IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0106 9/19
Held at: Women's Library
Title: Autograph Letter Collection: Keir Hardy, the Webbs and Ramsay MacDonald
Date(s): 1908-1929
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 1 volume
Name of creator(s):
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Beatrice Potter, was born on 2nd January, 1858, the eighth daughter of railway entrepreneur Richard Potter and Laurencina Heyworth. She was given little formal education but read widely as a child and became involved in philanthropic work, joining the Charity Organisation Society (COS) in 1883. However, she went on to work as a researcher in the East End of London for Charles Booth in 1886 and this experience led her to criticise the limitations of charitable activity and its failure to strike at the roots for poverty. Her articles on dock workers and the sweating trades were published in the 'Nineteenth Century' journal and she gave evidence on the subject before a House of Lords committee. She became interested in the Co-operative movement and, through this, met Sidney Webb, whom she married in 1892. The pair worked together in the Fabian Society and on a number of books, including 'The History of Trade Unionism' (1894) and 'Industrial Democracy' (1897). They were also instrumental in establishing the Lonson School of Economics and Political Science. On 27th February 1900, the Fabian Society joined with the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation and trade union leaders to form the Labour Representation Committee(LRC) which put forward fifteen Labour candidates for the first time in the 1900 General Election, resulting in the election of two of the candidates, Keir Hardie and Richard Bell. However, the Webbs were willing to work with the new Conservative Government to create the 1902 Education Act and Beatrice served as a member of the commission relating to the Poor Laws. Her disagreements with other members resulted in the publication of her Minority Report on the subject. In the 1923 General Election Sidney Webb stood in the Seaham constituency and was elected, going on to service in the first Labour government in 1924 as the President of the Board of Trade under Ramsay MacDonald. James Ramsay MacDonald, was born in Lossiemouth, Morayshire in 1866, the illegitimate son of Ann Ramsay, a maidservant. He studied at the local school from 1875 until 1881 before becoming a pupil-teacher. Aged nineteen, he went to Bristol before moving to London in 1886 and where he was employed as a clerk for the Cyclists' Touring Club. Poverty and ill-health ended his attempts to win a science scholarship and be became a clerk to Thomas Lough, MP. MacDonald joined the Fabian Society around this time and there met others such as George Bernard Shaw, Annie Besant, Walter Crane and the Webbs who were concerned with issues such as socialism and women's suffrage. In 1893 the Independent Labour Party was formed by members of this group, including, Philip Snowden, Robert Smillie, Tom Mann, John Bruce Glasier, Ben Tillett and James Keir Hardie. James Keir Hardie was the illegitimate son of Mary Keir, a servant from Legbrannock, Lanarkshire, Scotland, was born on 15th August, 1856. His mother later married David Hardie, a ship's carpenter. At the age of eight Hardie became a baker's delivery boy in Partick in Glasgow when his step-father became unemployed. The family later moved back to Lanarkshire when he lost this position, and at the age of eleven, Hardie became a coal miner. He learnt to read after this move and was able to write by the age of seventeen. He became involved in trades unionism and led the first strike of Lanarkshire miners in 1880. He was then dismissed and went on to become a reporter then secretary to the recently formed Ayrshire Miners' Union in 1886, then the Scottish Miners' Federation. His support for the Liberal party ended with the premiershp of Gladstone and he became involved in socialism. In 1888 Hardie stood as the Independent Labour candidate for the constituency of Mid-Lanark but was not elected However, four years later he succeeded as a candidate for the West Ham South constituency in London's East End. In 1893 Hardie helped form a new socialist group, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and was elected its first leader, a position that he retained after he lost his seat in the 1895 election. He returned to the house in 1900 as the MP for Merthyr Tydfil. He continued to support women's suffrage and pacifism during the First World War until his death on 25th September, 1915.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
The collection comprises the following: letters from Beatrice Webb to Miss M Lees (1908) on the treatment of infants in Oldham; Sidney Webb to Lady Strachey (1911) on model standing orders form; Beatrice Webb to Cavendish Bentinck (nd.), Sidney Webb to CB (1912) on his role as suffragist, his wife's changing attitudes to the question and the Fabian Society; Sidney Webb to Cavendish Bentinck (1913); Ray Strachey to Sidney Webb (1919) asking permission to include name on advisory council with reply written on setting out position via women as 'blackleg' workers, Beatrice Webb to Miss Moore (n.d.) on forms for committee membership sent out; card from Sidney Webb to Ray Strachey (1929) to say the copy of the requested publication is on its way and requesting payment); BW to 'Ruth' [Cavendish Bentinck?] can't come to stay too busy with BBC talk.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The collection is arranged in date order.
Conditions governing access:
This collection is available for consultation. Intending readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of copies:
The collection has been microfilmed and can be consulted in the reading room in this format.
Related material:
The main body of the papers of Beatrice Webb can be found in the London University: British Library of Political and Economic Science: diaries, correspondence and papers: 1870-1947, working papers on English local government, miscellaneous papers 1885-1925 (Reference : COLL MISC 043, 0238, 0241, 0359, 0849), correspondence with Lord Beveridge c1906-40 (Reference : BEVERIDGE),: correspondence with the ILP 1912-15 (Reference : BLPES/ILP/Section 4 passim), letters 1892-1942 (Reference : Fabian Soc), correspondence with Dr Mcleary 1907-43 (Reference : COLL MISC 0979). The main body of the papers of Sidney Webb can also be found in the London University: British Library of Political and Economic Science: correspondence and papers1870-1947 (Reference : Passfield), further correspondence and papers (Reference : Webb Trade Union), correspondence and papers (Reference : COLL MISC 156, 190, 240-43, 280, 282); his 1924 correspondence with J Ramsay MacDonald is held in the Public Records Office (Reference : PRO30/69/1/210).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Described by Liza Giffen, The Women's Library.
Date(s) of descriptions: 04/10/2002