As Chapter One describes, Eleanor Rathbone was instrumental in the establishment of family allowances, which eventually benefited all children in the United Kingdom. Marjory Allen, on the other hand, became known for her concern with the substantial minority of children who were separated from their own parents.

Eleanor Rathbone was born into wealth and what is often called ‘the establishment’. She went to Oxford, had the money and the time to devote herself to social causes, and had the connections to ensure election as an MP. She did not marry, resisting social pressure to rely on an emotional relationship with a man. By contrast, Marjory Allen (née Gill) had a less privileged and more unusual background and enjoyed a lasting marriage. Both made significant contributions to major pieces of child care legislation in the 1940s.

Marjory was born on 10 May 1897. Her parents were educated, cultured people but with a strong sense of independence that made them the ‘hippies’ of their day. Her mother, Sala Gill, literally threw away her corsets when she threw herself into the movement for women's rights. Her father, Georgie Gill, was a rate collector for the Kent Waterworks Company who organised his colleagues into a guild in order to negotiate with their employers. One outcome was improved pension rights for the collectors, which Georgie promptly benefited from by taking early retirement. The Gills then raised their five children on this modest pension, which was supplemented by growing their own vegetables and fruit.

Unusually for the time, Sala and Georgie did not send their children to Sunday School. In fact they did not bother too much about sending Marjory to school, claiming that they could educate her at home. They were both artistic, and Georgie's cousin was Eric Gill, the well-known sculptor. On hearing about a new progressive and mixed boarding school called Bedales, Marjory's parents sent her there, at the age of 13.

Bedales

Bedales, which included a number of children from radical parents, was a culture shock for a young girl who had never even turned on an electric light. However, she soon proved that she was no pushover by tackling a female bully. Paradoxically, the young woman who was to be an ardent pacifist made her mark in a fight.