Dame Geraldine Cadbury,
DBE ( Southall; 29 June 186430 January 1941)
was a British
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
, author, social and penal reformer. Geraldine was one of the first women in Birmingham to become a
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
. From 1923, she chaired the justices’ panel in the Children's Court of Birmingham. In the 1930s she assumed prominent positions on several Home Office Committees and International Associations.
[
]
Early life
Geraldine Southall was born in Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, the daughter of Alfred Southall (1838–1931), a chemist by trade and a temperance
Temperance may refer to:
Moderation
*Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed
*Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion
Culture
*Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...
worker who taught a working men's adult school class, whilst her Irish mother, Anna Strangman Grubb (1841-1912), was a supporter of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
.[ Geraldine was educated at ]Edgbaston High School
Edgbaston High School for Girls is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for girls aged to 18 in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England.
History
In 1846, Elizabeth Brady founded a school in Edgbaston for the daughters o ...
for Girls and briefly at the Quaker school, The Mount, York. She married Barrow Cadbury (1862–1958) in 1891 with whom she had three children, Dorothy Adlington Cadbury
Dorothy Adlington Cadbury (14 October 1892 – 21 August 1987) was an English botanist and director of confectionery company Cadbury's.
Born in Birmingham, she was the oldest child of Dame Geraldine Cadbury (1864–1941) and Barrow Cadbury (18 ...
, (1892–1987), Paul Strangman Cadbury (1895–1984), and Geraldine Mary Cadbury (1900–1999).
Social and Penal Reform
Geraldine Cadbury worked as a volunteer social worker in Birmingham’s pioneering Children’s Court and as a volunteer probation worker.[ The Greet Free Kindergarten in Birmingham was opened in a room supplied by Geraldine Cadbury in 1904 using staff from the Froebel college in Edgbaston.
It was the initiative of Julia Lloyd, a Quaker, of the banking family who had studied in Germany at the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus and then returned to work with Caroline Bishop.
In 1920, following the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, Geraldine was one of the first women in Birmingham to become a ]magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
.[ From 1923, she chaired the justices’ panel in the Children’s Court. In 1925,] Geraldine was appointed to th
Home Office Departmental Committee on the Treatment of Young Offenders
which paved the way for the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (23 & 24 Geo.5 c.12) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It consolidated all existing child protection legislation for England and Wales i ...
.
In 1928, Geraldine helped design the second purpose-built juvenile court in England and over the next few years, she was appointed to a number of prominent positions on Home Office Committees and International Associations, including;
* 1930 Home Office Committee to Enquire Into Juvenile Courts in the Metropolitan Police District
* 1932 and the Home Office Juvenile Court Rules Committee
* 1934 Conference on Girls aged 15–17 Appearing before London Juvenile Courts
* 1935 Appointed Vice-president of the International Association of Children’s Court judges
* 1938 Home Office Committee to consider Observation Centres
Geraldine Southall Cadbury travelled widely investigating juvenile justice provision in Europe, America, New Zealand and Australia.
In 1938, she published Young Offenders Yesterday and To-day, Published by George Allen & Unwin
George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...
, 1938, a history of the treatment of young offenders in England from the reign of Athelstan in the tenth century to Geraldine's experiences of the juvenile justice system.
She was also known for her opposition to the death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
and from 1923 supported the work of what later became the National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.
Death
Dame Geraldine Cadbury died in 1941, in Birmingham, aged 76.
Awards
In 1918, she received the Medal of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in recognition of her humanitarian service in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
[
In 1937, she was made ]Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
for public and philanthropic services in Birmingham.[
]
The Barrow Cadbury Trust
The Barrow Cadbury Trust was founded in 1920 by Barrow and Geraldine Cadbury.Barrow Cadbury Trust website
barrowcadbury.org.uk; accessed 4 September 2015.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cadbury, Geraldine
British Quakers
British activists
British women activists
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Prison reformers
People from Birmingham, West Midlands
1864 births
1941 deaths
Geraldine