Warfare and Welfare

Davis Smith, Justin

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-02774-2_5

Justin Davis Smith²

118 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter Davis Smith explores the critical role played by the voluntary movement and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) during the Second World War. As with the First World War, the conflict saw an upsurge in voluntary action to deal with the emergency. The Council was at its most productive, despite the wartime pressures and restrictions, and several new networks were established, including the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, Old People’s Welfare Committee (later Age Concern), and Women’s Group on Public Welfare, which played a significant role in the post-war history of the voluntary movement. As war came to an end the Council was involved in plans for reconstruction and mapping a future role for the voluntary movement in the post-war welfare state.

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Notes

1.
Prochaska, 2011, p. 37.
2.
Calder, 1992.
3.
See, for example, Ferguson and Fitzgerald, 1954.
4.
Rose, 2003, p. 20.
5.
Fielding et al., 1995, p. 213. See also Smith, 1986.
6.
Finlayson, 1994, p. 226.
7.
Finlayson, 1994, pp. 227–28. See also Colpus, 2011.
8.
Mess and Braithwaite, 1947.
9.
Grant, 2014, p. 126.
10.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40, p. 14.
11.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40, p. 15.
12.
Meeting of Executive Committee, 20 August 1940; Special Minute Book; London Metropolitan Archives (LMA): LMA/4016/IS/055/01. Sack was ordained the following year and appointed rector of Elstead in Surrey. He died in 1953. For a tribute, see Smeal, 1969.
13.
For a critical examination of Haynes’ work, see Jenkins, 2001. For a more positive review, see Pimlott Baker, 2004.
14.
For an excellent history of the COS and Family Welfare Association, see Lewis, 1995.
15.
Jenkins, 2001.
16.
Hinton’s time at the Council is dealt with in Chaps. 7 and 8.
17.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 26 October 1939; LMA/4016/IS/A01/031(1).
18.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 27 October 1939; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/030(5).
19.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40, p. 5. Deedes is discussed more fully in Chap. 3.
20.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 25 April 1940; LMA/4016/IS/A/0/031(2); Minutes of Executive Committee, 24 October 1940; LMA/4016/IS/A/0/031(2).
21.
Finlayson, 1994, p. 241.
22.
For a fuller discussion of these tensions, which led to the abandonment of the federated model, see Chap. 7.
23.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40.
24.
Leaflets issued by the Council included Voluntary social service organisations and the national service campaign and Voluntary social service organisations in time of war, quoted in Haynes, 1939.
25.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44, p. 4.
26.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 26 October 1939; LMA/4016/IS/A01/031(1).
27.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44, p. 4.
28.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 27 April 1939; LMA/4016/IS/A01/030(7).
29.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 27 April 1939; LMA/4016/IS/A01/030(7).
30.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40.
31.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 25 January 1940; LMA/4016/IS/A01/031(1).
32.
Letter from J.A. Barlow from the Treasury to William Deedes, 9 November 1939; LMA/4016/IS/A01/031(1).
33.
The establishment of the Voluntary Services Unit is discussed in Chap. 7.
34.
Letter from J.A. Barlow from the Treasury to William Deedes, 9 November 1939; LMA/4016/IS/A01/031(1). Rushcliffe, as Sir Henry Betterton, was a Conservative politician and Minister of Labour, 1931–34, in Ramsay MacDonald’s National Government. See Chap. 4.
35.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 25 April 1940; LMA/4016/IS/A/0/031(2).
36.
NCSS Annual Report 1941–42, p. 4.
37.
Letter from Sandford Carter to F. Sharpley at the Ministry of Information, 1 March 1940; NCSS uncatalogued archives, LMA.
38.
Bourdillon, 1945a, p. 194.
39.
For a good discussion on the establishment and early years of the CAB movement, see Blaiklock, 2012.
40.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40, p. 8.
41.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 99.
42.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40.
43.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 100.
44.
Ibid., p. 103.
45.
NCSS Annual Report 1941–42.
46.
NCSS Annual Report 1941–42.
47.
Minutes of Joint Meeting of Executive and Emergency Committees, 14 December 1944; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/031(2).
48.
For a discussion of Keeling’s role in the establishment of the Council, see Chap. 2.
49.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 97.
50.
See Keeling, 1961, for a personal account of her life and work, and Pederson, 2004, for a summary of her achievements.
51.
Keeling’s role in the foundation of the National Old People’s Welfare Committee is discussed below.
52.
Hadow’s contribution to the Council and the rural community council movement is discussed in Chap. 3.
53.
Bingham, 2005, p. 117. For a discussion on the ‘myth’ of Labour’s hostility to voluntarism, see Deakin and Davis Smith, 2011.
54.
Jowett, 1967.
55.
NCSS Annual Reports 1941–42 and 1944–45.
56.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45, p. 17.
57.
NCSS Annual Report 1942–43, p. 5.
58.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45, p. 17.
59.
On the post-war work of the CAB movement, see Blaiklock, 2012. The tensions between the movement and the Council, which led to a difficult divorce in 1975, are discussed in Chap. 7.
60.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 105.
61.
Ramsey, 1949.
62.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 25 April 1940; LMA/4016/IS/A/0/031(2).
63.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45.
64.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44, p. 8.
65.
Beaumont, 2013, p. 138.
66.
Hinton, 2002, p. 179.
67.
Ibid., p. viii.
68.
Beaumont, 2013, p. 3.
69.
Ibid., p. 138.
70.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45.
71.
Beaumont, 2013, p. 142.
72.
Women’s Group on Public Welfare, 1943.
73.
Ibid., p. 106.
74.
Morgan, 1947, p. 94.
75.
Beaumont, 2013, p. 141. See also Rose, 2003, pp. 58–59.
76.
Hinton, 1998, pp. 277–78.
77.
Ibid., p. 283.
78.
Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee, 4 January 1944; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/047(2).
79.
The government finally agreed to a grant to support the core work of the Council in 1961. See Chap. 7.
80.
On Barker and Lindsay, see Grimley, 2004.
81.
Prochaska, 2008. See also Prochaska, 2011, p. 45.
82.
Grimley, 2004.
83.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40.
84.
See, for example, NCSS, 1941.
85.
Minutes of Churches Consultative Group, 8 January 1974; Uncatalogued NCSS Archives, LMA.
86.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 97.
87.
Beard, 1945.
88.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40.
89.
See Chap. 7 for further details.
90.
Bourdillon, 1945b, p. 186.
91.
NCSS Annual Report 1940–41.
92.
Mess and King, 1947.
93.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45.
94.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45.
95.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40.
96.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44, p. 15.
97.
The concept of ‘participation’ took root in the 1960s and covered many aspects of social policy. See, for example, Richardson, 1983.
98.
NCSS Annual Report 1940–41.
99.
Minutes of Special Meeting of Executive Committee, 8 July 1941; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/031(2).
100.
NCSS Annual Report 1940–41.
101.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 25 January 1940; LMA/4016/IS/A01/031(1).
102.
Minutes of Joint Meeting of Executive and Emergency Committee, 28 March 1945; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/031(3).
103.
NCSS Annual Report 1940–41, p. 11.
104.
Minutes of Executive Committee, 25 January 1940; LMA/4016/IS/A01/031(1).
105.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 110.
106.
Morgan, 1947.
107.
NCSS Annual Report 1942–43.
108.
NCSS Annual Report 1941–42.
109.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44.
110.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45.
111.
NCSS Annual Report 1944–45, p. 14.
112.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 94.
113.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44, p. 12.
114.
The Council had opened a Welsh office in Cardiff in 1933 at the height of the unemployment crisis. In 1934 an independent South Wales and Monmouthshire Council of Social Service was set up. This grew rapidly, resulting in the Council closing its Welsh department in 1938 to avoid confusion.
115.
NCSS Annual Report 1940–41, p. 17.
116.
NCSS Annual Report 1939–40.
117.
Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee, 5 June 1941; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/0/46(4).
118.
Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee, 10 September 1941; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/047(1).
119.
NCSS Annual Report 1941–42, p. 15.
120.
Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee, 10 September 1941; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/047(1).
121.
Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee, 23 October and 16 December 1941; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/047(1).
122.
Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee, April to October 1944; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/047(3).
123.
NCSS Annual Report 1941–42.
124.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44.
125.
NCSS Annual Report 1940–41, p. 17.
126.
Brasnett, 1969, pp. 120–129. Some of Mess’ articles appeared in an edited book of essays under his name published as Mess, 1947.
127.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44, p. 23.
128.
Brasnett, 1969, p. 117.
129.
Ibid., p. 118.
130.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44, p. 12.
131.
NCSS Annual Report 1943–44.
132.
Bourdillon, 1945c.
133.
Cole, 1945, p. 29.
134.
Lindsay, 1945, p. 299.
135.
Ibid., p. 306.
136.
See Chaps. 8 and 9 for a fuller discussion of these issues.
137.
Haynes, G. (1944) The future purpose and organisation of the National Council of Social Service, paper presented to Joint Meeting of the Executive Committee and Emergency Committee, 8 February 1944; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/027(2).
138.
NCSS Annual Report 1940–41.
139.
Minutes of Joint Meeting of the Executive and Emergency Committees, 5 June 1946; LMA/4016/IS/A/01/031(3).
140.
Haynes, 1944, Op. Cit.
141.
This issue is discussed in detail in Chaps. 8, 9 and 11.
142.
The Times, 31 March 1945, p. 5.

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Cass Business School, City, University of London, London, UK
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Davis Smith, J. (2019). Warfare and Welfare. In: 100 Years of NCVO and Voluntary Action. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02774-2_5

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