Dorothy Frances Buxton (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Jebb; 3 March 1881 – 8 April 1963) was an English humanitarian, social activist and commentator on Germany.

Life

Dorothy Frances Jebb was born 3 August 1881 in

Ellesmere, Shropshire Ellesmere ( ) is a town in Shropshire, England, located near the Welsh border and the towns of Oswestry, Whitchurch and Wrexham. It is notable for its proximity to a number of prominent Meres. History Ellesmere Castle was probably an 11th- ...

, the youngest of three sisters born to Arthur Trevor Jebb (1839-1894) and

Eglantyne Louisa Jebb Eglantyne Louisa Jebb ( Jebb; 1845/1846 - November 1925) was an Anglo-Irish social reformer. A keen supporter of the arts and crafts movement, in 1884 she founded the Home Arts and Industries Association as a way of reviving country crafts and o ...

. Her mother's brother was the Cambridge classicist Richard Claverhouse Jebb, and Dorothy was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge.Dorothy Frances Jebb (I23268)
/ref> In 1904 she married

Charles Roden Buxton Charles Roden Buxton (27 November 1875 – 16 December 1942) was an English philanthropist and radical British Liberal Party politician who later joined the Labour Party. He survived an assassination attempt during a mission to the Balkans in 1 ...

, at that time a Liberal politician, and the pair were active in the Liberal Party. In 1915 she joined the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. In 1917 she and her husband left the Liberal Party for the Labour Party, and joined the

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

. During the First World War she compiled 'Notes from the Foreign Press' for the '' Cambridge Magazine''. Her writing inspired the

Fight the Famine Council Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

, founded in 1918 as an effort to alleviate starvation of civilians in Germany and Austria-Hungary during the Allied

blockade of Germany The Blockade of Germany, or the Blockade of Europe, occurred from 1914 to 1919. The prolonged naval blockade was conducted by the Allies of World War I, Allies during and after World War I in an effort to restrict the maritime supply of goods t ...

in World War I, which led to the Save the Children Fund, which she and her sister Eglantyne Jebb founded in 1919. In 1935, increasingly concerned at Nazi treatment of Christians in Germany, she visited Germany to see for herself.'Church and Politics: Dorothy Buxton and the German Church Struggle', in ''History, religion, and identity in modern Britain'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 1893, pp.183-194 She secured an interview with Hermann Göring to raise the issue of treatment of civilians.Clare Mulley
The Woman who Saved the Children
, Oxford: Oneworld, 2009, p. xix-xx. On her return she informed George Bell,

Bishop of Chicester The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat ...

, that German Christians whom she had met "seemed oppressed and bound with the apparent necessity of extreme caution".R. C. D. Jasper, ''George Bell, Bishop of Chicester'', p. 205. Cited in Robbins, p. 184 Though her husband campaigned for

appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...

of Germany, Dorothy Buxton became convinced that war was necessary against the Nazis. During World War II she campaigned for

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

from Nazi Germany, as well as for the welfare of German prisoners of war. She died 8 April 1963 in Peaslake, near

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, aged 81. Papers relating to her and her husband are held at the London School of Economics.

Works

* (with Charles Roden Buxton) ''The world after the war'', London: G. Allen & Unwin Ltd. 920 Translated into German by Rudolf Berger as ''Die Welt nach dem Weltkriege'', 1921. * ''The war for coal and iron', London : The Labour Party,

921 __NOTOC__ Year 921 ( CMXXI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March – Battle of Pegae: Bulgarian forces under ''kavhan'' (first ...

* ''Upper Silesia and the European crisis'', London : Fight the Famine Council,

* ''The challenge of bolshevism; a new social ideal'', London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1928. * (ed.) ''Save the child: a posthumous essay'' by Eglantyne Jebb. London : The Weardale Press, 1929. * (with Edward Fuller) ''The white flame: the story of the Save the children fund'', London, New York: Longmans, Green and Co.; London: The Weardale Press, Ltd., 1931. * (as 'An English Protestant') ''The Church Struggle in Germany: A Survey of Four Years, March 1933-July 1937'', London, 1937. * ''The Religious Crisis in Germany'', Kulturkampf Association: London, 938.* (ed. and tr.) ''I Was In Prison: letters from German pastors'', Student Christian Movement Press: London, 1938 * ''The economics of the refugee problem'', ondon Focus Publishing Co.,

938 Year 938 ( CMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – The Hungarian army invades Northern Italy with the permission of King H ...

* (with Norman Angell) ''You and the refugee: the moral and economics of the problem'', Harmondsworth : Penguin Books Ltd., 1939. Translated into Spanish by F. Fernández de la Madroñera as ''El crimen de nuestro tiempo: la raza blanca en peligro'', 1943. * (ed. with a foreword) ''Christendom on trial : documents of the German church struggle, 1938-39'', London: Friends of Europe,

939 Year 939 ( CMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Hugh the Great, count of Paris, rebels against King Louis IV ("d'Outremer") and gains su ...

* (ed. and completed) ''Prophets of heaven & hell: Virgil, Dante, Milton, Goethe'' by

. Cambridge: The University Press, 1945

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buxton, Dorothy 1881 births 1963 deaths English activists English humanitarians English women activists Liberal Party (UK) politicians Labour Party (UK) people English Quakers Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people People from Ellesmere, Shropshire Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Life

Works

Archives

References

External links