Lettice Fisher ( Ilbert; 14 June 1875 – 14 February 1956) was the founder of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, now known as

Gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as ...

. She was also an economist and a historian.

Background and education

Lettice Ilbert was born on 14 June 1875 in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London to

Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, (12 June 1841 – 14 May 1924) was a distinguished British lawyer and civil servant who served as legal adviser to the Viceroy of India's Council for many years until his eventual return from India to England. Hi ...

and his wife, Jessie. She was educated at

Francis Holland School Francis Holland School is the name of two separate private day schools for girls in central London, England, governed by the Francis Holland ( Church of England) Schools Trust. The schools are located at Clarence Gate (near Regent's Park NW1 ...

, London and

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, where she was awarded a first in modern history in 1897. She worked as a researcher at the London School of Economics from 1897 to 1898. From 1902 to 1913, she taught history at

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accepte ...

, and she also taught economics for the Association for the Higher Education of Women in Oxford. Whilst at Oxford, Fisher was also involved in voluntary work in housing, public health and child welfare. She was an active suffragist, chairing the national executive of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) from 1916 to 1918. She ran to become President of the NUWSS in 1919, following Millicent Fawcett‘s post-war resignation, but was defeated by

Eleanor Rathbone Eleanor Florence Rathbone (12 May 1872 – 2 January 1946) was an independent British Member of Parliament (MP) and long-term campaigner for family allowance and for women's rights. She was a member of the noted Rathbone family of Liverpool. E ...

The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child

During World War I, Fisher undertook welfare work among women munitions workers in Sheffield. It was the wartime scale of illegitimacy and its resulting hardships that led her, in 1918, to found the

National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child Gingerbread says it is the leading British charity working with single parent families. The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, founded in 1918, changed its name to the National Council for One Parent Families in the early 1970 ...

, in order to challenge the stigma associated with single parent families, and to provide them with the support they needed. The Council aimed to reform the Bastardy Acts and Affiliation Orders Acts, which discriminated against illegitimate children, and also to address the higher death rates of children born outside marriage, by providing accommodation for single mothers and their babies. They also provided practical advice and assistance to single parents, and helped with their inquiries. Lettice Fisher was the first chair of the Council (from 1918 to 1950), with

Sybil Neville-Rolfe Sybil Neville-Rolfe OBE (22 June 1885 – 3 August 1955) was a social hygienist and founder of the Eugenics Society, and a leading figure in the National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases. She has been described as a feminist and a eug ...

acting as the deputy chair.

Family life

In July 1899, she married

Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher H.A.L. Fisher: ''A History of Europe, Volume II: From the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century to 1935'', Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, 1984, p. i. (21 March 1865 – 18 April 1940) was an English historian, educator, a ...

, a tutor at New College, Oxford, who had taught her as an undergraduate. He sat as Liberal Member of Parliament in Sheffield Hallam in 1916-18 and became Warden of New College in 1925. In 1913, they had one daughter, Mary Bennett, who became principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford, from 1965 to 1980. After her husband's death in 1940, she moved to Thursley in Surrey. She died there on 14 February 1956 after suffering a stroke. After cremation her ashes were interred at New College, Oxford.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Lettice 1875 births 1956 deaths Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford British economists British women economists People from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea British suffragists People educated at Francis Holland School Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford