Hello everyone, as promised this second post is about family planning in Hampshire.
Joan Bonham Carter
Joan Bonham Carter (a relative of the famous Helena Bonham Carter from the television programme ‘The Crown’) was involved in many different aspects of social and welfare work connected to family planning and supporting women.
Joan was involved with maternal mortality and had leaflets concerning the issue in the 1930s. Vitally for this research she was involved with the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child. The organisation advocated for the rights of single parents and provided help and assistance to them, including training and educational programmes after the Second World War. The Hampshire Record Office in Winchester has leaflets and reports concerning Joan’s participation in this charity, including care for illegitimate children in rural areas such as Hampshire.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
The Wellcome Library in London has records of the relationship between the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child and the Family Planning Association and it will be intriguing to examine the relationship between the two organisations. The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child is going today under the name Gingerbread, with J.K. Rowling as its patron. It is still fighting for single parents to be treated equally.
Joan Bonham Carter is an extremely significant women and her other social involvement included: the Public Morality Council, the Travellers’ Aid Society which offers safe hostels for individuals away from home and the International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Women and Children which examines prostitution and labour victimisation. I look forward to undertaking more archival research into her work and achievements to further understand her contribution to women’s history.
Now that lockdown restrictions have been lifted further my next entries will examine my visits to the Wellcome Library in London and Birmingham Archives and the vast amount of different material I have discovered!