The Ladies of the Committee - (2) Lucy Deane Streatfeild

As I began my research into the next member of the Ladies Committee sent to South Africa to investigate the concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War, I was astonished to discover a fact unknown to me previously. Had Lucy Deane’s observations about the dangers of asbestos been taken seriously at the time and, better still acted upon, perhaps the lives of countless thousands of people, including my own husband, might have been longer. (He died of the asbestos disease mesothelioma.)

 

In 1898, just a few years before she was appointed to the Committee, Lucy Deane [later Streatfeild], wrote a report warning of the adverse effects on those working with asbestos in factories after she became aware of many individuals becoming ill and dying prematurely.


Lucy was one of seven women officially appointed by the Home Office as a female factory inspector. She travelled the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland, usually either by public transport or bicycle, studying and reporting on the working conditions of women in factories. At the time, it was vital that the inspectors didn’t reveal the nature of their work in order to protect the women themselves.


Lucy would raise many issues about working hours and conditions and it was during the course of this work, that she realised many women working in factories in which asbestos was being processed were suffering from severe bronchial and lung infections. She wrote:-

“The evil effects of asbestos dust have also instigated a microscopic examination of the mineral dust by Her Majesty’s Medical Inspector. Clearly revealed was the sharp, glass-like jagged nature of the particles.”

Why were her early warnings disregarded?  The answer comprises several reasons, not least male prejudice against opinionated women during that era when the battle for women’s rights was causing considerable trouble. However, it mainly came down to the greed of powerful and influential manufacturers of asbestos products and factory owners who didn’t want some nosy inconvenient feminist rocking their lucrative boat. Tragically, it would be another century before those greedy corporations and industrialists would get their comeuppance, but little comfort to the countless people  whose lives have been impacted by asbestos-related diseases.

After discovering this, and other facts about the remarkable Lucy Deane, I warmed to her and wondered how she managed to get along with the intimidating and imperious Millicent Garrett Fawcett, the head of the Ladies Committee. (See my earlier post here.)

Lucy does not seem to have had many photos taken,
this being the standard one freely available online, c. 1918

There are a number of feminist academic theses available online that discuss Lucy Deane and all have used her letters as sources of information. Her South African experience can be found in those written to her sister, Hyacinthe Mary Deane. They show that although she managed to get on socially with the other ladies, she did complain of their unprofessional standards and felt that she was “one against five” on many issues.

“It seemed to me that it would be most mischievous if we split. It would be more white-washy than ever. So I have struggled and fought and pleaded and argued for my main points and got nearly all of them. I couldn’t prevent all the jam and blarney at the beginning.”

Unlike Millicent, she was not an Imperialist and had no illusions about British failings. By the end of the tour following the distressing scenes they had witnessed, Lucy managed to get all the other ladies to agree that the camps had been “a huge mistake”. It was Lucy who insisted that the Ladies Committee must not shy away from criticism in the way the camps were handled. She didn’t pull any punches:-

 

“We brought the women in to stop them from helping their husbands in the War and by so doing we have undoubtedly killed them in thousands as much as if we had shot them on their own doorsteps, and anyone but a British General would have realised this long ago.”

Concentration camp women bury their children, Anglo-Boer War Museun

 

 

Lucy in her later years

More biographical information on Lucy Deane Streatfeild:

Lucy was born in Madras, India, on 31 July 1865. Her parents were was Lieutenant-Colonel Bonar Millett Deane and his wife, the Hon. Lucy Boscawen, a sister of the sixth Viscount Falmouth. Her father served in India and South Africa, and was killed at Laing's Neck on 28 January 1881 during the Anglo-Transvaal War. Her mother died in March 1886.

 

In the 1890s, Lucy trained as a health worker and lecturer for the National Health Society, a body established to provide professional training for charities. In 1893 she was appointed by St Mary Abbots in Kensington as a sanitary inspector of workshops and factories that employed women. Subsequently, the Home Office appointed her a factory inspector.

 

Her work was arduous. The female inspectors faced antagonism from employers, male colleagues and sometimes even the workers themselves. In Ireland, Lucy was particularly angered by the truck system in which priests failed to support workers and that there was “utter disregard for law and justice, terrible tales of the corruption of the magistrates”.

 

Following her involvement in the Ladies Committee, Lucy’s health had begun to suffer, and a few years later she resigned from the factory inspectorate and moved to Westerham in Kent, where she lived until her death. In 1911 she married an old friend and architect, Granville Edward Stewart Streatfeild.

 

Lucy remained an active voluntary worker. She was the first female organizing officer for the National Health Insurance Commission, establishing infant welfare centres in London; she was also a member of various trade boards, her local county council and the Women’s Institute. She supported and lectured on female suffrage and was one of the organisers of the Great Pilgrimage and Rally held in Hyde Park in 1913.

 

Millicent Fawcett addressing the 1913 Rally

During the First World War, Lucy was a member of the executive committee of the Women's Land Army and the War Office appeals committee, which adjudicated on separation allowances for soldiers' and sailors' dependants, and of a special arbitration tribunal to settle disputes over wages and conditions in munitions works. In 1918 she chaired a committee of inquiry into the conduct of members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in France, and received a CBE.

.

After the war Lucy became was one of the first female Justices of the Peace. She was also an enthusiastic producer of amateur theatre in her local village. She wrote numerous articles on factory work and industrial legislation. She died on 3 July 1950 at her home, Cottage on the Hill, Westerham, Kent. Lucy had no children.

 

Lucy Deane Streatfeild was held in high regard by her contemporaries for her commitment and strong social conscience. Her legacy is just as important today as it was when she first stood up for the poor treatment of women and children more than a century ago.

Online sources include:-

Oxford Dictionary of Biography

Asbestos

These Dangerous Women

Lecture by Lucy Deane to the Industrial Law Committee on Women andChildren in Factories, Workshops and Laundries and How to Help Them.

Academic theses:-

http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2609/1/U615558.pdf

http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2609/1/U615558.pdf

http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36339/1/WRAP_THESIS_Livesey_1999.pdf

Papers of Lucy Deane

Biography of Lucy

Introduction to the Ladies

Millicent Garrett Fawcett

Lucy Deane Streatfeild

Katherine Blanche Brereton

Lady Alice Knox

Dr Jane Waterston

Dr Ella Scarlett Synge

Personal library sources include:

"The Concentration Camps of the Anglo-Boer War, A Social History" by Elizabeth Van Heyningen

"Rebel English Woman, The Remarkable Life of Emily Hobhouse" by Elsabe Brits

"The Compassionate Englishwoman" by Robert Eales

"The Boer War" by Thomas Pakenham

"Those Bloody Women, Three Heroines of the Boer War" by Brian Roberts