Clare Mulley - The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb: Founder of Save the Children

The Woman Who Saved the Children

Unusual and perceptive.

Daily Mail

Will strike a chord for many.

Times Online

This is a truly brilliant book, about a woman who changed the world for the better and forever. Her concern was children children in conflict, children in poverty, children who were unsafe, at risk or uncared for. She taught us that the only truly global language is a childs cry and that when we talk about the number of children lost to poverty or hunger or disease we are not just talking about a child, but *somebodys* child.Read this book, be inspired by Eglantynes courage, and then please join us in the great global movement for justice for the worlds children.

Gordon Brown

A pleasure to read...a combination of Jebbs own mischievous attitude and Mulleys lively style.

Times Literary Supplement

What this excellent book makes plain is that Eglantynes vision is just as powerful and relevant today as it was then.

Jasmine Whitbread, CEO, Save the Children UK

Sensitive, entertaining, and beautifully written...a sparkling biography of a fascinating woman.

Kate Williams, author of Englands Mistress and Becoming Queen

Wonderful, clever, and funny, Clare Mulleys lively and intimate biography brings out the humour, inconsistency, wilfulness, and just excellent energy of Eglantyne.

Alexander Masters, author of Stuart: A Life Backwards

Admirably researched...informative and sensitively written. Clare Mulley has done Eglantyne proud.

Church Times

Fascinating.

Western Mail

Meticulously researched...a testimony to Jebbs remarkable humanitarianism.

Oxford Today

Crisp, masterly biography.

The Good Book Guide

A wonderful biography...of the real human being who inspires our work.

Charlie MacCormack, CEO, Save the Children USA

Clare Mulley joined Save the Children as a fundraiser in the 1990s and is now an author and the mother of three young daughters. She is the winner of the 2007 Daily Mail Biographers Club prize.

A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb,
Founder of Save the Children

Clare Mulley

A Oneworld Book

First published in Great Britain by Oneworld Publications 2009
This paperback edition published by Oneworld Publications in 2010
Reprinted 2011
This ebook edition published by Oneworld Publications 2011

Copyright Clare Mulley 2009

The right of Clare Mulley to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available
from the British Library

ISBN 9781780740683

Typeset by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India
Cover design by vaguelymemorable.com

Oneworld Publications
185 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7AR
England
www.oneworld-publications.com

All author royalties donated to Save the Children, registered charity in England and Wales (213890) and Scotland (SC 039570)

To my three wonderful daughters, Millicent Eglantyne, Florence Minerva and Hester Eve symbols of universal human potential and very lively little girls in the here and now.

Eglantyne Jebb became the childs greatest champion in the aftermath of World War One. In 1919 she and her sister Dorothy founded an emergency relief fund for the starving children of Europe. The International Save the Children Alliance is now the worlds largest independent organization for children, with staff working in partnership with thousands of local organizations, supported in different ways by millions of people, to improve the lives and life-chances of children in over 120 countries. But Eglantynes legacy went even further when she drafted a pioneering statement of 5 childrens rights and responsibilities in 1923, getting it adopted by the League of Nations the following year.

Eglantynes achievement in putting childrens welfare on the worlds agenda ranks as one of the great triumphs of humanity and yet although celebrated around the world after her death, her own remarkable story is now almost forgotten. Published to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Save the Children, and the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, this biography restores that balance, showing just how important a contribution one person with the right combination of imagination and determination can make.

Eglantynes memory lives on today with Save the Children working around the world to address childrens basic needs, such as education and health. But much remains to be done: 75 million children do not go to school and one mother dies in childbirth every minute of every day. Thank you for supporting Save the Children by your interest in this book about a remarkable lady.

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal
President, Save the Children UK

Thank you very, very much indeed to Ian Wolter for everything, and the key editorial team, Kate, Gill and Derek Mulley. This book could not have been written without the very kind support of Lionel and Corinna Jebb, Ben Buxton and the Buxton family, Susannah Burn, Philippa Hill, Nicholas Humphrey, Charlotte Humphrey, Robert Dimsdale, Nicholas Dimsdale, Dickie Hughes and David Marshall thank you all for your great generosity. Sincere thanks are also due to the archivists and experts at the Save the Children Fund; the Library at the League of Nations Archives Collections, the United Nations Office at Geneva; the State Archives of Geneva, Switzerland where the UISE (International Union of Save the Children) papers are kept; the Principal and Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; Newnham College, Cambridge; and Kings College Cambridge where the Keynes papers are kept; the Master Fellows and Scholars of Churchill College, Cambridge, and the staff of the Churchill Archive Centre where the A.V. Hill papers are kept; the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University Library, Hamilton, Ontario where the C.K. Ogden papers are kept; the British Library manuscripts and newspaper archives; The Times archives; the Labour History Archive at the Peoples History Museum; the Womens Library; the Corporation of London Records Office; the President and Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; The Royal Society of Medicine; The Wellcome Institute; The National Gallery Libraries and Archive Department; and the Met Office, National Meteorological Archive; as well as Dr Michael Tunbridge, former President of the British Thyroid Association and author of M.P.J. Vanderpump and W.M.G. Tunbridge, Thyroid Disease: The Facts, 4th edition (OUP 2008); and Sam Dimmock, Programme Director Get ready for Geneva at the Child Rights Association of England for specialist advice. Also to my agent Andrew Lownie for believing in a book on a charitably minded spinster in a brown cardigan, and finally to my friends Rodney Breen, Dido Davies, Nicole DeSouza, Sheila Gower-Isaac; Lisa OConnell, Jude Rudolf, Alison Pavier, Anna Rawlinson and Lucy Ward. Thank you.