Emily Hobhouse … it is time I set out a brief overview of this
amazing woman, who worked for the displaced women and children in the 2nd
Boer War (1899 – 1902), attempted to broker peace during World War One, and
helped found the Save the Children Fund.
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| Emily Hobhouse |
Emily’s great niece, Jennifer Hobhouse Balme, was left a
trunkful of Emily’s papers, which she has been converting into three books, which
let us have a better overview of Emily’s life’s work … which has been forgotten
here, but not in South Africa where she is revered.
I shall follow the four periods of Emily’s life:
- her early life;
- her introduction to and involvement with South Africa;
- her wish for peace in World War One;
- her final years, where she still influenced and affected those who knew her, then and today.
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| The Chantry garden - it was recently on sale |
Emily was born in The Chantry, St Ive, outside Liskeard in
Cornwall, to the Rector and his wife – both-well connected. The house was full of laughter and gaiety
while her mother was alive, but she died when Emily was 20 and her father ‘closed down’ in Victorian fashion.
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| Liskeard at the south end of Bodmin Moor |
She assisted her father with his parish work (St Ive,
pronounced Eve, was the centre of a thriving mining district) and looked after
him until his death in 1895.
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| The Rectory (Chantry) from the drive |
She longed
for an education … and envied her brothers … though she picked up what she could
from the family visits of relatives – many of whom were of high intellect –
ecumenical members, peers, journalists, members of parliament …
… and it was during these early years she developed her social
conscience, learnt as much as she could locally, on an international scale and
about history, politics and empire.
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| Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1910) |
Her favourite brother – younger by four years – Leonard, was
an atheist from an early age, despite his father being an Anglican Priest for
over 50 years.
Leonard, after
graduating, had a stint at the Manchester Guardian and as secretary of a trade
union.
He was a peace activist and proponent of social liberalism,
while their second cousin, Stephen Henry Hobhouse (1881 – 1961), was an important
British peace activist who had been influenced by Emily’s findings on the
‘concentration camps’ for the Boer Women and Children in South Africa.
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| Virginia, Minnesota ( the Iron Mine at Rouchleau) |
A short time after her father’s death, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s
wife organised for Emily to take on some missionary work in a mining district
in Virginia, Minnesota; she also started a Temperance Society and a Public
Reading Room Service.
While there her naïve personal relations were exposed, she
became engaged to a man of questionable character, persuaded to purchase a
ranch in Mexico – and then waited … her fiancé never matched her expectations,
funds were running low, and she felt forced to break off her engagement,
returning to Britain broken in heart, as well as very dispirited.
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| Leonard and Catherine Courtney 1916 |
On her return in 1899 she worked with a small group who were
speaking out against the Boer War … and joined the South African Conciliation
Committee, which had been set up by Catherine Courtney, wife of Leonard
Courtney – the Liberal Member of Parliament for Bodmin and Liskeard – where
Emily learnt about the plight of hundreds of Boer women and children who had
been left impoverished and ragged by our military operations.
Emily founded the Distress Fund for South African Women and
children, raised some funds and sailed for the Cape Colony in 1900 to supervise
the Fund’s distribution.
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| Boer War 'concentration camp' outside Bloemfontein, 1902 |
When she left England she knew of one ‘concentration camp’ at
Port Elizabeth … but on arrival found many others, 44 in total … eventually
there would be 64 of these tented camps.
During the Boer War and her travels to South Africa Emily
became a thorn in the flesh of the British Government at a time when women were
asserting their rights at home.
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| Boers at Spioenkop in 1900 (it is now a National Wildlife Reserve - and includes a memorial and information site on the battle fields) |
The British had declared war on the Boer Republics, The Free
State and the Transvaal, to convert them to British colonies, which would
eventually become the Union of South Africa, but in the meantime would keep the
benefit of the Witwatersrand gold mines within the British Empire.
The Boers were winning the skirmishes, so the British moved to
take away their supply mechanism – i.e. their farmsteads, stock and importantly
their women and children.
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| An Afrikaaner woman with her children in a camp |
Unfortunately
the policies of “scorched earth” and civilian internment in ‘concentration
camps’ were the order of the day: the camps were originally called “burgher” or
“refugee” camps (a burgher is a farmer or citizen).
Emily found the conditions appalling – supplies and rations
had to be ordered two weeks in advance ... but how many people would, by then, be
in the camps … the distribution was via a single track railway with the
military demands coming first … the request for fresh water, extra food,
blankets, medicines came second.
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| Spioen Kop on the edge of the eastern Free State |
On her return home Emily invested a great deal of time and
energy lobbying, writing letters, detailing reports … exposing the conditions
and inhumane treatment of women and children.
She was one of those quietly determined to expose the
internment camps and to tell the British government and public about the
“Scorched Earth” policy.
She was not a
politician, but her instincts were right ... and she lobbied everywhere she was
able to get her voice out.
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| President Martinhuys Steyn of the Free State |
The Boer generals had capitulated after realising how
appallingly their women and children were being treated … Emily admired the
Boers for taking this action.
Her sympathies were appreciated by many in Britain, but she
had trouble getting acknowledgement from the Government … the picture of apathy
and impatience displayed at home, contrasted sadly with scenes of misery in
South Africa.
She often returned to South Africa during those early years of
the 1900s … usually under her own auspices and was thwarted on occasions by
both Governments … but once the War was over she returned to South Africa and …
then saw that her mission was to assist in healing the wounds inflicted by the
war and to support the efforts aimed at rehabilitation and reconciliation.
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| Gandhi spinning - perhaps he learnt from Emily how to spin ... as they met on occasion when he was still in South Africa (though he's in India here) |
She set up a home industry system teaching the Afrikaner women
and girls – lace making, spinning and weaving … she raised funds to alleviate
the outcome of the War.
She suffered from ill health for 20 years from those early
years in the 1900s until her death … but she was indomitable in her spirit ...
and she travelled far and wide.
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| The sculpture on the Monument dedicated to Women and Children in Bloemfontein |
As a result the Boers came to revere Hobhouse as an Angel of
Mercy … a Monument dedicated to the Women and Children (the first of its kind
to women and children) was built in Bloemfontein and for the unveiling in 1913
Emily was invited back to South Africa to unveil it and give a talk.
She travelled to South Africa, but could not
complete the journey north from Beaufort West … Mrs Tibbie Steyn, the Free
State President’s wife, read it for her.
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| The populace gathered to hear Emily's address in 1913 |
A hundred years later (2013) another Service of Remembrance
was held at the monument to remember the suffering, but also to remember
Emily’s contribution to South Africa.
There will be a book coming out via the Afrikaner Media Group auspices
of ‘Naspers’.
The First World also cast a dark shadow over her life. Wherever she could she raised her voice in
protest against the War.
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| The German Reich 1871 - 1918 |
She travelled
throughout Europe … lobbying and finding supporters on both sides of the affray
– those in Britain, as well as those in Germany … Holland, Belgium,
Switzerland, Austria and France … she had learnt much and could outwit most
politicians and government officials by moving around or persuading others to
help her with her approach.
She wrote at the end of 1914 an "Open Christmas Letter" as a
public message for PEACE addressed to the “Women of Germany and Austria”,
signed by a group of 101 British women suffragists.
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| Jennifer Hobhouse Balme's book on Emily during the First World War: this is an excellent read |
The Christmas Letter was written in acknowledgement of the
mounting horror of modern war and as a direct response to letters written to
American feminist, Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the International
Woman Suffrage Alliance, by a small group of German women’s rights activists.
She was in Germany in 1916 … lobbying to broker Peace – the
Germans had agreed to a meeting, the British would not.
Her four objectives on her return to England in 1916 re the
War were:
First get peace talks moving so as to avoid further bloodshed;
Second to obtain the release of civilian internees on foreign
soil;
Third to get better food and supplies to the people of
Belgium; and
Fourth to discuss the food position in Germany.
Her Boer War reputation had brought her many friends in high
places, but also many enemies who (although she had been proved right) had not
forgotten what they considered as slights against the integrity of their
government.
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| Mrs Tibbie Steyn |
When at the conclusion of the war, she again heard – this time
from central Europe – the cry of distress coming from starving women and
children, she once again devoted herself to bringing relief to the destitute.
Through her actions, tens of thousands of women and children
were fed daily for more than a year.
Mindful of their own past, South Africa also contributed liberally to
this effort. Mrs President (Tibbie) Steyn
sent over more than £17,000 to Emily for this purpose.
Emily’s fervent interest in humanity and the struggle for
truth and justice continued unabated. The first meeting of "The Fight the Famine Council" - the precursor to Save the Children - was held at Catherine Courtney's home in 1919
Her own actions and motives had been misinterpreted by her own
nation during the Anglo-Boer War … and were a bitter pill to her right to the
end of her life …
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| National Women's Monument - Bloemfontein |
… but she was held in high esteem and loved by the South
African nation and this certainly helped her thoughts. Without her knowledge and on the initiative
of Mrs Steyn a sum of £2,300 was collected and sent to her with the explicit
mandate that she find herself a small home on the coast in Cornwall.
Her finances had been impoverished, so now at least she could
buy herself a house, which she did in St Ives, west Cornwall, next to the Porthminster Hotel –
it is incorporated into the hotel now.
She realised she was near her end … and in her last letter she
wrote that her soul was full of the music of the Cornish songs she learnt in
her youth.
She was recognised in death and her ashes found a final
resting place in a niche at the Women’s Memorial in Bloemfontein.
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| Mahatama Gandhi 1909 |
She was loved by the people of South Africa and admired by
those like Mahatma Gandhi, who asked for her help. As well as the lobbyist and welfare activist
she had become, she wrote books, loved to paint, and was an entertainer …
David Nash, Professor of History, argued in 1999 that (Emily’s)opposition to the Second Boer War began the tradition of peace politics that
has flourished through the twentieth century …
Jenny has written her books from
Emily’s papers in order to offer the British public the information in the
interests of truth.
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| 20,000 mourners lined the streets of Bloemfontein when Emily's ashes were interred in the monument |
I know this post is not that short … but please read and appreciate the social history as
well as history I set out here.
More can
be found in Jenny’s books … particularly “Agent of Peace” ... where you will appreciate more about the First World War and those times in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium etc ...
PS - I'm stressed ... I can't seem to get rid of the white - so 'give up'! apologies .. it looks messy - and I don't like that. I've corrected it as far as you, as readers, can see.
This is the link to Amazon for the "Agent of Peace" book - as shown above ...
This is the link to Amazon for the "Agent of Peace" book - as shown above ...
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
