Abstract
In this chapter Davis Smith explores the factors leading to the formation of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) in 1919. He examines the three main voluntary organisations active at the turn of the twentieth century—the Charity Organisation Society, Guild of Help, and Council of Social Welfare—and the pressures leading to greater collaboration. He argues that it was forces unleashed by the First World War that finally persuaded them to put their differences to one side in pursuit of greater unity. The establishment of the Council is told with reference to the key men and women active in the voluntary movement at this time, such as Edward Birchall, Percy Grundy, Frederic D’Aeth, Thomas Hancock Nunn, and Dorothy Keeling.
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Notes
- 1.
Manchester Guardian, 29 March 1919, p. 10; Daily Herald, 12 May 1919.
- 2.
- 3.
Quoted in Harrison, 2003, p. 82.
- 4.
Quoted in Brasnett, 1969, p. 2.
- 5.
Ibid., pp. 2–4. On the Agenda and Cavendish clubs, see the prologue. The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, also known as the Social Science Association, was founded by Lord Brougham to advance public health, industrial relations, penal reform, and female education. It closed in 1886. See Goldman, 2002.
- 6.
On the British Institute of Social Service, see Harris, 1992, p. 121.
- 7.
Brasnett, 1969, pp. 27–28.
- 8.
See, for example, Grant, 2014.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
Adderley, 2015, p. 21.
- 12.
The contribution made by these individuals to the establishment of the Council is discussed below.
- 13.
For a range of views on the COS and its work, see Finlayson, 1994, pp. 141–3.
- 14.
On the history of the guilds, see Laybourn, 1994.
- 15.
On the philosophy of the COS, see Lewis, 1995.
- 16.
Finlayson, 1994, pp. 141–3. McBriar, 1987, p. 369, says that the COS later amended their construct of the deserving and undeserving poor to ‘helpable’ and ‘unhelpable’ in face of criticism that they were putting the blame on the victims rather than looking at what character traits would help them escape their situation. Samuel and Henrietta Barnett are perhaps best known for their role in establishing the first university settlement at Toynbee Hall in the east end of London in 1884 and Hampstead Garden Suburb in the early twentieth century.
- 17.
Lewis, 1996, p. 172.
- 18.
- 19.
On the establishment of the Bradford Guild, see Cahill and Jowitt, 1980.
- 20.
- 21.
Laybourn, 1994, p. 1.
- 22.
Ibid., p. 49. See also Laybourn, 1993, pp. 54–58.
- 23.
Laybourn, 1994, p. 6.
- 24.
Ibid., p. vii.
- 25.
Ibid., p. 73.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Ibid., pp. 73–74.
- 28.
Ibid., p. 20.
- 29.
Keeling’s contribution to the Council is discussed more fully in Chap. 5.
- 30.
Adderley, 2015, p. 49.
- 31.
On the Council of Social Welfare movement, see Lewis, 1996.
- 32.
- 33.
Nunn, 1909.
- 34.
Moore, 1977, pp. 98–99.
- 35.
On the life and work of Nunn, see Anonymous, 1942.
- 36.
Laybourn, 1994, p. 22.
- 37.
Macadam, 1934.
- 38.
Lewis, 1996, p. 173. The 1911 Act, part of the wider social welfare reforms of the Liberal government, 1906–15, introduced two independent contributory schemes of health and unemployment insurance.
- 39.
The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress, 1905–09, established to advise on changes to the poor law, produced two conflicting reports, known as the Majority and Minority reports. Beatrice Webb, 1858–1943, a socialist, academic, and social reformer, is perhaps best known for her work in founding the Fabian Society and the London School of Economics.
- 40.
Lewis, 1996, p. 174.
- 41.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 9.
- 42.
Quoted in Brasnett, 1969, p. 11.
- 43.
Grundy, 1913, p. 10.
- 44.
Ibid., p. 18.
- 45.
See the conclusion for a discussion of this issue.
- 46.
National Association of Guilds of Help, 1913, p. 60.
- 47.
The Helper, Bolton Guild, Vol. 7, no. 3, March 1913, pp. 33–8, quoted in Laybourn, 1994, p. 195. Charles Loch, 1849–1923, was secretary of the COS from 1875 to 1914. According to one obituary, ‘He made the COS; he was the COS’, The Times, 25 January 1923, p. 13.
- 48.
D’Aeth, 1914, p. 404.
- 49.
Ibid., pp. 405–7.
- 50.
Ibid., pp. 407–8.
- 51.
Ibid., p. 414.
- 52.
Ibid., p. 414.
- 53.
Laybourn, 1994, p. 25.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
- 56.
Grant, 2014, p. 18.
- 57.
For example, Stevenson, 1984, p. 58.
- 58.
For example, Thane, 2012.
- 59.
- 60.
Quoted in Grant, 2014, p. 23.
- 61.
On the Prince’s call to service in 1932, see Chap. 4.
- 62.
Laybourn, 1994, p. 127.
- 63.
Ibid., p. 127.
- 64.
Ibid., pp. 135–7.
- 65.
See Grant, 2014, for a detailed analysis of the role played by Ward during the war.
- 66.
- 67.
- 68.
Conference on war relief and personal service, 1915, p. 107.
- 69.
Ibid., p. 107.
- 70.
Ibid., pp. 114–5.
- 71.
Ibid., p. 116.
- 72.
Ibid., p. 151.
- 73.
For a summary of the work of the committee, see A scheme for central and local committees on social service, paper presented to the COS Council, 4 February 1918. Charity Organisation/Family Welfare Association Archives; London Metropolitan Archives (LMA): LMA/A/FWA/C/A/01/016.
- 74.
Brief biographies of these key figures are given below.
- 75.
Reported in Help, the Journal of the Bradford Guild, Vol. 12, no. 1, November 1916; quoted in Laybourn, 1994, p. 149.
- 76.
Moore, 1977, p. 103.
- 77.
See Draft constitution of Joint Committee on Social Service, paper discussed by the COS Administrative Committee, 17 January 1918. Charity Organisation Society/Family Welfare Association Archives; LMA/A/FWA/C/A3/53/1.
- 78.
Ibid.
- 79.
Moore 1977, p. 104. David Thomas, First Viscount Rhondda, 1856–1918, was a Liberal politician and businessman who served in Lloyd George’s wartime Coalition government. He became president of the Board of Trade in 1916.
- 80.
See The place of organisation in voluntary effort in the future, paper discussed by the COS administrative committee, 25 July 1918. Charity Organisation Society/Family Welfare Association Archives; LMA/A/FWA/C/A3/53/1.
- 81.
On the establishment of the Volunteer Centre in 1973, see Chap. 7.
- 82.
Rooff, 1972, p. 118.
- 83.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 17.
- 84.
Ibid., p. 1.
- 85.
Adderley, 2015, pp. 64–65.
- 86.
Anonymous, 1942, p. 173.
- 87.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 22.
- 88.
For a good review of the life and work of Grundy, see Sephton, 2009. For a tribute to Grundy by W.G.S. Adams, see The Village, Vol. 35, Spring 1943, p. 2.
- 89.
On the life and times of D’Aeth, see Simey, 2005.
- 90.
Poole, 1961, pp. 156–159.
- 91.
- 92.
- 93.
For a tribute to Pringle, see Astbury, 1963.
- 94.
The London COS also decided to remain outside the new Council. See Humphreys, 2001, p. 143.
- 95.
Finlayson, 1994, p. 246.
- 96.
Humphreys, 2001, p. 143.
- 97.
On Ellis, see Chap. 3.
- 98.
See Keeling, 1961.
- 99.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 2.
- 100.
- 101.
Ellis, 1931.
- 102.
Symonds was knighted in 1919 and died in 1931. ‘Sir Aubrey Symonds’ The Times, 25 March 1931, p. 16.
- 103.
The Times, 7 February 1950, p. 9.
- 104.
Ibid.
- 105.
NCSS, 1919.
- 106.
Grant, 2014, p. 172.
- 107.
Phillips, 1995, p. 140.
- 108.
Lowe, 1995a, p. 42.
- 109.
Kidd, 1999, p. 108.
- 110.
Grant, 2014, p. 183.
- 111.
See Harrison, 2003.
- 112.
Cole, 1945, p. 26.
- 113.
Laybourn, 1994, p. 153.
- 114.
Humphreys, 2001.
- 115.
Macadam, 1934, p. 68.
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Davis Smith, J. (2019). Setting Up. In: 100 Years of NCVO and Voluntary Action. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02774-2_2
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