IMPERIAL VOLUNTEERING: WOMEN AND WELFARE IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH EMPIRE By Deanne Gabrielle van Tol A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in History in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada August 2015 Copyright © Deanne Gabrielle van Tol, 2015 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the rhetoric and practice of voluntary welfare work by British women within the twentieth-century British Empire. Voluntarism was an important component of the attention to colonial welfare and development that was a dominant theme of the ideology and practice of the last decades of the British Empire. Debated and defined during the 1930s, programs to enact welfare and development were implemented after the Second World War as part of a revived empire during the 1950s. These programs remained integral to post-colonial relationships after the rapid dismantling of empire in the 1960s. Examining the welfare component of twentieth-century imperial aspirations, this study follows the informal practitioners of colonial welfare—the British women residing in empire who through voluntary work contributed to both defining and delivering colonial welfare—considering the intersection of individual lives and imperial responsibilities. This study offers a comparative and trans-imperial account of individual women engaged in voluntary efforts alongside a closer analysis of the rhetoric and reality of voluntarism in colonial Kenya. White women residing in the colonies contributed voluntarily to the provision of colonial health, education, and social services after the First World War: their efforts were both part of everyday life and entwined in the imperial politics of welfare, gender, and race. The phenomenon of imperial voluntarism represented continuity in the ideas and activities of white women on the colonial frontier, yet imperial voluntarism also represented change within the context of the particular conditions of twentieth-century empire. Chapters engage with themes of voluntary work and daily life, the politics of voluntary work, the relevance of voluntarism within an emerging post-war colonial welfare state, and the entanglement of imperial volunteers within the violence and political processes of decolonization. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I was advised to open an acknowledgements file early on in graduate school as a way to spare myself some anxiety during the last frantic days before thesis submission. This turned out to be advice well-taken, and it has been an incredibly humbling experience to watch the list grow long over the years of this project. Each stage of planning, research, and writing this thesis was made possible, and possibly even enjoyable, because of the community surrounding me. My first thanks is owed to my supervisors, Sandra den Otter and Robert Shenton, for their intellectual direction and kind encouragement throughout this process. Bob’s insight was essential, especially during the planning stages. Sandra patiently read and commented on multiple drafts, and it would have been impossible to complete this project without her thoughtful mentorship. David Anderson and Sarah Stockwell willingly took me on as a visiting student, and were generous with their time and advice. I owe a long-standing debt to Jim Alsop, who was the first to suggest that questions could be more interesting than answers, and who continues to ask questions about my work. I am grateful to Maureen Malowany for initially proposing this topic, and even more for providing long-distance support from Montreal, London, and Jerusalem. A long list of individuals shaped this project in critical ways by answering questions, sharing source material, and pointing me in helpful and at times unexpected directions. In particular I wish to thank Vivian Bickford-Smith, Amitava Chowdury, Elizabeth Elbourne, Marc Epprecht, Kirsten Greer, Mike Jennings, John Lonsdale, David Lyon, Ishita Pande, and Brett Shadle. Colleagues and friends at Queen’s and beyond shared coffee, conferences, and chapters, making this process worthwhile. Thanks to Lise Butler, Jessica Cammaert, Mary Caesar, Georgia Carley, Marie-Luise Ermisch, Casey Hurrell, Hilary Ingram, Dinah Jansen, Kristen Keerma, ii Peter Price, Jawad Quershy, Reeju Ray, Virginia Vandenberg, and Sarah Waurechen. Special thanks to Mary Chaktsiris and Zozan Pehlivan, who were there through it all. My research travels were enabled by the incredible kindness of the many individuals in London, Oxford, and Nairobi who offered me hospitality, friendship, and advice. In particular, Emel Pehlivan, Siprose Rabach, and Jesseke Smelt-Kruiger made me at home while I was away from home. This project would have been impossible without the generosity of the members and staff of the East Africa Women’s League. I wish to thank Maggie Grey for arranging everything, Everett and Lulu for smoothing my days in the archive room, and Jeanette Chubb, Margaret Howard, Ann Palmer, Betty Round-Turner, and June Shaw for sharing their stories with me. The opportunity to conduct research in the UK and Kenya was made financially possible through a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship and Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement; a Mellon Pre-Dissertation Fellowship for Research in the Humanities from the Institute of Historical Research; and a Timothy C.S. Franks Research Travel Fund Award from Queen’s University. I am grateful for the friends and family who kept up with me over the course of this project, who bravely and patiently asked questions about it, and who made sure I had a life outside of research and writing. Thanks to Annemieke, Amanda, Elaine, Jan, Kristen, Kaelyn, Lee-Ann, Luanne, Lynn, and Meghan. A very special thanks to Amos and Phoebe Cohoe, and all the regulars at the Nelson Street stronghold, for making Kingston home. My heartfelt thanks to my family, especially my parents, for their love and support expressed in so many different ways over the years. It is my good fortune to have such a large family, and their misfortune that there are too many of them to name individually here! Finally, my unending thanks to Gwen, for being the best possible distraction, and to Mike, for making cheery happen. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….. i Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………... ii CHAPTER 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Imperial voluntarism ................................................................................................................... 5 Colonial welfare .......................................................................................................................... 8 Gender and citizenship .............................................................................................................. 14 Race relations ............................................................................................................................ 20 Methodology and sources ......................................................................................................... 28 Summary of chapters ................................................................................................................ 34 CHAPTER 2: The Heart of a Stranger: Volunteering and Daily Life on the Colonial Frontier .. 36 Imperial careering and daily life in the colonies ....................................................................... 42 “Adventures with local good works”: The voluntary activities of white women in empire ..... 53 The perceived significance and contribution of women’s voluntary work ............................... 61 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 69 CHAPTER 3: The Women of Kenya Speak: Settler Colonialism and the Politics of Voluntary Work ............................................................................................................................................. 71 White women and settler politics in Kenya .............................................................................. 77 The EAWL and the politics of imperial welfare ....................................................................... 91 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 102 CHAPTER 4: “This personal touch which can achieve so much”: The Voluntary Sector in the Colonial Welfare State, 1945-55 ................................................................................................. 105 Debating definitions of colonial welfare and development .................................................... 114 The power of human relationship in colonial welfare and development ................................ 121 Cooperation for welfare in Kenya ........................................................................................... 132 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 145 CHAPTER 5: Business as Usual: Women, Welfare, and Imperial Violence ............................. 147 The EAWL and the construction of Mau Mau mythology ..................................................... 151 Volunteering in Britain’s Gulag in Kenya .............................................................................. 160 iv White crime in Kenya: