Feminism and Voluntary Action Also by Linda Mahood SOCIAL CONTROL IN CANADA: ISSUES IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF DEVIANCE (edited with Bernard Schissel) POLICING GENDER, CLASS AND FAMILY: BRITAIN, 1850–1932 THE MAGDALENES: PROSTITUTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Feminism and Voluntary Action Eglantyne Jebb and Save the Children, 1876–1928 Linda Mahood Associate Professor of History, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Linda Mahood 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-52560-3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. 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A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10987654321 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 For two Rebel Daughters: My mother Pat Kingery and my daughter Lucy Satzewich This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements x List of Abbreviations xii Prologue: No Silk-Blouse Social Worker 1 Chapter 1: The Lady Bountiful and the Country Squire: 13 Lessons in Life, Love and Woodcarving Chapter 2: Raising Rebel Daughters: Lessons for Lives of 34 Social Action Chapter 3: Educating Eglantyne: The Young Lady of 56 Lady Margaret Hall Chapter 4: Ribbons and Trumpets: Toils and Troubles 73 at Teachers College Chapter 5: ‘Hewing out my Future in Defiance to my 88 Friends’: The Life and Times of a Gentlewoman School Mistress Chapter 6: Matchmaking Matrons and the Misread Maidens 105 of the Cambridge Charity Organization Society Chapter 7: Honour thy Mother: Duty vs ‘Free Unsheltered 121 Life Fraught with Pitfalls and Danger’ Chapter 8: The Sisters and Social Action 142 Chapter 9: ‘A Perfect Jungle of Intrigues, Suspicion and 166 Hypocrisies’: The Early Save the Children Fund in Time of Crisis Chapter 10: ‘Internationalization’ of Charity in Peacetime: 185 Declaring the Rights of the Child Epilogue: The Legacy of a Rebel Daughter and Early Save the 206 Children Women vii viii Contents Appendix 1: Women Founders of the Save the Children 217 Fund: General Council members (1920–1939) Notes 219 Bibliography 272 Index 280 List of Illustrations 1.1 The Jebb Family 14 2.1 Eglantyne Jebb 35 2.2 Jebb children with mother 42 2.3 Jebb children with Gilmores and Louisa Jebb 49 3.1 Eglantyne at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford 57 4.1 Eglantyne at Stockwell Teachers College 74 5.1 Eglantyne with mother 89 6.1 Eglantyne at Charity Organization Society 106 7.1 Margaret Keynes and Eglantyne 122 8.1 Mansion House Court, evidence for the prosecution 143 8.2 Charles and Dorothy Buxton 145 8.3 Early Save the Children leaflet 162 9.1 Eglantyne and Russian Famine Delegation 167 10.1 Eglantyne with Save the Children 186 ix Acknowledgements In the preparation of this manuscript I have had the privilege of meeting many fascinating and dedicated people and the advantage of researching and writing in many invigorating places in Europe and North America. This book would never have been written without the encourage- ment from members of Eglantyne Jebb’s family. Lionel and Corinna Jebb allowed me to use family papers and showed great patience and hospital- ity whenever I flew across the Atlantic by permitting me to work in the beautiful rooms on the estate where Eglantyne grew up. Ben Buxton gen- erously copied Buxton family papers and arranged for me to interview his father, the late David Buxton who shared with me memories of his aunt Eglantyne and his parents, Charles and Dorothy Buxton. Sadly, I never met the person who remembered Eglantyne the best, her niece, the late Eglantyne Roden Buxton. Her devotion to her aunt and fervent insistence that this story is told correctly has steered my research. The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of Guelph have generously funded this research. I cannot thank warmly enough two former Save the Children archivists of the 1990s, Rodney Breen and Susan Snedden. They provided me with piles of photocopies, a private screening of George Mews’ films, insight into the modern Save the Children and access to the kettle. Archivists and librarians of the following collections must also be mentioned: Friend’s House (London), National Council of Women (Metropolitan Archive, London), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (London School of Economics, London), Keynes family papers (British Library, London), Scottish Women’s Hospitals (Mitchell Library, Glasgow), Cambridge Ladies Discussion Society and Cambridge Charity Organization Society (Municipal Archive, Cambridge), Save the Children International Union (Archives d’Etat, Geneva), Lady Caroline Jebb papers (Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Massachusetts), Charles Kay Ogden papers (McMaster University, Ontario). Research papers have been presented at academic conferences in Liverpool, Birmingham, Glamorgan, Amherst, Marquette, Saskatoon and the International Institute of Sociology in Krakow. Papers have also been presented in community halls where many self-identified Save the Children volunteers have shared the ethos of volun- teering. Material in this books appears in abridged forms in, Women’s History Review, 17:1 (February 2008), pp. 1–20, Voluntary Action, 5 (2002), x Acknowledgements xi pp. 71–88, History of Education, 35:3 (May 2006), pp. 349–371 and Journal of Historical Sociology, 22:1 (March 2009), pp. 55–83. Thanks must be given for permission to use photographs and quotes from Jebb and Buxton family papers and Lady Caroline Lane Reynolds Jebb Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College. Every attempt has been made to contact other copyright holders and I apologize if copyright material has inadvertently been used. Many associates, colleagues and friends have helped me in different ways. Professors Barbara Littlewood, Kevin James and James Snell read and commented on early drafts of the manuscript. Jacqueline Murray’s assistance with Chapter 7 was invaluable. Vic Satzewich read and dis- cussed many drafts of this manuscript and collaborated on the Russian famine. For contributions of various other kinds, I am grateful to Pro- fessors Dominique Marshall, David Smith, Pat Starkey, June Purvis, Terry Crowley, Donna Andrew, Bill Cormack, Sofie Lachapelle and Catherine Carstairs. Alix Sutton-Lalani and Freya Goddard provided copyediting assistance. Longtime Guelph SCF volunteer, Pat McCraw has helped my students and me. Katrina Vukovic and Bonnie Sawyer were excellent research assistants. Graduate students, Paulette Gehl and Meghan Cameron worked on the Canadian Save the Children Fund. Lucy Satzewich assisted with the transcription of the ‘Boots Scribbling Diary’ and helped me to unravel its complexities. Dorothy Emslie, MD, FCFP has shared her medical expertise concerning Eglantyne’s medical history and with Briar Long, MD, FRCP(C) inter- preted the ‘Conversations with a Departed Friend’. No doubt mistakes due to jet lag, deteriorating documents and misjudgements have crept in. I hope that they are few and I take full responsibility for them. For over a decade of terms and vacations, tryouts and triumphs, Anne Kennedy, Janet Diebel, Dorothy Emslie, Sue Perry and for much longer my sisters, Beth Berquist and Lori Bossen have constituted a sphere of friendship and a supportive source of love and laughter. My final thanks go to Jack: this book would not exist without your ardent insistence that I neglect you, your Huskie sweats and all that juice service. You will join me in dedicating it to Lucy who inspires us all. Now Vic: and then there were two… List of Abbreviations AOS Agricultural Organization Society COS Charity Organizations Society CLDS Cambridge Ladies Discussion Society FFC Fight the Famine Council HAIA Home Arts and Industries Association ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross ICW International Council of Women LMH Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University LN League of Nations MRF Macedonian Relief Fund NCW National Council of Women NCWGB National Council of Women of Great Britain SCF Save the Children Fund SCIU Save the Children International Union SWH Scottish Women’s Hospitals WILPF Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom xii Prologue: No Silk-Blouse Social Worker Perhaps it is a consciousness of the co-operation of Fate, which gives one an instinct about one’s destiny. More probably, not at all…1 ‘I’ve never cared for my work here,’ confessed a distraught young set- tlement worker.