmingham. "I do not know whether magistratesof the opposite sex have ever felt the need for such a school, but I rathergather this is the secondto be held in the country- so presumablythey 64 haven't... ' commenteda writer in the Birmingham Evening Dispatch. Women from Warwickshire, Worcestershireand Staffordshire attendedthe cvcnt along with those from Bristol and Birmingham and of course Gloucestershire,each wearing a name 5 badgewith a coloured ribbon to denoteher Bench. Participants listened to talks on matrimonial jurisdiction, on women police, and on the treatment of children committed to the courts, and visited some of Birmingham's judicial and penal institutions, including its juvenile courts. Geraldine Cadbury entertainedthcm to tea at a women's club called the Three Counties. At least eighty women magistratestook 66 part in this event, which was important,not just in training terms,but also for the opportunityit providedfor socialinteraction and networking amongst women Ms. Gloucestershirewomen magistrates also became an exampleto J['s in other countieswhen their organisationwas publicised by the NCW. In May 1930Miss ilartland addressedthe PSMCabout the Gloucestershireorganisation and copies of hertalk werecirculated, as was the custom,to all the committee'smembers, including somein Hampshirewho wereinspired to form their own society. Although the GWMSwas not unique(Lady Hort, oneof the foundingmembers of I lampshire's Women Magistrates' Association (HWMA) had belonged to a similar organisation in Middlesex) it was undoubtedly influential, and Miss I lartland was invited to speakat 67 the inauguralmeeting of the HWMA. This organisation,which existedfrom 1931to GCRO: D6156/2, cutting from Birmingham Evening Dispatch, 28 September1937. 6sIbid., cutting from Birmingham Evening Dispatch, 14 October 1937. 66Ibid,. cutting from The Birmingham Alail, 23 September1937. 67LMA: ACC/3613/1/77 PSMC minutes, 15 May 1930; IIRO: 23M57/1; 23M57/5/2. 250 1954,followed the pattern set by the GWMS, although it appearsto have been somewhatless dynamic. The membershiplacked the social and political mix of Gloucestershire'ssociety, no doubt reflecting the well-connected social milieu of the HampshireBench, but undoubtedly blunting the association's radical edge. Indeed, severalmembers were titled ladies. In the late 1930sthe Hampshire Association had about fifty membersand a 68 regular attendanceof betweentwenty and thirty. They met three times a year, with no autumn meeting so that memberscould attend the Magistrates' Association Annual Conferencein London. A guest speakerwas invited to every meeting, the guest list including most of the leading lay magistratesof the period including the PSMC chairman,Miss Kelly, and the well-known London JPs Madeleine Symons, Lady Cynthia Collville, Basil Henriques and John Watson; as well as I I. C. Norman, the secretaryof the National Association of Probation Officers, and many others. Discussionsubjects were the usual fare - probation, domestic procedure,juvenile delinquency,licensing and Road Traffic Acts. Although they took some action on the questionof the aftercareof women prisoners and supportedthe introduction of women police in Hampshire, HWMA membersappear to have been less proactive than their Gloucestershirecounterparts, although their speakersand discussions formed a similar pattern and were doubtlessjust as informative. I lowevcr, in the 1950s began dwindle, despite early attendance to a nominal membershipof one hundred,and in 1954 the Association was wound up. influence The of the GWMS was not confined to women magistrates; increasinglythey threw meetings with guest speakersopen to men. Indeed, one of the Birmingham sessionsat the women magistrates' school in the 1937 was open to the 61NRO: 23M57/1, IHWMA 15 January 1937. minutesof This level of attendancewas maintained throughoutthe 1940s. 251 69 The Countryman Oxfordshire generalpublic. In the previous year, the editor of and JP RobertsonScott visited the GWMS as guest speaker. Subsequentlyhe decided to for in his 7° 'Chenhe establishthe Quorum Club magistrates own county `endeavour have recommendedin a letter to TheTimes that everycounty should to a by magistrates'discussion society to be addressedinformally gaol governors, probation officers, psychologistsetc. '71 At a time when no official training was in its infancy, offered to JPs and the Magistrates' Association was still women magistratessuch as those in Gloucesteroffered a paradigm of professional developmentfor lay justices. The Gloucestershirewomen magistratesbecame a model of good practice for justices of the peacethroughout the land. In the late 1930s,evidenced by the debatethat took place in the columns of The Times, the ability of lay peopleto providean efficient andeffective system of summaryjustice was becoming open to question. By their appetite for training and education, the GWMSand its imitatorsdemonstrated that it waspossible for magistratesto become betterinformed and more professional in their approach.It is clearthat women magistratesled the way. WOMEN MAGISTRATES AND DOMESTIC PROCEEDINGS The final sectionsof this chapterwill examinetwo of the many issues addressedby groupsof womenmagistrates in the 1930s.The first is the reformof the in systemfor dealing with domestic cases magistrates' courts. This problem was a focus for concern in the PSMC, and the way the committcc handled it amply illustrates its methods, limitations and effectiveness. " GCRO: D61562, cutting from the Birmingham Post, 14 October 1937. 70GCRO: D6156/1, GWMS minutes,9 April 1935& 30 June 1936. " The Times,23 October 1935,p. 15. 252 The powers of justices to adjudicate on questions such as maintenanceofa separatedwife or a legitimate or illegitimate child originated in Tudor Poor Lnw legislation and took their modem form in the Matrimonial CausesAct of 1878 and 72 subsequentstatutes. For most of the first half of the twentiethcentury a divorce continuedto be both expensiveand difficult to obtain, especially for women. Consequentlythe magistrates' court becamethe main forum for the resolution of domesticproblems among the poorer section of the community. Meanwhile, probation officers increasingly were called upon to provide conciliation services. Feminists were naturally concernedthat the woman's interests were adequatelyrepresented in courts which were still mainly staffed by men, as well as being critical of the existing laws and their application. Among the women JI's who spokeout on this questionwere Eleanor Rathbone and MargaretWynne Ncvinson, who claimedthat `theMaintenance Orders for wives madein Court work in a very unsatisfactorymanner'; wives werenot receivingorders when they neededthen and evenif they did havean ordermade there was no guaranteethat the moneywould be 73 paid. The latter point wasthe main aspectof this issueconcerning feminist organisationsin the 1910sand 1920s.A pre-war survey in Livcrpool by women's organisationsshowed that only a small proportion of maintenanceorders were carried out74.In 1925the PSMCjoined the National Council for the UnmarriedMother and her Child in urgingthe appointmentof court officers to ensurethe collectionof child 75 Meanwhile, maintenancepayments the NUSEC promoted an act that established 72 History Justices Peace,Volume 2, Skyrme, of the of the p. 181 & p.387. The 1878 Act gageJ I's the power to grant orders of non-cohabitation,maintenance and custody of children %herea husbandhad found his been guilty of an aggravatedassault upon wife. Grounds for separationand maintenance desertion, were later extendedto casesof cruelty, adultery, habitual drunkennessand wilful neglcet. " Nevinson, Life's Fitful Fever, p.256-7. 74The Magistrate, January 1924,p. 8. LMA: PSMC minutes,26 March 1925. 253 it legislative further grounds for judicial separation,counting among the succcsscs 76 achievedas a result of the suffrage struggle. By the late 1920sopinion appearsto have shifted slightly towards conciliation `police and the question as to whether the atmosphereof the ordinary court' was disputes Reform conducive to the resolution of domestic was posed. proposals followed the pattern set regardingjuvenile offenders; that domestic hearings should take place in different rooms and/or at different times with limited pressaccess, that have womenjustices should be on the Bench, and that probation officers should a larger role. In Cambridge there was already a practice that domestic caseswere taken businesshad in at the end of a sitting after the `ordinary' been dealt with while London the controversial metropolitan magistrate,Claud Mullins, began to in his in 1931.71 experimentwith separatesessions a small room after appointment Supportersof changeargued that marital problems were frequently sexual in origin, in and that such matters could not be discussedeasily an open courtroom in front of public and press. The NCW stanceon domestic procedurewas unequivocal; women magistrates in 1926 were neededin domestic cases. Significantly, a meeting of the PSMC had been rejectedthe proposal (analogousto one which made with regard to Metropolitan juvenile courts in 1920) that domestic casesbe transferred to county courts with the addition of a woman `assessor'. As Mrs. I lartrce put it, "A woman for 79 assessoris a very poor substitute a woman magistrate' Clearly she felt that only if women's power and status in the courtroom were equal to men's would their views be taken fully into account. During a Home Office enquiry into the Metropolitan magistrates'courts Geraldine Cadbury and fellow committee member Elizabeth 76'What the Vote hasdone' (NUSEC pamphlet, 1926). Claud Mullins, One Man's Furrow, London, Johnson, 1963,p. 112-3. 73LMA: PSMC minutes,28 January 1926. 254 Naldanerepeatedly questioned witnesses about whether women JI's should assist the stipendiariesin separationand bastardycases, as they already did in juvcnilc courts. Mrs. Cadburyherself was in no doubt: `I feel that a woman's point of view can only 79 be quitefully expressedby anotherwoman'. Althoughsome commentators questionedwhether women magistrateswere necessarilysympathetic to other women. leading women JPs such as Miss Haldane and Mrs. Cadbury evidently maintained a straightforwardly feminist stance;women could best understandother women whatevertheir social background. Genderwas perceived to have primacy over both classand age differences. In 1934 discussionof thesematters was provoked further when two bills to reform procedurein matrimonial caseswere introduced in parliament, at least one of which had apparentlybeen drafted by Claud Mullins. Both received a second reading but were not entirely acceptableto the governmentso a committee was set up chaired by Sidney Harris, under-secretaryat the Home Office and former head of the 80 Children's Branch. Mullins claimed in his memoirs that he had tried to get a committeeof the NCW (presumablythe PSMC) interestedin his proposals 'without success'81but the PSMC minutes belie this. After Mullins' addressa sub-committee was establishedto look at the question of procedurein so-called `domestic' cases82 Five PSMCmembers put evidenceto the committeeon behalfof the NCW: Lady Emmott,Dame Georgiana Buller, Miss Hartland,Miss Kelly and Mrs. Keynes.Other included women magistrateswho gave evidence Miss Agnes Dawson, representing 79 PRO: 11045/13777,Minutes of evidenceof Home Office Committee on the Metropolitan Police Courts, para. 845 (11 February 1929). i0 PRO: 11045/17152(sub file 695697) memorandumto parliamentarycounsel dated 4 December 1936. The committee's remit was to examinethe social servicesin courts of summaryjurisdiction. including the role of the probation service. Harris had been involved in the earlier reorganisationof juvenile courts,which had followed similar lines to the domestic court proposals. Mullins, One Man's Furrow. p. 110. 92LMA: PSMC minutes 18 January 1934 & 13 December 1934. 255 the LCC, Miss Craven and Mrs. Rackham for the Howard Leagueand Miss Tuckwcll National on behalf of the Magistrates' Association and the Association of Probation Officers. The PSMCconsistently insisted that womenmagistrates should always be on the bench in domestic proceedings.The Home Office Committee agreed,concluding that `practical experience has amply demonstrated the great value of the contribution which womenjustices can render in adjudication on matrimonial cases' and *J recommendingthat the practice of using women magistrates`be made uniform' The subsequentbill (which becamelaw in 1937) limited domestic courts outside London to a maximum of threejustices, including `so far as practicable, both a man 84 and a woman', a form of words which was chosento avoid some of the problems that had followed the legislation on juvenile courts but which fell short of the NCW demand. One of the bill's sponsors,Irene Ward MP, spoke to PSMC membersabout its progress.On that occasionthe committee'schairman, Miss Kelly, arguedthat the bill shouldbe amendedto requirewomen magistrates to be present(despite Irene Ward'sargument that it would be impossible`as there was not a sufficient numberof women magistratesserving throughout the country') and that there should be 85 improved provision of legal aid to parties involved. The processof changein procedurein matrimonial casesillustrates the quintessentialprinciples of the PSMCand its members,and their modeof operation. Leadingwomen magistrates were convinced that a fair deal for womenin domestic caseswould only be achievedif women magistrateswere on the bench. They also supportedthe notion that the `delicateor unpleasant'details that emergedin such t3 Reportof the DepartmentalCommittee on the Social Servicesin Courts of SummaryJurisdiction, 1936,Cmd. 5122, paragraph30. PRO: 11045/17152sub file 695967/11,draft bill. 's LMA: PSMC minutes, 11 March 1937. 4 256 4, casesshould be heardin private,preferably in a smaller,less formal settingthan a courtroom. Their methodsmay not have been very eye-catchingbut they were underpinnedby a firm understandingof Britain's parliamentary system and the role that organisedinterest groups could play within it. The problem was analysed, speakerswere invited, a sub-committeewas set up and evidence was preparedand presentedto the government's committee of enquiry. At all stagesPSMC members receiveddetailed minutes and reports and thus were educatedand informed upon developments. Ideas for better practice, such as separatesessions and courtrooms were disseminated. As they had in the reform of juvenile justice, women magistrates in the PSMC co-operatedwith their allies, for example with Mullins and f larris, and networkedwith membersof the Howard Leagueand the Magistrates' Association. The qualms of NCW affiliated organisationssuch as the Mothcrs' Union, which was concernedthat separationand divorce should not become too easy,do not sccm to have stood in the way of PSMC activists. However, the limits of their influence and activity are clear. Firstly, regular committeeactivity may haveonly given the illusion that somethingwas beingdonc but its effectivenessis hard to measureafter seventyyears and from fragmentary evidence.From the Home Office file it would appearthat only Mullins was consulted during the preparationof the Summary Proceedings(Domestic Procedure)Ilill, 56and althoughthis may be the resultof the `weeding'of official documents,it ncvcrthcless forms a contrastwith the 1920 Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Act for which representationsfrom both women's societiesand individual women survive in the files. Secondly,the PSMCwas not a truly radicalbody. Its parentorganisation, the in its NCW, was always cautious approachto controvcrsial mattcrs such as the status 'ý PRO: HO45/17152. 257 far Hannah Mitchell. of marriage. Officially the PSMC could not go as as Who argued divorce, in her memoirs that `economic freedom for women, and easier would solve 87 individuals have many difficulties', although some membersas may agreed with that sentiment.Significantly, the chairman,Miss Kelly, suggestedgreater provision PSMC in 1930s of legal aid in separationcases. The approachof the the was fundamentallyfeminist, but it was also unadventurous,lacking any radical cutting edge. The committee tried to make the existing system more efficient, perhaps more humane,but did not question its basis principles. CAMPAIGNING FOR WOMEN POLICE The secondfeatured campaign of women magistratesis the drive for the appointmentof womenpolice officers.The activitiesof womenJPs in this respect haveso far receivedlittle attentionfrom historiansof womenpolice, probablybecause attentiontends to focuson the initial introductionof womenpolice during the First World War, which took place prior to the appointment of women magistratcsas There doesnot appearto havebeen any really detailedpublished research on the continuing 89 campaignfor womenpolice that took placebetween the two world %%mrs. As Helen Joneshas pointed out, this matter was `dear to the heart of a number of women'sorganisations for whom womenpolice linked the two concernsof 90 moralityand employment opportunities' Demandsfor womenpolice weremade beforethe First World War by womenlike Nina Boyle of the WFL who reportedon 81Mitchell, The Hard Way Up, p.231. s: Sec Levine, 'Walking the Streets' and John Carrier, 'The Control of Women by Women: The Women Police', Society of Labour History Bulletin, no.26 (1973). 19Joan Lock in The British Policewoman: Her Story, London, Robert I late, 1979,covers the period in a focus for generalway but doesnot particularly on the campaign women police. Douglas's Feminist Freikorps (chapterfour) is mostly concernedwith the careerof Mary Allen, leader of the Women's Auxilliary Serviceand her involvement with Fascism. 90Jones, Women in British Public Life, p. 140. .5 what she regardedas the shabbytreatment of female witnessesin the courts of law. " Thesedemands were closely linked to calls for the introduction ofwomen lawyers, 92 jurors andjustices. Although, as Philippa Levine points out, ` there is a substantial and well-documentedrelationship betweencampaigns around social purity and Wider feminist ambition'93the relationship was not without its ambiguities. On the one hand help there was concern to victims of sexual crime and child abuse. On the other hand there was the urge to `protect' young women from sexual danger. Which could lead to by unwarranted intervention middle class women into the private affairs ofworking class women. However, it feminist was not campaigning but the special circumstancesor war that made the appointment of women police more likely. Whcn the opportunity different camethere were three groups emergedready to seize it, all loosely referred Nina Boyle's formed to as `women police': group in August 1914, a second group Margaret Darner Dawson headedby of the National Vigilance Association, and the Women's Police Patrols organisedby the National Union of Women Workers (later NCW). Each had different the a slightly emphasis. Given Boyle's militant suffragist links, her uniformed volunteers were the most overtly feminist in intent. onw%oomen's police service to reflect women's priorities, not to cushion middle-class uneasiness 94 Boyle about the state of the streets' and Damcr Dawson briefly worked together latter but soon separatedwhen the agreedin 1915 to send membersof the Women's Service Police to patrol curfews near military camps under the Defence ofthc Realm The WPS thereby its Act. proved willing to surrender forces to male authority in for that Boyle return official recognition, a compromise was unwilling to accept. 91Lock, The British Policewoman, p. 16. n SeeChapter One. 91Levine, `Walking the Streets',p. 40. "If ilary Francis,`The WFL and its Legacy' in June Purvis & Sandra Stanley I Colton(edt. ) i E'evf it Women,London, Routledge,2000, p. 195. 259 Moreover, from Boyle's point of view the curfews were an infringement orthe liberty ofwomen, apparentlybased upon the assumptionthat they were all potential 9S prostitutes Once more, the ambiguities surrounding the issue ofwomen police arc evident. The NCW patrols were volunteers who `frequentedmilitary camps, ports, parks, public housesand cinemas where opportunities for drunkennessand sexual immorality presentedthemselves'96 with only a special armband for identification. initiative Significantly, the NCW was backed by an array of philanthropic and feminist organisations,including the Mothers' Union, the Girls' Friendly Society, the YWCA and the NUWSS, the network of bodies from which many'. nice magistrates 7 Whilst were later recruited. the uniformed WPS worked largely on behalf of the military authorities (for example in munitions factories) the patrols worked with the civilian police establishment. Although the NUWW's relationship With the %'PS was initially co-operative,it soon deterioratedand the two organisations remained 8 antagonisticin the 1920s. differences Despite the obvious betweenthe competing women police organisations,there was understandablyconsiderable confusion amongst the public, who viewed them as one body. Women magistratesalso do not appear to have for type expresseda preference one of women police over another, although the close connectionsmany of them had with the NCW might suggestthat the lattcr's organisationwas favoured. Although the WPS (later the Women's Auxiliary Service) the NCW towards and were antagonistic each other, there was neverthelessa striking degree in their intentions of uniformity and those of their backers. All factions were 9sDouglas, Feminist Freikorps, p. 17. Pugh, Womenand the Women'sMovement, p. 32. '7 Lock, TheBritish Policewoman,P12. " details between For of the relationship the two women police bodies, sec Douglas, Feminist Freikorps pp.27-8,60 & 111. 260 for desirability agreedon the necessity women police and the of their continued deploymentin the post-war period, whatever the nuancesof the individual I Ionic in approaches.However, while the NCW collaborated with the Office the Women Patrols in establishmentof the Metropolitan Police the post war ycars, the WPS were sued for wearing official looking uniforms. Once the wartime emergencywas over, many police women who had been employedby local constabulariesand watch committees found that their services were dispensedwith. Most of those that remained were swept away by the spending cuts in the wake of the `GeddesAxe' in 1921. Supportersof women police weir forced onto the defensiveand throughout the interwar period feminist organisations and women magistratesfought a rearguardaction using whatever influence they had to retainwomen police wherethey existedand promote their appointmentwhere they did not. In the Houseof CommonsLady Astor spokestrongly against the Gcddcs cutsalong with Mrs. WintringhamMP, a Norfolk magistratcand I toward Lcaguc member.Their pressureon the HomeSecretary forced him to leavethe matterof the " employmentof womenpolice to local discretion. This decisioninevitably determinedthat mostcampaigns for womenpolice would be conductedat a local level (sec below). However, supporters,including prominent women magistrates, continuedto useany nationalplatforms that wereavailable to them. Forexample they deployedtheir argumentsin presentingevidence to governmentinquiries such as the 1925Departmental Committee on SexualOffences against Young Personsand the 1924Bridgeman Committee (both of which madefavourable rýecommcndations)t°° "9 Pugh, Womenand the 1Vomen'sMovement p. 118. 100The 1924 Report of the DepartmentalCommittee on the Employment of Policeman(Bridgcman Committee)recommended the employmentof women officers to take statementsfrom Nomen wsd children in sex cases(Cmd. 2224 p. 13). The DepartmentalCommittee on SexualOffences Against Young Personsmerely recommendedthat 'suitable and properly trained women' should do this Merk (Cmd. 2561 p.30-1). Women iPs were membersof these inquiries. 261 In both and the 1928 Royal Commission on Police Powers. the 1930s national and local wings of the NCW continued to organisepetitions and deputations to governmentdepartments to urge the appointment of women police. It was natural that women magistratesshould be among the more prominent campaignersfor women police. Firstly, in the run-up to the appointment of the first women JPs feminist organisationshad consistently promoted the necessity for women police alongsidemagistrates. In June 1919 the NCW held a public mcetinb at its annualconference in Leicester on `women as patrols, police and magistrates,to serve ' 01 on juries and in police court work'. The WFL also bracketedthe demandstogether 102 in conferenceresolutions. Secondly, biographical researchhas revealed that many women JPs belongedto child-saving organisationssuch as Leaguesof Mercy and to bodiesconcerned with the moral welfare of girls, such as the Girls' Friendly Society. as well as feminist societies. Thesewere the very organisationswhose way of thinking favoured the appointment of women police. The National Federation of the WI, an organisation in which several women magistratesheld office, also backed the 103 campaign. The severallocal campaignsfor womenpolice acrossthe country in the interwaryears met with mixed success.This examinationwill concentrateon a few examplesin which womenmagistrates were particularly prominent but it is highly probablethat therewere many more. Much moreresearch needs to be doneon local campaignsfor womenpolice. However,it is evidentthat 'the needfor womenpolice' wasa regulartheme at meetingsof feministsocieties (particularly WCAs) andat interwar gatheringsof womenJPs throughout the years. In mostcases the speakers 101The Women's Library: Ilelena Normanton PapersBox 5/1,1landbill. 102For exampleat their Bournemouthconference in 1919, The Vote 30 May 1919 p.: 02. 103A meetingof the WI's National Federationagreed in 1935 that'Hhcrevcr possible under the Children and Young Person'sAct the taking of statementsfrom and be questioningof girls ... should in the handsof women police... '. The Times, 16 May 1935,p. 13. 2G2 ww"crcconnected to the NCW womenpolice patrols(which hadat leastsome rccognitionfrom the Authorities)rather than the WAS, although'Commandant IMary) Allcn' did addressmcmbcrs of the Councilof WomcnMagistrates in the north castof 101 England. Miss I lartlandof the GWMS alsomade spccchcs on the subjcctin dif ercntparts of the country. In Gloucestershirethe women magistrateshad the great benefit or a sympathcticChief Constable,Major F. L. StanleyClarke, who s%vorcin six women constablesin 1919and supplied them with motorcyclesso that they could casily movc 103 around the county. Local authoritics in the county w erc also supportivc. When the postswere threatenedby the Gcddcs committcc recommendations,local councils such as Cheltenhamagrccd to fund them instead. Yct the Glouccstcrshirc women magistrateswere not quicsccnt,rather they madeenergetic use of the channelsof influenceopcn to thcm. WhenMajor Clarks rctircd Miss I lartlandand Miss Wintcrbotham(a formermayor of Chcltcnham)wcrc electedto the committceformcd to find his succcssor,thus Insuring that candidatcswere qucstioncd as to thcir opinionson the appointmcntof policcwomcn.106 As mentionedaix)vc, Miss I lartland alsoassistcd in campaignsin othcr arras,addressing supportcrs of womcnLX)licc far andwidc. In 1928she spokc to a `crowdcdmccting' in C-xctcrand in 1934at another organiscdby the CambridgeWCA on'thc work of womcnpolicc in rural districts'.10' In Middlesex,whcrc thcrc is evidenceof the existenceof a women magistrates'society in the 1920s,women A's also successfullyworked within their county'sinstitutions to promotethe appointmentof womenpolice. In 1928Miss 101Ilse Vote,3 December1926, p. 383. 10ý Lock, The British Policeman, p. 152.3; The Vote,8 March 1929. GCRO: 06156/1: GWMS minutesof S January&6 April 1937. The Vore, 10 February 1928.CCRO: RS84/91Cambridge and District Women's Cititciu Association Executive Committee. I., 108 SmeeJP, founder of the Acton WCA and former mayor of Acton, proposedat a meeting of the Middlesex SJC that women police be employed to take statements from children in assaultcases. Her resolution, supportedby other women JI's at the 109 meeting, was carried unanimously. In other areasthe campaign met with less success. In Tunbridge Wells, where two of the three women police officers had been dismissed in 1919 while a third was placed on reserveonly to be dischargedafter the Geddesaxe, the town's NCW branch mounteda campaignof protestled by the Branch'spresident (and wife of the local MP) Mrs. SpenderClay JP. Both the watch committee (who were in charge of the borough's police) and the chief constableof Kent were approachedbut to no avail. ' 10 In 1931 the Surrey SJC, which was planning to appoint thirty-five extra policemen, refusedto receivea deputationfrom the county'sWomen's Institutes claiming that `neitherthe organisationnor the dutiesof the constabularylend themselvesto the help of womenpolice'. "' In Liverpool Miss MargaretBeavan JP, a former Lord Mayor, moveda resolutionof the City Councilcalling for womenpolice to be appointed. Accordingto Miss Beavan,`those who opposedsuch a stepmight be delightful people,but they werea little Victorian in their ideas'. Significantly,she argued `we are not promoting the matter as feminists but in the interestsof justice'. 112However. despiteMiss IIeavan'seloquent advocacy and her high profile in the city, the Liverpool watch committee rejected the proposal. In Hampshireeven the outbreakof the SecondWorld War failed to securethe desired appointments.In 1943 the following resolution was recorded in the IIWMA minute book: 10' For a profile of Miss Smee,see 'Our Women Mayors no. XVI', The Vole 30 October 1925. 109 The Magistrate, July 1928,p. 254. 110 CKS C1194/5. Mrs. SpenderClay was the sister in law of Nancy Astor. The Alagistrate, August 1931,p. 527. 112 The Vote, 10 January 1930,p. 11. 264 The Hampshire Women Magistrates' Association deplores the decision of the SJC to postponethe appointment of women police and earnestly begs that the matter may be reconsideredat an early date. Perhapssome progresswas at last made after this petition. In 1945 it was reported that the county now had ten women police officers; two each in Winchester and Aldershot, three in Bournemouth and one each in Basingstoke,Easticigh and the Isle 113 of Wight. In Tunbridge Wells too, uniformed policewomen only returned to the town in 1944,114by which time the local force had merged with the county constabulary. The experienceof total war appearsto have done more to achieve the objectives of feminists than years of sustainedcampaigning, although its impact was by no meansimmediate. The efforts of some women JPs and their organisationalnetworks to securethe appointmentof policewomen in the period 1920-1945is illustrative of their determinationto pursuetheir causedespite the unfavourableeconomic climate and in the faceof indifferenceand a greatdeal of hostility. Formersuffragists, such as Miss Hartland,were undoubtedly aware that changesin public policy sometimestook years to achievebut they appearto havebeen undaunted and far from quiescent.Women magistratesmade use of their own organisationsand the networkof women's societiessuch as the NCW and WCAs to mobilise support for women police. Where possible,they used their participation in formal power structuressuch as county standingjoint committeesand local councilsto lobby for change,making use of S women'sstronger presence in local thanin nationalgovernment at this time. Althoughnot alwaysa successful,this strategywas logical aswell as inevitablegiven that key decisionson police deploymentwere still takenat county,and sometimes 11311CRO:23M57/1 IIWMA minutesdated 11 January 1943 &9 April 1945. 114 CKS C1194/5. 113however, it may be the casethat women councillors were relatively under-representedon the key watch committees. This is an areathat requires further research. 265 borough,level. The extentof their successnaturally varied, with somelocalities more receptiveto the casethey argued than others. While the caseof Gloucestershiremight indicate that an exceptionally well-organised body of women magistratescould be remarkablysuccessful in pressingfor womenpolice, a similar organisationin Hampshirefailed in comparison.It thereforeseems likely that different political contexts in the two counties and different attitudes among key personnel(such as the Chief Constable)account for the varying degreesof success. Women Ps with nationalprominence, such as GeraldineCadbury and Mrs. Wintringham,meanwhile pursuedthe issue at the national level. In campaigning for women police, women justices demonstrateda clear commitment to a feminist agenda,as they had in their approachto the treatment of women prisoners and witnessesand in their struggle for the appointmentof morewomen magistrates. They championedthe cause,not as individuals,but asmembers of a networkof organisationsrunning the gamutfrom moralwelfare societies to penalreform groupsand feminist bodies. THE IMPACT OF WOMEN MAGISTRATES' NETWORKS Thanksto their extensiveorganisational and informal networks,partly inherited from the pre-1918 suffrage campaign, and partly createdby themselvesand their allies,the first generationof womenmagistrates were able to placetheir mark firmly on thejudicial systemthat theyjoined. Their impactwas principally,but not exclusively,felt in their promotionof conferences,summer schools and other forms of training for magistratesin conjunctionwith penalreformers and othermale allies. However,their networkswere also mobilised to campaignfor a seriesof causesthat womenmagistrates held particularlydear, including changes to court proceduresfor fr .ý ý' 266 .ýo juvenilesand in domesticcases, for the presenceof womenmagistrates in `indecency' casesand for the appointment of women police. It would be far too crude to argue that only women magistrateswcrc interestedin educationand training. In the Magistrates'Association in particularthey wereable to work with sympatheticmen such as Basil Henriques,Leo Pageand Cecil Leeson. More often than not male speakerswere invited to addressmeetings of women magistrateson the latest approachesto the administration of justice, suggestinga remarkablereliance upon the male `expert', although male attendanceto listen seemsto have been less evident. Nevertheless,it is surely no coincidence that movesto educateJPs gained ground just at the time when women were first appointed to the country's benchesand the relatively higher attendanceof women magistratesin conferencesand training sessionscontinued to attractcomment even in the post war era. As late asthe 1970ssuch events were allegedly filled with womenJPs `with nothingelse to do' who `in placesform almosta club of conference-going magistrates'.116 The stereotypeof womenjustices as leisuredladies with little elseto do appearsto havelingered on, althougha glanceat the curriculumvitae of someof the women featured in this study suggeststhat even in the 1920sand 1930sthere were not a few womenwho devotedgreat amounts of time andenergy to their public roles,not leastto their positionas magistrates.Significantly, although many of thesewomen werebased in Londonand other largecities suchas Birmingham,the activewoman magistratewas not a purely metropolitan phenomenon. Shire counties such as Gloucestershire,Hampshire and Kent and smaller boroughs such as Gatcshcad, Cambridgeand Cheltenhamall hadmore than their fair shareof committedwomen 116Burney, Magistrate, Court and Community, p.209. 267 JPs. Their dedicationwas reflectedin the findingsof the RoyalCommission of 1948, which foundthat womenwere lesslikely to be absenteejustices than men. In the counties12.6% of malejustices had attendedno sittings in a twelve-monthperiod as against7.2% of females.The figuresfor boroughswere 8.7% and 4.6% respectively. Of thosewho did attend,women made more regular appearances than men. "' While the majority of the dedicated,in common with most female - and male - magistrates, were middle class and comfortably off, a few were working class women, for example the elementaryschool educatedMrs. Prosserof Gloucester. Politically they came from all the parties and none, although it is likely that they sharedthe `liberal' or `progressive' approachto penal problems that was so consistently promoted by speakersat magistrates' gatherings. In an inversionof the theoryof `critical mass',women JPs seem to havehad moreimpact in the interwarera whenthey wererelatively few in numberthan in post war times, despite the increasein their numbersafter 1945. This may have been becauseof the declinein anddisappearance of mostof their organisations,with the exceptionof the NCW and someWCAs, in the 1950sand 1960s.Numbers appear to havebeen less significant than networks.The HHWMAfolded in 1954after a dramatic fall in attendanceat meetings. `It is felt that the Association has perhapsoutgrown its usefulness',the minutes recorded. One member expressedher feelings in a letter. Sheagreed that therewas no longerany needfor the I IWMA but pointedout that it hadbeen of greatvalue to her when shewas first madea magistrate.`I feel I owe almosteverything I know aboutmagisterial work to the Associationand would like to expressmy gratefulthanks', she wrote. 118 In Gloucestershire,the GWMS was still a 1" Report of the Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,Cmd. 7463,1948, p. 7. "' HRO: 23M57/9. 268 dynamicbody in the 1940swhen Clare Spurginbecame a magistrate119 and it appears to havesurvived the deathof somefounder members and Miss I lartland's retirement as lion. Secretaryreasonably well. In 1946 the GWMS organiseda 'mock trial' at Gloucester'sShire Hall to educatethe public in the intricaciesof the criminaljustice system.120 The Society'send came in 1957when it wasdisbanded and replaced by a branch of the Magistrates' Association.121 Membership of the WFL also dwindled in the post-war yearsuntil it was wound up in 1961 and NUSEC brancheshad long since disappearedinto the Townswomen's Guilds. Indeed, of the organisationsprofiled in this chapter only the NCW and some WCAs retained their pre-war vitality in the 1950sand 1960s. The PSMC continued to meet and was capableof some energetic lobbying in favour of changesto the law on womenjurors in the early 1960sunder the leadershipof Salfordmagistrate Charts Frankenburg.122 However, exceptions such as Mrs. Frankenburgnotwithstanding, Pugh's view that `it was during the 1950sthat the failure of interwar feminism to 123 recruit a large body of young leadersbecame apparent' seemsto be justified in the caseof organisedfeminist womenmagistrates. It was not so much in the 1920sand 1930sthat British feminismreached its `nadir', as in the 1950sand early 1960s. In the interwaryears newly appointedwomen magistrates had been `the new girls' on the bench, a ready made audiencepredisposed to soak up as much informationabout their new role asthey possiblycould. Althoughmany of themwere alreadymature in yearsand relativelywell educated,citizenship was a noveltyto themand they wereprepared to practiceit activelyand to the full. Their organisations '1' Spurgin, My Journey, p.68. 120GCRO: D6156/2 GWMA minutes,7 July 1946;cutting from The Gloucester CitLen, 10 October 1946. 121 No more details were available on the Society's end at the time of researchas the relevant file is closed until 2007. 'u Frankenburg,Not Old Madam, Vintage,p. 166. 123Pugh, Womenand the Women'sMovement, p. 284. 269 developedad hoc training programmesdelivered in SummerSchools and at conferencesforty yearsbefore the official governmentprogramme was launched. Additionally,the leadingfigures in women'sorganisations gave evidence to and sat uponmost of the official governmentcommittees of enquiryestablished in this 124 period: according to Mary Stocks JP they were the `statutory woman'. Inside and outside of official bodies and through their networks they lobbied and campaignedfor the causesfor which they cared. In 1920 Cecil Leesonand Margery Fry had hope `the expresseda that appointment of women as magistrates... will mark the 125 beginning of a new spirit in our criminal administration'. It appearsthat they were not disappointed. However, there were ways in which women magistratesundoubtedly maintainedthe statusquo in the criminaljustice system. Despitethe blandishmentsof the penal reformers some remained resolutely traditional in their outlook. Some women JPs even expressedsupport for the corporal punishment of juvenilc offenders, althoughmany opposed it. Typically, the PSMCheld a debateat which both sidesof the argumentwere put. 126 Even within the MA therewere contrasting views over birching. Mrs. Titt of Manchesterwas reported as asking delegates to a conferenceof Lancashirejuvenile justicesto `visualisean underfed,half starved,half clothedchild being beatenby a big, burly, well fed and well clothed policeman'. Ellinor Fisher, a JP from Hull, rejectedthe notion that sucha child would receivea birching. Moreovershe argued that `a few suitablecases dealt with birching would providea 124Stocks, My CommonplaceBook, p. 165. The NCW seemsto have been an important sourceof supply of statutory women for governmentinquiries. WUMRC: MSS 16C/4/2. '26 A joint meeting of the PSMC and the NCW's legislation committee met to discussthis issuein 1939. Mrs. Tate MP spoke in favour of corporal Miss Craven 1P Howard punishmentand , of the Leagueagainst. No vote was recorded. LMA: ACC/3613/03/002/A PSMC minutes, 19 April 1939. 270 127 greatdeterrent to others'. Her views werehardly `politically correct' in the late 1930s,but sherepresented a strandof opinion amongJI's. More critically, the willingness of women magistratesto train and learn on the job may well have helped to modernisethe lay magistracy in a period when it was coming under increasingscrutiny, thanks in part to the entry into court of the middle class motoring offender. One example of the many criticisms voiced came in 1927 128 when the paperJohn Bull attacked `slipshodjustice'. Throughout the 1930sthere were similar attacks in the press,often accompaniedby a plea for the replacementof lay magistrateswith stipendiaries. Such a policy was fiercely resistedby the i tome Office on grounds of cost, but politicians from all sides continued to make the case for 129 reform. Supportersof the lay magistracy, such as Leo Pageand RobertsonScott pointed to the successof the Magistrates' Association and the Gloucester Women Magistrates' Society as examplesof the way in which JPs could bccomc more professional,better educated and, hopefully, less liable to makeidiosyncratic judgements.Women magistrates, through their willingnessto learnand develop, had pointedthe way to a new,better trained and more reliable magistracy for the future. With somenotable exceptions,male magistratesappeared to have lagged behind. The lay magistracymay well have survived into the secondhalf of the twentieth century, not merely becauseof financial considerations(stipendiaries had to be paid salariesof around£2000 each in the 1940s)but alsobecause the first generationof womenJPs (andtheir maleallies) haddemonstrated that lay peoplecould learnand adapt to new approaches. 127 The Magistrate Sept/Oct.1936 p. 1052& January 1937, p. 1114. 128PRO 11045/20390,cutting from John Bull dated 8 January 1927. 129For example Harold Laski argued in Grammar of Politics (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1925) that it was a `mistaketo entrusta generaljurisdiction to personsof whom no experiencein the law Is required (p.561). Twenty years later a ConservativeParty sub-committeesuggested the substitution of lay justices with stipendiaries. 271 CONCLUSION Now that we have securedpossession of the tools of citizenship, we 1 intend to use them not to copy men's models but to produce our own. This comment by Eleanor Rathbonein 1938 encapsulatesthe attitude of interwar feminists towards the role of women in the magistracy. More than in any other new sphereof citizenship, more than in Parliament,the legal profession or even on juries, women JPs had been able to utilize `the tools of citizenship' in the three decadesafter 1919. By the late 1940sprobably more than four thousandwomen had beenmade magistrates. Although they enjoyed nowhere near numerical equality with men,substantial progress towards equal citizenship had beenmade. To arguethis point is not in any way to subscribeto a `Whig' interpretation of history, but rather to give propercredit to the efforts of feministsand their allies who had campaignedso hardto makewomen a real presenceon the bench. Althoughthere was some resistanceto the introductionof womenJPs, particularly from stipendiarymagistrates, the feminists'task was made a lot easierin this contextbecause the magistracywas a voluntary,unpaid activity for most. Womcnwert thereforeafforded the opportunity to put citizenshipinto practiceand to work out its implicationsfor themselves. However,this achievementwas won at a cost,namely the acceptanceof the viewpointthat womenwere different to men andthat they hada specialmission and specialexpertise to utilise in court, for examplein understandingchild offendersand intricacies the of marital disputes.This view of womenas 'other' wasexactly what 1 Eleanor Rathbone,quoted in Law, Suffrage and Power, p. 167. 272 liberal,equal rights feminismhad setout in the late nineteenthcentury to oppose, preferring,instead, to emphasisethe commonhumanity of womenand men. As Rathbonesuggested, the early women JPs beganto produce their own modelof what a magistrateshould be. A new category,the `womanmagistrate', was created2 Although,in general,women magistrates were not sociallydistinct from their male counterparts,they sometimeshad a different approachto the work. I have arguedthat this was not becauseof fundamentaldifferences betweenthe sexes,but becausetheir socialisation and prior experiencewas profoundly bendcred. Women magistratesas a whole probably had more experienceof `handson' social work and less of businessthan the men. Their knowledge of social welfare undoubtedly influenced their approachto the job. In a few cases,they had been able to exert influenceover policy (for example,on the treatmentof youngoffenders) even before they were formally made magistrates. They were also often more time-rich and were able to grasp the opportunities for educationand training that were beginning to be offeredto JPs. Indeed,I haveargued that womenand their organisations,including feministones, were instrumentalin the creationof theseopportunities. Throughtheir enthusiasmfor training,leading women magistrates were able to develop the kind of quasi-professionalcompetence that the l tome Off ice waskeen to encourageamong JPs. They made use of probation orders, followed up casesand inspectedpenal institutions. Moreover,they encouragedtheir fellow iPs - maleand female- to do likewise.Therefore they wereable to underminepre-conceived notions,for example,that womenwere incapableof actingjudicially or weretoo emotionalto functioneffectively on a bench. This was crucial to the needsof the State,as it wasnecessary to maintainthe flow of volunteersto do the work of the lay 2 As Denise Riley pointed out, `the more that the categoryof woman is asserted... the more its apparent remotenessform "humanity" is underwritten'. Denise Riley 'Am I That Name?' Feminism and the Category of '{Nomen'in History, London, Macmillan, 1988, p. 13. 273 magistrate. Thus women were active participants in the modcrnisation of the magistracy.Their modelironically becamethe patternfor all JI's. This processof changebegan with the 1948 Royal Commission on Justicesof the PeaceReport and the subsequent1949 Act. As I mentionedin the final chapter,the role of the laity in the criminaljustice systemwas under attack by the late 1930sfrom critics on both the right and the left. Magistrateswere attackedfor being too inconsistent,too strict, too lenient, too old and too party political. Yet we still have the samesystem today, albeit with different 3 selectionprocedures, a compulsory training regime and mandatory retirement The debatesthat were, in many cases,instigated or encouragedby women magistratesin the interwar period, paved the way for thesevital changesthat ensuredthe survival of the amateur,lay JP into the secondhalf of the twentiethcentury. however,the debate still reverberatestoday. On 17 January2001 The Guardian carried an article by AndrewSanders advocating the replacementof lay magistratesby full time district judges. The chairman of the Magistrates' Association predictably opposedthis suggestion,claiming that it would cost £30 million in salariesalone. It is clearthat volunteers,half of whom arenow women,who are willing to undertakethe dutiesof a citizen without financial reward, are a valuable resourceto the State. Naturally, it is not possible to generaliseabout such a large group of people as the earlywomen magistrates. They were not a singecategory, but a groupfractured by classdivisions, urban-rural differences, age and political attitudes. llowcvcr, nay researchhas revealed that therewas a coreof active,influential women,many of whomhad a track recordin the women'smovement, who consciouslymade the 3 In February20001 joined a discussiongroup of JPs at the Labour Party's Spring Confcrcncc in Blackpool. I was struck by the similarity of many of the points raised with ones I had read In the sourcesfrom over fifty years ago. The Guardian, 17 January2001; 23 January2001. 274 magistracythe main focusof their feminist energyin the periodafter women's admissionto citizenship. Their networks, including the formal women's organisationsof the day, ensuredthat their ideas were carried further afield. hic evidenceadduced in this thesischallenges any theory of feministdecline and quiescencein the interwaryears. It alsoargues for a reassessmentof the role of the National Council of Women in this period, a body that has generally been under- estimatedor marginalized as a feminist force. It should, though, be borne in mind that this conclusionis basedlargely on the activitiesof only onecommittee (the 1'SMC), which was just a small part of a large and complex organisation. It is clear, however, that there were limits to the ability of women - even feminists, whose awarenessof legal inequality had been heightenedby the suffrage justice struggle - to effect changewithin the systemor to `make' a new type of magistrate.Although the numbersof womenmagistrates (both in absoluteterms and asa proportionof the total) werefar higherthan in eitherthe legal professionor in Parliament,they remainedvery mucha minority amongstjustices of the peacein the periodunder study, their numbersrising to about3,700 in 1948as against13,100 men.s Their numerical inferiority was not the main limitation on their effectiveness. Indeed,the theoryof `critical mass'does not seemto haveapplied, in that womenJPs seemto havehad more impact in the earlyyears, when their presenceon the bench wasa novelty,than in the periodafter 1950when their numbersincreased. Far more importantlimitations derived from the contemporarydiscourses of genderand the waysin which thesealtered over time. For example,while the first generationof s. Royal Commissionon Justicesof the Peace,Cmd. 7463,11MSO, 1948,p. 4. Thc figures quoted arc for Englandand Wales and are the result of a survey undertakenby the 1946 Royal Commission(with a responserate of about 85%). Only the `active' list figures are given. Up to that point no definitive list of magistrateswas kept. 275 womenmagistrates often hadthe understandingthat they hadto light everystep of the way for recognitionas representative women in a man-madesystem, those that followed took their place in a system that had already adaptedas a result of the presenceof women. The latter sometimesreacted with a denialof any gender difference. In 1944 some membersof the NCW Public Service and Magistrates' Committee actually felt that it was `undesirableto draw any distinction whatever betweenmen and women magistrates' when responding to a proposal from the 6 NWCA for the publication of a pamphlet on women magistrates. It is unlikely that such a sentiment would have been expressedat an NCW meeting in the 1920s(and certainly none was recorded). The other limitations on changederive from the resilience of traditional British institutions,such as the lay magistracy,which ensuredthat the administrationof justice in the twentiethcentury remained shaped by the forcesof both patriarchyand capitalism.The largelymiddle andupper class women magistrates of the interwar periodwere perhaps unlikely to takeup armsagainst the latter,but their seizureof the opportunitiesof citizenshipcould havebeen utilised to mitigatethe impactof the former. Feministswere aware of genderinequality and injusticein the system, althoughthey tendedto seethis in relationto womenas victims ratherthan as perpetratorsof crime. What they did not seemto haveresolved was the meaningof `equal',whether it meant`same as' or whetherit involved a morecomplex concept of fairnessand justice betweenseparate sexes. Hence they would argueboth that womenshould be appointedto the benchin equalnumbers with menand that women hada specialplace in adjudicatingcases where women and children were concerned. Their attack on `patriarchy' (they would not have used the term) was articulated 6 LMA: ACG3613/01/079 PSMC minutes, 16 November 1944. 276 within the contemporaryperspectives of both cqualitarianand `new' feminism.Few womenmagistrates - evenfeminists - of this periodseem to havequestioned the ideological underpinningsof the justice systemor their role within it. Thus they created,not so mucha new modelof citizenship,but a modificationof the existing one. Perhaps,aller all, `prudent revolutionaries'? is an apt description of feminists of this period, but particularly of those who enteredpublic life as JPs. All history is written with the presentpartly in mind, and this thesis is no exception.If interwarBritain had beenas fond of the prefix `post' as societytoday, no doubt women then would have been told that they were living in a `post-feminist' world. Yet many of them would have continued to believe that there was still work for the women's movement to do to attain fully the ideal of equal citizenship. '1 latrison, Prudent Revolutionaries. 277 Al PENDIC1s 278 AI'I'ENI)IX A CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS 1919-1949 1919 SexDisqualification (Removal) Act Appointment of Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee 1920 First women JPs sworn in (January) Announcementof Lord Chancellor's List (July) Magistrates' Conference(October) NUSEC conferencefor women JPs (December) Juvenile Courts (Metropolis) Act 1921 New juvenile courts establishedin London Inaugural Magistrates' Association meeting (September) 1922 NUSEC Women Magistrates' Summer School at Oxford Establishmentof GloucesterWomen Magistrate's Society 1924 Reportof Committeeon the Employmentof Policewomen 1925 Criminal JusticeAct - requiringjustices' probationcommittees Reportof Committeeon SexualOffences Against Young Persons NUSEC Summer School Southportcase 1926 Compilationof NCW list of womcnJPs Mrs. Green case 1927 Reportof Committeeon the Treatmentof YoungOffenders 1928 Committee on Metropolitan Police Courts & Juvenile Courts 1929 New NCW list of WomcnJPs compiled Reorganisationof MetropolitanJuvcnilc Courts 279 1930 NCW Deputation to Lord Chancellor to requestmore women JPs Publication of Mrs. Keynes' pamphlet Poor Prisoners' Defence Act 1931 HomeOffice Committeeon PersistentOffenders Hampshire Women MagistratesAssociation established 1933 Children and Young Person'sAct GWMS Women Magistrates' School at Bristol 1934 Appointment of Committee on Social Servicesin Courts Rules for Juvenile courts drawn up 1935 Howard League Conferenceon the future of magistrates' courts 1936 Report of the Committee on Social Services in Courts Issueof birching of juveniles raised Lay chairmen introduced into London's juvenile courts 1937 GWMS training schoolfor womenJPs at Birmingham Summary Procedure(Domestic Proceedings)Act 1938 Reportof the DepartmentalCommittee on CorporalPunishment 1939 Outbreakof war - disruptionof conferencesetc. 1941 Justices(Supplemental List) Act 1945 Appointmentof first womanmetropolitan (stipendiary) magistrate 1946 Appointmentof RoyalCommission on Justicesof the Peace 1948 Report of Royal Commission on Justicesof the Peace Criminal JusticeAct (useof birchingdiscontinued) 1949 Justicesof the PeaceAct 280 APPENDIX 11 THE LORI) CIIANCI; LLOIR'S LIST' ame Title Bench Hos Count PLG Cllr Res 1 Food Tri Womo s r d Chill Lad Bedfordsh. 1 ount Mrs. Berks. utton iss Reading I ro iss Bucks ewton Lad ambs. 1 e nes Mrs. ambridge 1 1 aker Mrs. ambridge 1 1 arrison iss ambridge 1 annin Mrs. ambridge I I I 1 ackham Mrs. ambridge 1 1 1 ox iss ornwall 1 olitho rs. ornwall 1 1 hance Lad umberld e rs. arlisle 1 hakerley LLad heshire 1 a get Mrs. Chester ird Mrs. Birkenhead 1 1 core Mrs. Birkenhead I 1 1 1 1 raham Mrs. tal brid e m ton Lad Durham 1 ooke iss Gateshead 1 1 1 1 hafto Mrs. Dur. City erguson Mrs. Darlington 1 1 lacklock Mrs. Sunderland 1 1 1 1 ichardson Mrs. Sunderland 1 land Mrs. Devon 1 ildmay Mrs. Devon im son Mrs. Plymouth 1 1 Ichester Lady Dorset 1 1 evonshire Duch erb shire 1 n Lad IDerby born I awken Mrs. Essex 1 etre ad ssex I 1 amb rs. outhend 1 reen rs. olchester I 1 1 1 ease iss los. aithfull iss los. 1 icks Mrs. Ios. 1 1 ebb Mrs. Bristol roesser Mrs. loucester 1 1 1 elboume ad ants 1 arin ad Hants 1 irmstone Mrs.Ar Winchester ell Miss Portsmouth andwich oun Hunts. 1 cote Mrs. Hunts. 1 1 radford Mrs. Herts 1 1 281 Vorne Title Bench Hos Count PLG Cllr Res NI Food Tri Womo Pris Po ýc Ed rook Mrs. Herts 1 1 unne Hon Herefords 1 1 osier Mrs. Herefords I 1 treatfield Mrs. Kent ennant Mrs. Kent amden Lad Kent 1 1 allis Miss Lincoln City 1 1 harhurst Mrs. Lincoln City 1 oms Mrs. Leics county and Mrs. Leics City 1 resin Mrs. Leics City 1 dler Miss London 1 1 1 entham Miss London 1 1 1 1 ondfield iss London 1 yles Lad London ooth Mrs. London rout iss London 1 ourtney Mrs. London )avidson Mrs. London 1 mmott Lad London 1 mle Lad London 1 1 1 awcett Mrs. London 1 =ry Miss London 1 3ray Miss London 1 ante Mrs. London 1 1 1 gilvie ordon Mrs. London 1 1 Jersey Lad London 1 `"ý 282 Title ame euch Nos Coun PLG Cllr Rosc1 oa i Tri Woma Etl onaldson Mrs. Peterboro of field Lad Norfolk i i attersea I Norfolk i tuart rs. Norwich a er rs. Nottingham owson rs.s. Nottingham I all Mrs. Nottingham ortland Lad Nottingham ease iss N'umberland 1 1 I traker rs. N'umberland 1 1 'umberland uch 'umberland 1 liendale oun N'umberland urnett Miss nemouth 1 1 ibbon Mrs. N -U - Tyne 1 arcourt Lad xfordshire 1 enrose ss XfordCity rundy Mrs. xford City 1 1 1 1 umiss Mrs. xford City urle Ars Somersetomerset 1 utterall iss Somerset 1 1 1 ender Clay rs. Purrey erton ss urre ease rs. urre 1 1 1 1 ood Lad Suffolk ird rs. I swich 1 1 1 1 1 effries ss I swich 1 1 1 1 Lowestoft umer rs. 1 1 am ion on ussex 1 enman Lad ussex 1 1 artindale iss Brighton smith rs. Brighton en on iss Hastings 1 1 ilnes- askell Lad alo adech Lad ýalop 1 orris rs. taffs 1 Wedgwood rs. taffs em thome rs. Lichfield 1 1 1 allear rs. ham ton 1 henson to iss Wilts 1 1 1 L adnor oun Wilts obhouse ad ilts 1 1 ilson iss ilts awyer rs. Swindon 1 arker rooks rs. arks adbu Mrs. B'ham i i riestman rs. B'ham 1 ivens rs. Coventry 1 1 1 iss ro r mortand 1 1 eesly rs. ores 1 Mrs. ohnston ores 1 ý 283 ame Title Bench How Count PLG Cllr Res N,1 Food TO Womo ris on ric unter Mrs. ores mith Lad ores 1 nott Mrs. ores 1 ilson Dr. Sheffield tephenson Mrs. Sheffield arton Mrs. Sheffield 1 molt Mrs. Leeds 1 1 Ott Mrs. Leeds albot Mrs. Leeds itson Miss Leeds 1 ho e Mrs. Wakefield 1 1 irth Lad Halifax 1 i htowler Mrs. Halifax 1 1 a for Mrs. Halifax mold Mrs. Bradford 1 Uff Mrs. Bradford 1 arlin Mrs. Bradford 1 itchen Mrs. Bradford umer Mrs. Batet 1 iddon Miss H'ersfield ray Mrs. York 1 Aercer Mrs. York 1 1 ampton- Ilin orth Mrs. West Riding I 1 mith Lady ýLlestRiding ykes Lad est Riding 1 artin ton Mrs. Derb shire OTAL 17 23 1 45 31 10 17 15 14 39 10 28 11 37 KEY Red tlosn - Hospitalcommittee or Crossvoluntary work Corm - `County' work PLG - Poor Law Guardian CJIr - Local councillor Res - `Rescue' work N.1. - National InsuranceCommittee Food - FoodControl Committee(wartime) Trih. - Member of Tribunal e.g. profiteering; munitions Women - Membersof women'sorganisation(s) Pris. - Prison visiting, voluntary probation work Pen. - PensionsCommittee ric. - County Agricultural Committee Ed - Teaching, Education committee, school manager,youth work 284 fh 00 C14 ýT N0 a' a f/) z 0 I U "a oz zdWw äH F a z w 0 w 0 a 0 H w z O C0 0) (O co co co O ' N 1e'- ' CO 0) r` co N "aý- 0h1 R 8 co W0 f fQf Q Ob Qý Omi 0) ON) ON) O) Omi Cri Omi Oý Oý O CA Q)W) CJl O1 (7)ý 0)in (11 r r- '- r r e- r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r C) U. tO W cn 0: (n 2 Z ý, Z 0 F- p5 U5 CIO-3:3 --r-j a rn U O 8 J W W cc W X V M M ý U 3ýy W if ýj ý U H J ý: o cn =3 LLJ:3 o LLS L) uj >. w 9 2 W W U o "r it 9 W O W LLI w ui ui w W LLI LLI CL 0) 8 0 ý V W cn co Z Z Z 0L J W cn I- F- F- I- F- O U) U LL 0) r- Z - W O O O O O O z N W u J (A x ý aýZ LL CL Ö J J J J ý r ý 0 0 J a ý ý O p " - WO 2 W cl: Z p. 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Z 5 ffl m J ý n' (n ý uý } o o (ý (n (n ' Cl) Z F- 0 z J - J F- J w g g w w w 2 J 2 O z z w I- O p W I- w z J ý WzL J 2=3 t7u ý C/)Y Z 2 U)W W QZ, z z w W O CN Q = O w Q U W W p Z U Y Z 0ý } J F- F- p V) co -i -i ý r Q 0 W ý W m z z p w 0 w 0 -J U O U 0 _ U) z ý m U - W -1 O z w ýa U 1 I Y ä _ l o = cr. ý caiýc~ >- n 5 z : = co c~n w CL.U lu) U) m cUU) 0 0ýp ti O c00) iA Q) O) Q) C) Q) Q) r r r r r r e_ V U 0 Zw m J 0 W p U Ö p J ý a ( W z N2 z Ü c w U U u' p : w > w Z W J Y N v z wo o w z ä z ý U > O Z 0 ý U J 0 m w cn0 0 z ý CD Z p _g 0 0 W (!) (6 0 w ä w d O Q 2 (n Ö U'' O i ¢ p = cj 2 Z) U > ý -i U U W u ¢ w j () Ö ä > JO i - ( ý' ý ý ý? cý-7Fm-ý V ý'" (0 0 > 3 : ý a 9 v = a. ý a > ý - cný ý cn J ýz O U Qo U JO mZ Z > U ýw J J ' V -J J J ý J _ .. J O4 O O -iJ i . d J M U J Z U W J J J - ý J J V W J - (ý ý N :5 U U v U l o U U U S' a. E U J 2 U U' J ý O 2 U Z Z Z U Z Z Z cn F- 9 ý OV CCOU) COD Vý 9 CO U) (OD (OD CO Co Co CD Co CO Co CO 0o Co Co Co Co a0 r r r '-- r r r e- r r r r r O O N M tt O tD 1ý a0 O C . -- N C7 LA (D f Co On O 1- N M 9 cD 1ý Co O O r N M I- f- 1- f- f- 1- h fý Iý h CO CO Co CO Co CO Co Co Co O) O O O O Q9 O) on Q) O O O O r r r r r m Goco Ö N Z m m ý1 C, m m m LM m 4) aý J t J t0o) N g g g g g 919 O H U U IL Q z i Z Z Z Z Z z z z Z U) Z cý 0ö 0 0 0 0 o o w o ý vý0 0 o öw o "(' u f-- ý ý- r- H ý- i-- i-- i-- o ý- i-- o o o cn o o m o m w o t- o g o ý CL Z 2 Z Z Z Z z- z- z z- z- z z z z z z z z z m z z e z e 2 z w z z ý O O } ý O E- F w < w w w w w w w w w w w p p w W OJ OJ O u) 0 0 0 J 0 wJ J 7 J Ui 2 2 2 2 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y J J Y Y -1 0 O N O O to N t` N N l- f- 0) O N N N O O O (O CO O O O O Q) 0 0 O O O O O 91 O N N N N N N N N N 2 N N N N N N N N N N N M M M N N N M M N N N r O) () O) O) Q) ß) Q) 0) Q) 0) O) O) O O) O Q) O Q) C) Q) Q) O m Q) Q) 0) 0) Q) Q) c» O Q) } r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r m w J Z b W O a ý ý Z Q N W W J ý- W ¢ l1J Z _ NJ J V Z W g } W Q a w : im 9 ( D U Z U W 2 W J Q U Z W Z S W S Z } 2 - } W 0 > ý- W_j _ ý- !A N W } U U w h' U J CK M Z Q Z F- F- lA w 9 uj i i1 O O O Z ý - - LU - n 9 G N U ý ¢ Q ý _ Q W Q zi ý W ý ý U ( w ,x 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 . - 1- w.w Z O Ö W ý' W Co wU W Z J F Z ý tJ ) J m ý Z U) J d ý Z w 2 Z _j U 0 4 o LL1 ý W Q O § U O ty > m O }1 C_ u' w Y g Y g D O W Y w (n Q ý 2Z W = 0 w . 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Ü J cý V ý 5 ö ý J Z Ü (' A LL Z) -: O Cl z v 0 ._J w u) m 0 cn IL Z m U ) W V O J LL M 9 20 w cvl u 122 Ö Z ý U) 0 w B J A 0>C* O n' n CD0 cJ, - uJ U O v- F- (! ) w U Üý: . 0 V LL ý w 9 LL 0 0 F- ý 9 rn w W (1 0 v cn 0) ui ti LL _1 ý 0 J } h l-- F- I-- c - Z i- ý Z j_ Z ý.. _j ýtS W ý ° Z x W ý Z > cn z z z z w > w 0 z a ýj p z . w w O ma ' O 11. z w a a w w w w w ý r w a o m- Z Z Z 3; w :ý w U O Q Q 0 Q cr 0 Z J m v) I- w Q w v 5 U5in in 0- Vd Z g ä Y U) w:i w ý On- U v ý 0 m d w O OZ V w w w w wLL < O J =-' » a z z ui w 2 z) w or S V i-- w O w cn z Z °'-i Q Z = Q ý ö 9 v = d a a a a ¢ 2 w L a (D : Z) o ý ý ý 53 U U Z F- U Q U U d cn ( w n >- F- ýa U ° U Q_>j S U U U U ( ) W O O Q 2 ui J L- 'U0 0 Z LL Z O Z Z Z Z J o- < o u) (i Co CL Z =» z z < Z Z (D `7 ýn N LO gY r In f_ cD O Co C» ýt ei rn rn Co CO r- CO ýn (» oo 0) Un r- r- F- Co Co CO oO CD Co Co Co Co Co c0 CID Co CD r r r r- r r r r r r r Ln CO rý 00 O O N M -e In tD 1- Co O O T-- N m tt to CO 1- 00 O O r N Cl A N ýp 1V) Co O) O O O O O O r r e- r r- T- r r- N N N N N N N N N N M M M M CM M C7 c7 c7 ýi r r r r r r r r r r r r r r lr r r r r r r r r r r r r r r - r - r r r r r r Z O 0) Z Co U m m m N Z - Z Z aý m o m mC- Ü m g Zi 0 4, m 0) t 7 Z Zm N N .. 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Q m m a ý } } z } cý >-. >- wwS ý w ý >- } }9 A D D Z ý O w m p a z k- O Z Z- e Wcn O Z ý g a cn J 5 J 2 Q < 0 ý cr C) ý :I M W LL. w W W O ° W J Z LU Z O 0 Ü } 0 p cU) O CD N Z Z w z W w N ä Z Z ý :5 O O ° z Z Z W c7 >- S ö Z fn =1 ý Z : ce Z O Z = Y J . ý W O LY. S S Z) cr. WE o w n- (n O w 2 m >- m W ý Coý w !- V ¢ w >- w Z - m x o w O g z ý ý ,,., ý ý O Z Y a = ý 2 ý Q ý ý l ýd ä ä ý < o 3 o Uo mO Qo 2U C7 = ° W z -J z u] = wJ i-w >-m ý-cn m a F-cn J F- oa c1. ý Zo z¢ co c1r) CC) r-_ c1r) rn rn rn T- "- "- V O U a p ý U m w Q ¢ § 2 2 z C5 u E 3: 0 z 0 r 0 O I- W p U Z 14 Z 0 - . Q W 0 _ ö ö V- b H p h a ._ p V O a U) W w = J Z u C Q w O z W Z ý ý g U U Z W > ý ý V w C7 V ýw-Z 2 O Z Z E- ý o V ä m F- Fn 0 w O I- z-) ý U w O w z U z 0 , z Q N Ö- W W z Z Z Z "u z w ý U U W.. O w Z O ý O U) COa 2 ~ w CL ý O Q U > ý7 Q Y Y - U_ W F- I- : : W U Z g cn W 0 z a z ý ý w - wLLJ a Z W . wW ( 0 w > =1 C-) 0 U ý ý Q I- Cl) a = Cl) X 0 0 2 ý Z O O z >- ý J U LLJ O ý-- ä .. 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(L m 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 N 0 N N N N N N N N N N N 0) N (" 0) 0) 0) 0) O) Cl) 0) 0) 0) 0) r' 0) r r r r T- V- Irl T- T- T- } r sir" str m w Q Ü W Z QZ = z z = ä z ý g J ý ý w Z p J = ý Ü _ _ c `t l ~ Z a p ý = w o X -ý D C 0 z ý ý Q Q U) :D 0 0 <. oLL W COW w U u : - Ui < -' w 0 :ý LL co U) co U) U) CDO co cn U) vi ce } Ui >. (A U) (1)CA i vi > Cti C6Ch C6 n 10 w z } _ 5 ?0 w Ir- ö Z ý >- 0 w 0 z Ö W p m Z ý y. Z m Zw Wcn Cn Z = °' = W ý z cn 0 w W I m >- cn cn ý++ W J Z W 0 w U w W (A W F- w 0 ? J F' I d m J O W (ý Y Z ý 5 Z .:.ý Z O } U ý Y W ý w Z ý ý 011 =3 Z > f UJ 0 Q Q: } O W H O W ý ? O O J O ý? ý O Q ý ý = Q } J W [' 1 W LU u1 Q J CL "-ý Ly J Q U U' U) < F- F- 1- = (A 2 U) 0 Se 0 Lu L 2 L LL M L) O w 0 EL (1) U >jGGCD U CL cl: m a 0 0 CL 0 mW m Z U) WoG w [0 W W D U) J Ü ¢ C1 z Cl) 0 Z = p W ý- z Q U 9 W 0 a z W Cýu 9 9 Q U) 5 Z W w F U ý- U p = p Q = o u. Z O Y O U 1 O O p 0 0 9 M s cc CO ä ý C') Z Z ý Z Z ý O W W W w (' ý Y LL LL D W W O ýwy W < Q w V , i-i 0 0 0 S p Q U CDO JW U W O JW u- f- u J 5 U J -' n. Q - & z ý z a J O ý m d O ' ý ¢ ¢ ¢ v) 0 ý Q U s U O E U) (7 w ý' S W W c Q c > OU- U } cý Cý ý ý O O J J C7 J C7 C7 J J O C7 (7 cn - o J JOC ýJ D U J J J O s O V s Q w O w J J J J J J J J J ý - Z J J J - z cn ¢ ¢ U U a U a. Cý U O a U U ¢ a ý a Cý J U m O m cn U > U U tý m > W R U) CO 00 0) O T-- (V M 'V O fR OO rn O I- N 4 f)V) GO O) O . - (D P- co (7) r-_ r-_ r-. r-. r-_ r- r- r-_ r- 00 00 00 00 00 00 CY) CY) CY) 0) C CY) c3r) CY) 8 C) Cl coco CID CIDco I- CY)0) rn Nrn aý Z G) CIO d t 0) U, g m o a z 0 z z ý W W J J Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z J O Z Z Z Z w w w J O W M 'j ý j W W O U) -' O O O O O O O O U i-- p o o o o J J o o o F- ý- F-- O O O O O O O O O O u- cg cý c6 cý cý " U O O O O u. u. 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Z Z Z > Y - cýn cn LL Z O ' O W LL W J W Z CI) Z LL Z j O J O m Q O i w Z W O W W Q O U S Z --iQ 0 O u. z O X m f"- w U CP cn O W Z ý-- w w m ý W U > (n S Z m ý ý S Z Q O O Z z W> ý X W ä O A F- - } g fn Q Q U J --i Z J ° ý p p ý ü n ý ü CL 3. z ä = ° ý p ° ý a ° cý cý i m U) ci cý ü oo U (D Ü ý x Y p ) Q Z W W Q f/) Q W O Z < Q Y w Z (a!) ý Q m Z F- oö - Q Z LU d Q Q (!) w U w Ö Qj Z Z J U J Z Q 0 LLI F- X J_ W I- fl ý 0 0 J < Ü Ü _j m -ý 0 Z J U J V Z Z U U U) LU W f- 0 9 Ö p ý W U Q oý ß ä O ý - U oö U cnIn WU Z Z O (d 2 Ur 75 Z Z i) Z (n J J W J 0 Z Q ýCJ ý W W U Z V Q m Q Q Z ý F- > D = m ý Q U LLJI l V W D :D W CD Q a a < Q a Q a C) D W W V c ý: W Z k Z U U ý W U Z w _j Co ý U) - cn f/) ý 2 W N ý ý w ý U W Q J ý... ý U ý Z W U U I 0 Ct U Z o i 0 0 ' Ü Ü m > Ü m C L Z m m 0 w _ w Q = < z m E v 'ý C 0u M ý u o MO 3 0 ti ti N M st O CD O in to OD - Co m m l toIN' IN ( (O (NO ( (O (OD ýD ( 1_ r- 0 0 e 1n to to 9) WA W) O to ýA O In In In 1111Li) Lin IC>to tox, U) LE)%in LO La LO to M0 Z Z Z Z w 0 d m 0 0 0 o) t - W W W W IL LU L $d W W W W = (D WW b b W I ý X U Lx W W IZ it U) U) » } ! (= - c= 0 Y W W D z W _ w _ W O cn cA 2 O Cn U) 2 = = 2 O O O c Q z z 0 _ C/)C/) ) z U) ir 22 w » O O co m (D o (D u) o ) (n u) cn Er-cn cn n z a z U) U) U) 0 O ý: 2 g m m m m m w w a W W a a a a 0 m m U U O 2 m E- 2 » > F.. h" p 2 ý ý LL. LL. U- Z Z W W w 2 w Z Z 2 U) Co U) J 25 a ý a 0 O 0 0 Q xO Ox OX mQ m« m m 0Q ý-Q U« WO (D J oW u-M OJ aW aW Wa Wa aW ui » I U) (0 52 n cn = = _ r4 N r4 r-i N r4 C,4 r4 N N N O O O O O O O (» - » e- T- 0) 0) O e- a- Ir r 1- r m m m m m m m m W W W W W Z J U Z 2 U W > W Z_ 22 9 I w W Q Z W -J W W > } h- > cn ct O O In h" S W 0 LL L, W LLJ W Z M Q U W W (n Q F ý Q Q f4 ý ' Z F- m J ý Q = ý ý = p Ur Z LL] - Q Q W Q W W Z W Q J Z J « m -ý i .1 ý d 2 3 z u. LLc cý ý cý a -i U W < LLQ ý ö ý ý öv ý ý ö ý lLn vi ce cnvi ý vi N ý cn 2 T owcn W-01-1 W- W- 9 U' F= U W m D Q U (% Z ¢ U) W W U) Ö ý Z ä g ü W 0 0 ¢ cDZ Z mW Z 1 z ý 2 ý = Z Z ? J Z U h- ý ý e W W U Z O = fq W (nZ _Ü bC ý (D WJ ý J U (n W N f- -'ý J w w w ý D W W O x m O Z I-' ý Q w Z -j a Z Z g J W ý J (A O m w- a = J O W O 2 w W W m O J O J c - O W O Q - - ý 2 - ý > >: o- Q, m U U 4' J '7 J D w e Z m 0 m = Q M U CD J m IL W w Fý` m U LL W Ü W 2 Z) Z O (D 2: ý v W w J Q Q_w ý Q W O ¢ ä W V S O w h- g Q 0 > Q 0- c W w i/) w Q U v Q 0 < O O D > ý _ (J 1. U W O V) LL J_ J J U- Nj W ý W ý -i Q W Z W C V _J ( Va)Clf A Q W W U < U 0 Z 0 Z ¢ oý O J W F" Z CD Z Z J O U U Q- O < ý I- -ý Z ý- W O W U > ý Z) U- > O Q ý V O ý CT 2200 O cn J l- U Q O ý -' O 0 V Z = o- _ O ý c V w ý U U :: ) < cnn w Q a Q Q S V ý 2 o 2 I_ _ ý 0 D ui m Ü O 0 ý O W O Q F- ä a: : z W 0' QQ ýJ QJ o U ý ý Q Q S C7 Ü S Q Cý m > Q Q Ve' Q Q Q Q O Oý J ¢UO ý W J O J U ý J w Q O J O w O J O cý U U m ¢ a. cý u S U Q >- U ¢ cn c7 a ý Q w U ý U a ? U a cý O O CO Il_ Co I m CD " N c7 ýt to CD i` Co O) O N c7 C) ll) O 1` O O) e- N 1 O O O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1` 1- Iý f, - h Co Co Co Co 00 00 00 CO 00 00 O Lt) to LO to O LC)LO V) LC)LO LinLO LOU) LO O to tf) LC)Lil t£) to to O W) t0 (D (O N 0 C') Z m d a, Ü 0) t N Cl) Z a O Z W W W Z Q Y 0 Q = W W Y Y Y Y ý O = = (' ý o :I o o O 0 >- } } } ý D U O Z S S S Z O ý LL. m cn cn cn ? Q u u LL w W w w w w cn a a a o- U. cn u.. w. u. ty Cr _z w w w N :3 O S ý ý ý F- F- J ý , S S S Z f) u) u) W ui W (n Q U ý U ý ý :» . (V N O (i Z W z Z Z Ü W W Q Z Z I- W J w CY- ýQ_ } Z W ý ý =x f/) >- w } Q uiW w I- J c ý Z U N N _j w cA Z } a J O J J J w w Q 0 W W Q W Q L > (n 2 W U Q 2 W W LL- Z m ý 2 W W LL1- Q 2 S J W W } fA (A fn fn 0 u) N !A Q U) cn U) fn to (n cn Q Co (A !n (A fA cn fn !n Z Y W cWn cýii IW- Q W-1 C) _ Z V J < Z Z Q 0 >', w Z Z ý U) W x Z 0 =ý w O w O = J w Q Z M z z S cn 2 - JW V) U ý g Q Q u) - J A F ý u. 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