While Marjory Allen spearheaded the campaign which established local authority Children's Departments, Barbara Kahan was actually one of the children's officers who successfully organised them. John Stroud spread understanding of the ‘new’ child care to the public, and Clare Winnicott was the leading figure who trained staff for the child care service. Clare wrote just one book and very few articles. Even within these, she says little about herself. There is no published biography about her. Yet she was a charismatic person who made a strong impact on those who met her, and I was one of them. It has taken an American academic, Dr Joel Kanter, to gather material about Clare. He has not, as yet, published his book on Clare, yet he has most generously allowed me to see and to use his manuscript. Dr Kanter gives particular attention to Clare's interest in psychoanalysis and her editing of her husband's writings, whereas I will concentrate on her child care career. I wish to acknowledge that my account of Clare's early life relies very heavily on my conversations with Dr Kanter and on his draft manuscript (Kanter, undated).

A Baptist background

Elsie Clare Nimmo Britton (referred to hence as Clare) was born in Scarborough on 30 September 1906. Her father, James Nimmo Britton, a Glaswegian working man, had converted to the Baptist faith and he later became a minister. After two successful ministries in Lincolnshire, he and his wife, Elsie Clare, moved to Scarborough in 1903. By 1912, the family were living in Clapham, London, where the energetic Reverend Britton soon doubled the size of the congregation. Later they moved to Southendon- Sea to Avenue Baptist Church, which was considered one of the leading Baptist churches in Britain.

James Britton's first sermon at his new church was based on Dr Livingstone's famous words, “Anywhere so long as it is forward”. He put the saying into practice and became a well-known and popular minister in the town and beyond. He preached for conversions and the membership and the activities of the church multiplied. But his evangelism was not of the kind that made the congragation into a ‘holy huddle’, separated from other people.