Centenary – Legacy of a Remarkable Woman

Four charities which owe their existence to Elfrida Rathbone will be celebrating her legacy and achievements in 2016. Rosemary Trustam reports

The recently released film, The Suffragettes, told the stories of some remarkable women but a quieter and in many ways more remarkable story is that of Elfrida Rathbone.

Far ahead of her time, she understood about inclusion and didn’t accept the ‘wisdom’ of the day incorporated into law that children with learning disabilities were ineducable.

Categorised
At this time the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 categorised people with learning disabilities as idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded and moral defectives, all believed to be incapable of learning to different degrees. This resulted in 50,000 children with communication and physical impairments and more than 500,000 adults being incarcerated in institutions in the first half of the 20th century.

Shockingly, it wasn’t until 1970 with the passing of the Education (Handicapped Children) Act that the law caught up and those previously deemed ineducable were taken out of health authority provision and became the responsibility of the education authorities.

Elfrida Rathbone and her cousin, Lilian Gregg, believed that children could learn and progress if given appropriate teaching. Lilian had adopted a child with learning disabilities whom she taught to read and write. She founded a special kindergarten for children deemed ‘ineducable’ and ‘mentally defective’ in Kings Cross. In 1916, Elfrida, at the age of 45, joined her cousin and began teaching there.

Sadly both Lilian and her child died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. However, Elfrida expanded the work and in 1919 established an Occupation Centre in Kings Cross for ‘ineducable’ children excluded from school, and recruited supporters to sit on the Care Committees of Islington’s Special Schools. She formed a Girls’ Club in 1923, followed by a Married Girls’ Class with a crèche, and in 1930 established a befriending scheme for children in institutions. She always upheld the right of children to be educated at school.

This amazing woman so ahead of her time was the inspiration for four local charities. The organisation she founded now exists as The Elfrida Society, located in Islington, London, supporting adults and young people with learning difficulties. Elfrida Rathbone grew out of one of the Elfrida Society’s projects and later two more charities – The Rathbone Society (Lambeth) and Generate (Tooting) were established, all primarily working with people with learning disabilities.

This year marks the centenary of the start of her remarkable work and the four charities are planning a celebratory year.

Archive
They hope to attract funding to build an archive through many creative mediums which will continue the record into the future. Led by people with learning disabilities, this work will also include some specific celebrations echoing Elfrida’s theme of inclusion, culminating in a celebratory event in the House of Lords hosted by Baroness Sheila Hollins who has herself done so much for people with learning disabilities.
The charities are setting up pages on their websites with a view to developing a joint website. Watch this space.