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The connection between the First World War, feminist politics and women’s consciousness is currently of great interest to those working in the field of women’s history. The formation of the Save the Children Fund (SCF) in 1919 illustrates that focusing exclusively on women’s participation in party political processes overlooks the fact that there was also a renewed interest in voluntary action after the First World War. A sizeable number of women – including former suffragists – military doctors and nurses, social workers and politicians became active in the post-war peace movement and in relief work, and campaigned exclusively for voluntary children’s aid. By providing grants to relief projects sponsored by women, the SCF furthered newly enfranchised women’s careers in politics, relief agencies and peace work. For many feminists and humanitarians, it was impossible to distinguish between politics and voluntary action where women and children were concerned. Feminists, politics and children’s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund Linda Mahood, Department of History, University of Guelph, Canada
On 15 May 1919, two women Peace and Freedom (WILPF). The appeared in a London court. They police already knew Ayrton Gould were charged with violating the and many members of the crowd of Defence of the Realm Act by WILPF women and FFC members distributing uncensored leaflets to who blocked the stairway at the publicise the next Fight the Famine Mansion House Court. In her own Council (FFC) meeting at the Albert defence Ayrton Gould testified, Hall. The first case involved ‘What is written I stand for’: a Barbara Ayrton Gould, a veteran magistrate could only convict, she suffragist and member of the reasoned, ‘if he believed the Women’s International League for Government treated the starvation V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 72
of women, children, and the aged and for implicating the Labour Party as [a continuation] of the war after Press, but she insisted that she too fighting has ceased.’ She insisted had not broken the law. Ayrton that she ‘would go to prison as a Gould and Jebb were each fined protest’ (Daily Herald, 16 May £5. Later, Jebb remarked that if the 1919). publicity surrounding her arrest enabled the Save the Children The next case involved the Fund to raise the funds necessary honorary secretary of the FFC, to save starving children, then to Eglantyne Jebb, who had formed her the fine was the ‘equivalent to the Council with her sister Dorothy victory’ (Jebb, May 1919). Buxton and a diverse group of prominent British feminists, Prochaska (1980, 228-30) has politicians, intellectuals and argued that while early-nineteenth- pacifists in January 1919 to protest century female philanthropists trod against the continuance of the cautiously around the political side hunger blockade after the of their work, this was no longer Armistice. Jebb was charged with possible by the twentieth century. distributing a leaflet containing the The local and international photograph of a starving Austrian women’s suffrage societies that baby. The leaflet announced the emerged were run along the lines formation of a new FFC sub- established by Victorian committee, the Save the Children philanthropic institutions, and the Fund. The text explained: fundraising, bookkeeping and public relations skills developed in There are millions of such children charity committee work were used starving to-day ... [and the] only by Edwardian suffragists. In the way to bring real help to starving years before the First World War, Europe is to restore free however, many suffragists and intercourse between the nations socialists attacked women’s charity and allow the starving countries to work because, in their view, it feed themselves (National Labour impeded feminist causes and Press, 1919). women’s emancipation. Nevertheless, during the war many Because it was her first time in prominent suffragists insisted that court, Jebb took a more conciliatory women’s full financial and personal tone with the magistrate. She participation in the war effort would apologised for involving the FFC be an opportunity to prove their Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund73
capabilities and patriotism. After the aid. By providing grants to relief war, the feminist and social ideals projects sponsored by women, the that continued to inform charity and SCF furthered newly enfranchised social work fed new campaigns to women’s careers in politics, relief improve women’s and children’s agencies and peace work. For lives; thus the war ‘added an many feminists and humanitarians additional layer to their experience it was impossible to distinguish and ideas’ (Jones, 2000, 74). By between politics and voluntary the twentieth century women’s action where women and children voluntary organisations had were concerned. become so interconnected with The Women’s International League politics that the two were for Peace and Freedom was inseparable ‘in the lives of feminists formed at the Hague in 1915 by a active before the First World War’ number of National Union of (Alberti, 1989, 22). Women’s Suffrage Societies members who objected to The connection between the First Pankhurst’s suggestion that World War, feminist politics and feminist organisations should women’s consciousness is currently support the war effort. Its members of great interest to those working in were determined to work for world the field of women’s history. This peace and international feminist article suggests that the formation causes. Their first activity after the of the Save the Children Fund Armistice was to pressure (SCF) in 1919 illustrates that governments to settle peace terms focusing exclusively on women’s and to provide relief to starving participation in party political women and children in war-torn processes overlooks the fact that Europe. In September 1918 there was also a renewed interest Dorothy Buxton read a report on in voluntary action after First World the famine conditions in Russia to War. In the period after the the WILPF and enlisted their Armistice a sizeable number of support in forming the FFC. WILPF women – including former member Maude Royden was a suffragists – military doctors and keynote speaker at the first FFC nurses, social workers, and meeting and Mary Sheepshanks of politicians became active in the the Women’s International Suffrage post-war peace movement and Alliance became the secretary of relief work, and campaigned the Council. Their joint sub- exclusively for voluntary children’s committees conveyed their V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 74
condemnation of the blockade to WILPF raised £6,225 to purchase Winston Churchill and sent and transport a million rubber teats deputations to pressure Lord to help feed German infants. Even Robert Cecil to permit Germany to though they participated in this import food and raw materials to relief effort, the executive stressed alleviate suffering (Alberti, 1989, that the League was a political and 85). In the weeks prior to their not a philanthropic organisation and arrest at the Fight the Famine rally, must not get sidetracked by relief WILPF and FFC members, work (Haslem, 1999, 134-5). including suffragette Emmeline League chairman Helen Swanwick Pethick-Lawrence, prepared wrote that the teat campaign was circulars stating the ‘facts as to the an exception to the organisation’s terrible situation of the child rules. In her view, abandoning their population’ in central Europe (D educative pacifist work for charity Buxton, 11 May 1919). In April work would ‘indeed be surrendering Pethick-Lawrence addressed an to the age-old notion that women anti-blockade meeting in Trafalgar had no concern in public life except Square and marched with Ayrton to wipe up the mess made by men.’ Gould to Downing Street under a She regretted that women: banner demanding ‘Lift the Hunger Blockade’ (Pethick-Lawrence, ... drifted naturally and easily into 1938). relief which, except for a few leaders and organizers, required The relationship between the only jog-trot feminine capacities WILPF and the FFC reveals some and had no permanent effect on of tensions between feminist policy (Swanwick, 1935, 316). political movements and post-war campaigns for voluntary action. The FFC was also a political FFC and WILPF executive pressure group. The problems, as committees recognised that the Buxton saw them, were how to gain most immediate question was how public sympathy for the enemy’s to get funds and relief to the children and get much-needed aid starving people, especially the to the starving children in central children, of central Europe. In Europe, while working toward their addition to pressuring politicians longer-term political and economic and producing propaganda geared goals. Like many FFC members, toward softening hostile public Buxton wished to concentrate on opinion regarding Germany, the politics and public education, while Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund75
others, including her sister went up to Oxford University in Eglantyne, wanted to focus on the 1895, where she studied history. urgently needed relief. To resolve She then trained as an elementary this division, Buxton suggested the school teacher and taught for one formation of an apolitical branch of year in Marlborough. In 1901 she the movement, the Save the moved with her mother to Children Fund, which would be Cambridge and joined the purely humanitarian and solely Cambridge Ladies’ Discussion philanthropic (E Buxton, 1965). This Society and the Charity freed the WILPF and the FFC to Organization Society (COS), where concentrate on political work she worked with women from a (Jones, 2000, 102). number of notable philanthropic families, including the Marshalls, In many respects, the life histories Darwins, Keyneses and Sidgwicks. of philanthropy and political In 1906 she wrote Cambridge: a activism of the Jebb sisters are Brief Study of Social Questions. In typical of their generation of 1912 she travelled to the Balkans women, whose interest in liberal and prepared a report for the democratic causes drew them into Macedonian Relief Fund; there she the international child-saving witnessed for the first time the movement in the 1920s. In consequences of ‘racial’ disruption, common with many middle- and hunger and homelessness (Wilson, upper-class Victorian girls, the 1967; D Buxton & E Fuller, 1931). adolescence of the Jebb sisters, as daughters of the Shropshire gentry, In 1902 Dorothy Jebb went to was framed by a domestic and Cambridge University where she philanthropic world populated studied politics and economics. Her largely by proto-activist mothers, success was demonstrated by her aunts, sisters, foreign governesses tutor, J M Keynes, who was candid and female friends. It was within about his dislike of tutoring women the confines of this female- students but regarded Dorothy dominated sphere of literary Jebb’s intelligence as exceptional societies, home visiting, teas and (Skidelsky, 1983, 212). While a charity work that many remarkable student at Newnham in 1904 she Victorian women emerged as met Charles Roden Buxton and pioneers in the new female they became active in the Liberal professions of education, medicine, Party and then the Labour Party social work and politics. Eglantyne and Quaker organisations V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 76
(DeBunsen, 1948, 43). During the the Record of the Save the war she took up journalism and Children Fund (re-named The published a weekly report based on World’s Children in 1921), a extracts from over one hundred monthly news and fund-raising foreign newspapers for the pacifist magazine, in the hope that it would Cambridge Magazine. yield large donations.
SCF methods for dispensing Despite the SCF’s determination to international relief were based on leave the political side of war relief the COS principles, which would to other organisations, it maintained have been familiar to many council that international charity given in members and potential the name of the child could override contributors. The COS ‘scientific’ intra-European ‘ethnic’ barriers, principles of self-help as applied to break down national boundaries international children’s aid entailed and prevent future conflict (World’s the prevention of pauperism and Children, 1921, 86). Giving aid to promotion of independence by children regardless of race or creed helping starving children and their made the SCF extremely appealing mothers via small grants and to feminists, pacifists and the labour temporary relief to soup kitchens, movement and ‘most political and orphanages, children’s hospitals charitable organizations in the post- and day nurseries, until such time war years’ encouraged close co- as child welfare programmes operation ‘between humanitarian enabled local governmental organizations on a range of issues’ agencies to take over. In the early (Haslem, 1999, 135; Swanwick, years they channelled funds only 1935, 315). For example, the FFC through existing organisations so roster in 1919 included the names as not to increase competition of many well-known British among charities. COS methods feminists and social reformers such also required that the distribution of as Kathleen Courtney, Louise relief be based on the rigorous Creighton, Emily Hobhouse, Mary investigation and assessment of Macarthur, Maude Royden, Olive need in each region. Consequently Schreiner, and Margaret Llewellyn SCF established committees of Davis. When the SCF was formed inquiry to compile as much detailed a year later, the notable and accurate information as philanthropic and political women possible; this information was affiliated with it were Maria Ogilvie disseminated to the public through Gordon and Lady Aberdeen of the Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund77
International Council of Women, directly named in SCF publications. Lady Muriel Paget, Edith Picton Further, the SCF distributed food in Turbervill, Ethel Snowden, Mrs Russia when many western Charles Rothschild, Nina Boyle, Europeans feared that food for Emmeline Pethick Lawrence, Russian children meant ‘feeding the Susan Lawrence, Charlotte Red Army’ and thus fuelling Despard, Dr Ethel Williams, Bolshevism. SCF members Catherine Marshall and Helena weathered severe character Swanwick. The SCF depended assassinations caused by upon many of these British allegations that they were feeding feminists to do its investigative and the enemy’s children while British promotional work. One of the first children went hungry. This way of groups Buxton approached on criticising their activities seemed to behalf of the SCF were the have some impact on the British delegates of the Women’s public, as letters from prospective International Conference which met contributors indicate. When Victoria in Zurich in May 1919. She invited DeBunsen invited her friend Lady them to submit ‘Facts, Photo, and Norah Bentinck to approach people Cinema Films’ and stressed that on behalf of Russian relief, ‘the rescue of the children of Bentinck responded: Europe is the first duty of the women’s movement at the present I should really love to help you – time’ (Buxton, 8 May 1919). Dearest V. But I do feel I know what some people mean when they While the cause of international say they won’t give English money child-saving may have been to help to feed foreign children who popular in some circles, it is will only rise up and kill us again impossible to overstate its twenty-five years hence (Bentinck, unpopularity in others. Despite the 26 Sept 1919). SCF rhetoric that it was solely a relief organisation, its members Regarding Germany, another continued to pressure individual potential contributor responded that Members of Parliament and both she did ‘not desire their recovery.’ Houses of Parliament to revise the She could not: peace treaties with Germany. This was at a time in Britain when ... take any part in assisting the hatred of Germany was so intense enemies of England to recover from that the country could not be the effects of their own lack of V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 78
honour and humanity ... [O]nly half- work, but it was not until they hearted patriots would wish to encountered the National Union of relieve enemies (Hanbury, 10 Women’s Suffrage Societies that October 1919) . they discovered their true life’s calling (Alberti, 1989, 17). In Buxton and Jebb’s endeavour to December, a member of the Exeter separate the political goals of the branch of the SCF informed Buxton FFC from the humanitarian that he was ‘horrified’ by what he objectives of the SCF failed, largely considered to be an ‘extraordinary due to the fact that the Fund instance of crooked thinking’ that continued to employ feminists as permitted ‘Miss Royden and Miss fundraisers and they utilised some Courtney’ to tour the country for the of their time-tested suffrage tactics, Fight the Famine Council: including petitions, deputations, street marches and demanding jail ... [W]e are first inducing people of time, to promote their cause. Early the Jingo-persuasions, with money SCF fundraisers were occasionally and influence, to feel sympathy victims of physical assault; in one towards the suffering little one. instance two women were pushed These people are hopelessly into the Thames by an angry patriot prejudiced again the FFC ... The (Lawrence, 1 April 1957). Jebb tried only result will be that nothing will to use the publicity surrounding her be done for the children by the rich own arrest and court appearance to ... Only pacifists and Labourists will, promote the Fund. These strategies here, help them ... and they are a also opened the Fund to criticism small and practically impotent body from its own members, who argued (Willcocks, 5 December 1919). that the reputations of certain Ironically, Buxton and Jebb’s failure members could actually hurt the to separate the politics of long-term educative and philanthropy from feminist concern philanthropic goals of the SCF by for women and children may have restricting its appeal to pacifists and ensured the Fund’s long-term Labourists. In December 1919 the success. Buxton’s plea in Zurich for vice-chairmen of the WILPF, the international women’s veteran suffragists Maude Royden movement to help her received and Kathleen Courtney, toured resounding support. The Record ‘many provincial towns’ for the published a great deal of FFC. Courtney and Royden had cut information submitted by women their teeth in settlement and rescue and engaged prominent feminists Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund79
as lecturers on SCF fundraising the SCF. Sharp explained that work tours. Clearly these trips took a in devastated Europe was an great personal toll, but they also extension of her lifelong solidified the women’s commitment commitment to feminist politics: to the cause. Within two years the SCF had its first martyrs for the The worst of having been a cause of international child-saving. suffragette is that, ever afterwards, The first was Violet Tillard, the you think public work cannot be suffragist and anti-conscriptionist, worth doing unless it is the most whom the SCF sent to Germany unpleasant task you can find to put soon after the Armistice. The your hand to (Alberti, 1989, 86). following year she went to Buzuluk, Russia, where she died from Emily Hobhouse was ‘horrified by typhus in November 1922 (SCF, DB the conditions of children in Leipzig Papers, 14/5). The following spring and other places’ (FFC, 1920, 102). Florence Witherington died from In the summer of 1920 Charlotte typhus at Bersea, eastern Poland. Despard, president of the Women’s The Daily Herald headline stated ‘A Freedom League and a pacifist, Famine Martyr: English Women’s went to Hungary as the Death in Poland’ (Daily Herald, 8 representative of the Save the March 1922). Children Fund, and there she ‘saw newborn babies sleeping on coarse The autobiographical writings of sacking made of paper fibre and a SCF women reveal that many were general, sickening absence of the tormented by visions of the “decencies of life”’ (Mulvihill, 1989, devastation they had seen in war- 129-30; Law, 2000, 369). In the torn regions. Reflecting upon the early 1920s Ethel Snowdon ‘terrible situation of the child assured the SCF general council population throughout large areas that the ‘Labour Party was in warm of Central Europe,’ Buxton wrote, sympathy’ (SCF, General Council ‘the whole thing is a nightmare to Minutes, 10 October 1920). She me, from which I can never escape’ wrote articles for The World’s (Buxton, 11 May 1919). In 1919 Children that emphasised the militant suffragist and hunger striker ‘unimaginable’ suffering of women Evelyn Sharp was eyewitness to and children ... Petrograd and the devastation in Vienna and Moscow are likely to become cities Germany. In 1922 she reported on of the dead’ (World’s Children, 15 the famine conditions in Russia for April 1921, 173). Another Labour V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 80
woman, Edith Picton-Turbervill, also opted to the Friend’s Emergency worked for the Fund in the 1920s. and War Victims Relief Committee She tried to raise an awareness of in 1919 (Friend’s Emergency and the self-sacrifice of the women who War Victims Relief Committee, 4 did relief work for the SCF. She November 1919; Jones, 2000, 40). wrote a tribute to the workers who Edith Pye, a nurse and midwife who regularly went with out food and worked among civilians in maternity slept on ‘station platforms’ en route clinics in the Marne and Meuse to their destinations (World’s areas of north-eastern France, was Children, 15 April 1921). Eglantyne approached and agreed to help. Dr Jebb was haunted for years by the Hilda Clark was permitted to assist fear that the SCF would not have her (Pye, 1919). Clark and Pye, the money to meet its commitments. lifelong companions, worked with ‘My attempts to collect money had Hilda’s sister Alice and established been in the nature of a suicidal Quaker Relief missions in central obsession,’ she wrote in 1928: Europe; they maintained these initiatives until the end of the From the time we started the SCF, Second Word War (Jones, 2000, whenever I went across a bridge or 117). In Poland, the Fund sent relief a high landing on a staircase, I to Friend’s Relief soup kitchens run heard a voice saying to me, “Throw by Ruth Fry. One of her goals for yourself down, throw yourself the village soup kitchen was to down.” ... I had no intention supplement the work of the village however of obeying the suggestion, health nurse, who ‘tries to teach the it simply made me react, brace mothers not to feed delicate myself, and go straight on (Jebb, children on black bread’ (World’s 1928). Children, 15 May 1921, 106).
The first SCF aid was sent to SCF was committed to non- children in relief projects established sectarianism and secured the by Quakers during the war in patronage of the Roman Catholic Vienna, followed by Armenia, Church, the Church of England, the Hungry, Czechoslovakia and Russia Chief Rabbi, the Church of Scotland (World’s Children, 1923, 23). Buxton and other Protestant denominations. used her acquaintances in the It also tried to extend its influence Society of Friends to connect with by establishing links with women in projects and invited a number of many other spiritual and pacifist Quaker feminists to do publicity communities. In 1921 Catherine work for the fund, and Jebb was co- Booth of the Salvation Army Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund81
administered SCF aid to Church Duchess of Somerset ‘stormed Army relief projects and distributed London to raise money, through all condensed milk to children in Berlin the usual channels known to and Czechoslovakia (Jebb, 19 May women,’ for the Southwark Invalid 1921; World’s Children, 1 Kitchens, which provided food for September 1921, 324). Lady invalids, children and maternity Blomfield of the Baha’i Faith went to cases. By 1910 Lady Muriel was Budapest to inspect the workrooms regarded as ‘a pioneer of charity and wrote a pamphlet praising the balls’ (Blunt, 1962, 45). Heartsick at unity of child-saving and the Baha’i the thought of the suffering at the principle of the oneness of humanity battles at the Somme and the Marne (SCF, SF/11, circa 1921). Jebb, who from 1915 to 1918, Paget organised never officially left the Church of the Anglo-Russian Hospitals in England, was certainly interested in London, Petrograd and at the front. the exploring the practical After the Armistice, she was invited application of Baha’i spiritual by President Masaryk to set up principles, such as ‘close your eyes medical units in Slovakia, the to racial differences’ (EJ, 24 October Crimea, the Baltic States, Rumania 1920). and Poland. In November 1919 Jebb included Paget in her Jebb also extended SCF influence deputation to secure funding from by establishing links with women the Roman Catholic Church (SCF, prominent in private charities. Two General Council Minutes, 15 of the many notable women they November 1919). approached were Lady Muriel Paget and Grace Vulliamy. Vulliamy was a The SCF provided an outlet for nurse from East Anglia who, after women’s benevolent contributions years of nursing in England, and a chance to contribute to organised a unit in 1914 that worked international child welfare. The first in camps for Belgian refugees and ‘generous contribution’ to help the displaced persons. After the children of Hungary was a donation Armistice she joined Lady Muriel from Lady Sara Blomfield (Jebb, 19 Paget’s missions and went to May 1921). Through personal Poland (East Anglia Daily Times, 26 contacts in Geneva, Jebb had been April 1937; SCF, General Council introduced to Julia Eva Vajkai, a Minutes, 27 November 1921). Lady Hungarian novelist who had worked Muriel Paget had been well known with the Hungarian Red Cross for her charity work since 1905, during the war. Julia and her sister when she and her friend the Roszi started a workroom for girls in V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 82
Budapest in 1906. In addition to not ‘among the people who Lady Blomfield’s support, the Hon sentimentalize unduly over “the Mrs Charles Rothschild made many child” although I recognize its needs visits to Budapest to inspect Vajkai’s and its claims. My sympathies are workrooms and developed a close deeply enlisted for the mother, its working relationship with Julia, who proper and natural guardian.’ In her found Rothschild’s knowledge of view, the ‘work of the Save the both Hungarian and bookkeeping to Children movement touches all other be a ‘most valuable’ asset. movements for social betterment. Rothschild supported a Budapest Sociologists, educationists, girls’ school and in the early 1920s scientists, politicians, as well as paid Vajkai’s personal salary from philanthropists, join hands with us her private income (Vajkai, 19 May somewhere’ (World’s Children, 1 1922; Vajkai, 26 April 1921; SCF SF, September 1921, 318). 1921). Evelina Haverfield was a long-time Between 1921 and 1922, SCF friend of Boyle, and another council member Nina Boyle visited international child-saver with strong Russia on behalf of SCF and used militant suffragette credentials. her acquaintances in the French Haverfield had initially been a feminist movement to organise that supporter of the Pankhursts and was side of the work (EJ, 11 November twice imprisoned for taking part in 1920). For twenty-two years Boyle, WSPU deputations. She parted with member of the WSPU, novelist and them after the arson campaigns and founder of women police patrols became vice-president of the newly (Law, 2000, 239), was the formed United Suffragists. After the conscience of social purity feminism war broke out, she founded the on the SCF executive. She kept a Women’s Emergency Corps, paid vigilant eye on issues concerning her own way to Serbia and linked up the status of women and girls on the with the Scottish Women’s Hospital committees for non-European (Leneman, 1994, 199). During the children that developed in the 1920s winter of 1919-1920, Haverfield and and 1930s. Boyle was especially her partner Vera Holm, also a keen interested in projects to do with worker for suffrage, reorganised the infanticide in China, child marriage orphanage at Uzince, opened two in India, baby farming and traffic in other orphanages and established women, and she was renowned for the Haverfield Home at Bayna her contempt for anthropologists. Bachta (The Record, Dec 1920, 46- She admitted readily that she was 7). When carrying out this work, Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund83
Haverfield ‘camped in her lorry or overseas to help rebuild Europe and on goods trucks to avoid hotel to continue to demonstrate their expenses and cut down on small commitment to international peace. comforts, tea, lights at night and One SWH doctor who also extra food of all kinds’ (World’s depended on SCF grants to remain Children, 15 April 1921, 172). overseas was Dr Isabel Emslie, who Shortly after the orphanage was joined up with Lady Muriel Paget’s completed and functioning, Mission in Russia, the first British Haverfield developed pneumonia medical unit to enter Russia after and on 21 March 1920 she died. the war (The Record, November Boyle reported that her dying wish 1920, 27; Leneman, 1994, 209). was that her work be carried on, Katharine Macphail, an SWH and the SCF gave money to this surgeon in Serbia, also remained (World’s Children, 1 March 1921). overseas and depended on SCF aid Boyle kept this on track and to support her small Anglo-Serbian publicised its successes in articles Children’s Belgrade Hospital which for The World’s Children. she founded in 1919 (World’s Children, 1 May 1921, 191). By extending its influence in the Macphail ran her hospital with the field of women’s relief work, the approval of the local government SCF enabled a number of women to until 1941, when all British residents develop their careers after the war were taken by the Nazi army as and furthered the prisoners of war. Macphail was professionalisation of relief work for repatriated to Britain and worked in women beyond their traditional the SCF London offices until contribution as missionaries. When returning to Belgrade in 1945 war broke out in August 1914, Dr (Leneman, 1994, 207-11). Elsie Inglis, honorary secretary of the Edinburgh National Society for While SCF workers failed to Women’s Suffrage, came up with influence governmental policy the idea of forming all-women units directly, they were nevertheless of doctors, nurses, orderlies and remarkably effective as fundraisers. ambulance chauffeurs and By 1921, the directors could mechanics to serve at the front, announce that £950,689 had been thus proving women’s battlefield collected. Over the next two capabilities (Leneman, 1994, 2). decades, national branches were When the war ended, many Scottish formed around the world. Jebb and Women’s Hospitals (SWH) staff Buxton realised early on that the were determined to remain political climate in Britain would V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 84
make it impossible to do organisations (SCF, Annual Report, international work without also 1924). The SCF worked closely with providing for the welfare needs of women politicians in all political British children. In response to the parties in the 1920s and 1930s, criticism that the Fund was feeding notably Nancy Astor, the Duchess of the enemy’s children while British Athol, Cynthia Mosley (who funded children starved, the SCF and chaired the ‘Mosley Committee’ established ‘the home committee’ for Child Relief in Germany) and (SCF, Annual Report, 1921). In 1921 Ethel Snowden (The Record, Dec it became a condition for 1920; SCF, Annual Report, 1921, membership that every local branch 1922). Many SCF nursery schools should support the needs of children were given government grants in the in its home community. The British 1930s and 1940s. This was home committee followed the same interpreted as evidence of ‘the operational strategy as the national success of the contribution of committee by pursuing co-operative voluntary service to the public relations with local women’s groups service.’ such as the National Council of Women (NCW) and the National Historians have recognised that after League for Health, Maternity and the First World War the greatest Child Welfare (NLHMCW). Honorary influence newly enfranchised secretaries Marie Ogilvie Gordon women had was on maternal and (NCW) and Jeannette Halford child welfare policies. Koven and (NLHMCW) were co-opted members Michel (1993) call these ‘maternalist of the SCF Maternity and Child policies,’ which were intended to Welfare sub-committees. Their improve the conditions of life for projects included the establishment women and children, but also to of child welfare centres for mothers provide a larger criticism of the in most British cities, grants to state. In the 1920s a sizeable nurseries and crèches (SCF, Annual number of humanitarian Report, 1923) and joint projects with organisations were captivated by the the National Union of Teachers for symbol of the League of Nations as the distribution of boots, milk and the home of international pacifist, semi-medicinal food to needy labour and feminist causes, and children through local UK branches. they became active in international SCF grants were given ‘with the relations and post-war peace assistance and advice’ of the campaigns in an effort to influence NLHMCW, the National Society of League policies for women and Day Nurseries and other ‘expert’ children (Rupp, 1997, 213). Jebb Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund85
was no exception; she too wanted World War. Charity and philanthropic the SCF to have a presence among work for women was not in retreat, the new humanitarian organisations but ready to adapt to new in the ‘international city.’ She challenges. The SCF continued the recognised that total success tradition of women’s advocacy and required the co-operation of ‘the relief on behalf of maternal and child agency of the State’ and ‘our great welfare and supported women’s voluntary societies’. It was therefore relief projects, giving them a chance necessary to establish links with the to demonstrate their continued growing international body of commitment to pacifism. After the political organisations devoted to First World War philanthropy was a international political peace and personal ‘choice’ by feminists, as stability. In 1921 Jebb proceeded to many ‘women continued their establish the International Union of traditional role as healers and carers Save the Children Funds (IUSCF) in the war devastated areas’ (Alberti, and secured the patronage of the 1989, 101). Post-war relief work International Red Cross. The became central to the lives of some responsibility of the Geneva office former suffragists and to the was to co-ordinate international women’s movement more generally. relief and to be a clearing house for The SCF provided a chance for academic developments in the newly enfranchised women to see scientific study of child welfare, and first-hand the consequences of war, it established the SCF as an to educate themselves about child international organisation. Notable famine and poverty and to deepen achievements in Geneva by 1925 their interest in politics. Of the include the collaboration with the fourteen women MPs who gave International Council of Women on their oaths of allegiance in the the Declaration of the Rights of the House of Commons on 26 June Child, which was adopted by the 1929, only two had no recorded League of Nations in 1924, and involvement in SCF causes. ‘Social Jebb’s appointment to the Advisory and philanthropic work’ led Edith Committee of the League of Nations Picton-Turberville to the Labour Committee on the Traffic in Women Party. ‘I came to the conclusion’, and Children. she wrote, ‘that fundamental changes in law were necessary to This article highlights the role that obtain better conditions of life for women’s networks played and the people’ (Picton-Turberville, 1939, gendered ideologies that continued 154). Many SCF women must have to inform philanthropy after the First shared this view. V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 86
when the Fund began, and the The SCF also performed another of minute books make frequents the important functions that charity references to absenteeism and work can provide: creating a sphere resignations due to ill health. Some, of friendship for women. Unlike the like Jebb, Paget and Vulliamy, died Victorian philanthropists who trod prematurely in their early fifties (Jebb cautiously around the political side of and Paget had been plagued with their work, the twentieth-century poor health all their lives), but many ladies bountiful found it difficult to SCF women were very old indeed separate the humanitarian and during their terms in office. Charlotte political sides of their work, so Despard was seventy-three when obviously they did not always agree she went to Hungary for SCF. Sara with each other. SCF work entailed Bloomfield was sixty-one in 1921, making connections with committee when she travelled to Hungary, and women around the country and the was still active in the SCF when she world. In this regard, the SCF died in 1940. Nina Boyle died in brought women together by personal 1943 at the age of seventy-eight. choice around issues intended to Dorothy Buxton, who never retired improve their lives. Vera Brittain from the political side of relief work, wrote that when a militant suffragette kept her honorary place on the was asked why so few who had council until her death in 1963 aged fought for the vote stood for election eighty-two. Surviving SCF committee in 1918, she replied: minutes, field reports and ‘confidential’ correspondence reveal ... quite simply that they were all too that intimate bonds existed between tired. Hunger strikes, tension, many SCF women. They used persistent work, and physical personal names, inquired about onslaughts had left many family, stayed at each other’s flats Suffragettes with impaired health and shared travel expenses and and diminished energy. They felt that advice on heath cures. In their the next stage in the journey ... must efforts to ‘Save the Children,’ SCF be carried on by women with fresh women became what Eglantyne vitality (Brittain, 1963, 84). Jebb described as ‘international sisters’. Can this be said of the key veteran suffragists and philanthropists who in References their semi-retirements resided around London and held SCF Alberti, Johanna (1989), Beyond council positions? Their biographies Suffrage, London. indicate that most were middle-aged Feminist s, politics and children s charity: the formation of the Save the Children Fund87
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Blunt, Wilfrid (1962), Lady Muriel, Friends’ Emergency and War London. Victims Relief Committee, General Committee Report, 4 November Brittain, Vera (1963), Pethick- 1919. Lawrence: a portrait, London. Hanbury, Violet (10 October 1919), Buxton, Dorothy (8 May 1919), Letter to Charles Buxton, Jebb Memorandum to Delegates of Family Papers, private collection. Women’s International Committee in Zurich, London: SCF. Haslam, Beryl (1999), From suffrage to internationalism, New York: Peter Buxton, Dorothy (11 May 1919), Lang. Fight the Famine Council, London: SCF. Jebb, Eglantyne (May 1919), Letter to Eglantyne Louisa Jebb, Jebb Buxton, Eglantyne (1965), Family Papers, private collection. Miscellaneous Notes on Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy F. Buxton, Jebb, Eglantyne, (19 May 1921), London: SCF. Letter to Lady Blomfield, Jebb Family Papers, private collection. Buxton, Dorothy, and Fuller, Edward (1931), The White Flame, London. Jebb, Eglantyne (24 October 1920), Letter to Lady Blomfield, Jebb Cambridge Charity Organization Family Papers, private collection. Society, Annual Reports, 1904, 1905, Cambridge County Record Jebb, Eglantyne (1928), Save the Office. Children Fund, Jebb Papers, London: SCF. Cambridge Ladies Discussion Society, Sub-Committee Minutes, Jones, Helen (2000), Women in 1906-9, Cambridge County Record British public life 1914-50, London. Office. Koven, Seth, and Michel, Sonya V olunt ary Action Volume 5 Number 1 Winter 2002 88
(eds) (1993), Mothers of a new Save the Children Fund, Annual world, New York. Reports1919-25, London: SCF.
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Mulvihill, Margaret (1989), Charlotte Skidelsky, Robert (1983), John Despard: a biography, London. Maynard Keynes, vol 1: Hopes National Labour Press (1919), A betrayed 1883-1920, London. starving baby, London. Swanwick, H M (1935), I have been Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline (1938), young, London. My part in the changing world, London. Vajaki, Julie Eva (26 April 1921), Letter to Eglantyne Jebb, London: Picton-Turbervill, Edith (1939), Life is SCF. good: an autobiography, London. Vajkai, Julie Eva (19 May 1922), Letter to Eglantyne Jebb, London: Prochaska, F (1980), Women and SCF. philanthropy in nineteenth-century England, Oxford. Willcocks, M P (5 Dec 1919), Letter to Dorothy Buxton, Jebb Family Pye, Edith (circa 1919), Letter to Papers, private collection. Eglantyne Jebb, Jebb Family Papers, private collection. Wilson, Francesca (1967), Rebel daughter in country house, London. Record of the Save the Children Fund, 1919-20 The World’s Children, 1921-23.
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