Voluntary Action History

Shirley Otto, Independent Researcher

John Stewart, Glasgow Caledonian University

Institute of Historical Research Citizens of the world: Birmingham Quaker women, transnational voluntary service, and the meaning of citizenship Sian Roberts (University of Birmingham) This seminar will focus on the voluntary action of a group of Quaker women based in the city of Birmingham in the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to their participation in the activities of the Religious Society of Friends at a local and national level, they engaged in a broad range of...

Institute of Historical Research Book Launch Seminar: Payment and Philanthropy in British Healthcare, 1918-48 George Campbell Gosling (University of Wolverhampton) Pamela Cox (University of Essex) Colin Rochester (Practical Wisdom R2Z) Pat Thane (King's College London) Mathew Thomson (University of Warwick) There were only three decades in British history when it was the norm for patients to pay the hospital, those between the end of the First World War and the establishment of the...

Institute of Historical Research The Politics of Poverty: The Child Poverty Action Group, 1965-2015 Dr Ruth Davidson (King's College London) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research The first decade of the Overseas Doctor's Association in the UK (1975-1985) Julian M Simpson (University of Manchester) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research Witness Seminar: My Life in Volunteering in Three Stories Dr Justin Davis Smith (Cass Business School) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research The Untold Story of the St Pancras House Improvement Society: More than Charismatic Leadership Dr Michael Passmore Seminar and Conducted Walk Following the presentation of his paper Dr Passmore will lead a conducted walk around the social housing estate in Somers Town (near the British Library) featured in the talk. This paper will focus on factors which resulted in the formation of a successful housing association and a slum clearance and redevelopment...

Institute of Historical Research 'Not just a "club for girls" but "a women's movement": the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), citizenship and voluntary action in Britain during the interwar years Dr Caitriona Beaumont (London South Bank University) The history of the women’s movement, female activism and voluntary action in the decades following the 1928 Equal Franchise Act has featured a wide variety of women’s organisations and key campaigns. These histories include...

Institute of Historical Research Witness Seminar Pat Gay (One of the pioneers of the academic study of volunteering and volunteer management) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research Humanities activists and humanitarian aid in the First World War: G.M. Trevelyan, the British Red Cross and the Italian wounded Marcella Sutcliffe (University of Cambridge) In 1915, as Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies, a group of British humanities scholars formed the British Committee in Aid of the Italian Wounded. At the head of them was Cambridge historian, G.M. Trevelyan, who organised a convoy of British Red Cross vehicles to cross...

Institute of Historical Research A Study of Philanthropy: the Charitable Account Books of Lord Overstone, 1844-1883 Sarah Flew (LSE) Samuel Jones-Loyd, Lord Overstone (1796-1883) is an exemplar of nineteenth century philanthropy. He rose from a modest birth, as the son of a Welsh Unitarian minister, to become one of the most influential bankers of the Victorian age. This study of his philanthropy, painstakingly recorded in four decades of charitable account books, give a nuanced picture...

Institute of Historical Research Charity in the Georgian Era: Lessons for Today? Dr Andrew Rudd (University of Exeter) This paper offers a cultural history of charity from the beginning of the Georgian era in 1714 to the implementation of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 (the 'New Poor Law'). Literary historian Andrew Rudd will examine textual and visual representations of: charity institutions such as the Foundling Hospital; acts of charity in the writings of Dorothy and William...

Institute of Historical Research I never wanted to participate in a charity: Women's relationship to voluntary work within the UK Women's Liberation Movement Dr Bridget Lockyer (Canterbury Christ Church University) This seminar considers the voluntary work carried out by women in the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s, using the WLM in Bradford, West Yorkshire, as a case study. Two of the most notable and enduring voluntary organisations which evolved...

Institute of Historical Research Witness Seminar: A Place in a Community Michael Locke (Ex University of East London and Volunteering England) Mike Locke reflects on his involvement in community politics in the Notting Hill/ North Kensington area of London in the 1970s and 1980s. He focuses on his part in creating in 1978 a trailblazing comprehensive centre for children under 5 and their parents, Maxilla Nursery Centre (“a famous leader in a very deprived patch” Polly Toynbee, The...

Institute of Historical Research National Kitchens in the First World War Dr Bryce Evans (Liverpool Hope University) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research Volunteer Tourism: Development, Altruism or Narcissism? Jim Butcher (Canterbury Christ Church University) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research Who decides how 'safe' is 'safe'? The pertussis vaccine scare and the Vaccination Damage Payments Act 1979 Gareth Millward (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research 'People of our condition have not any right to expect stability, or certainty of subsistence' - Middle-class men's experience of receiving charity in mid-nineteenth century England Marian Flint Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research Saving Winchester: Voluntary Societies, Historic Buildings and Urban Redevelopment Michael Nelles (University of Southampton) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research The Making Of A Social Researcher Dr Duncan Scott (Independent Scholar) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research Historicizing Citizenship in Cold War Britain: Obligations, Voluntary Action, and Exclusion Dr Matthew Grant (University of Essex) Voluntary Action History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research Learning from Britain's development NGOs: a case study of Oxfam's Education Department during the Development Decades 1960-1980 Dr Don Harrison (University of Bristol) Voluntary Action History seminar series