A Liverpool Exemplar - Janet McCrindell

 

Unlike other well known social reformers of that age, such as Eleanor Rathbone, Dorothy Keeling and Margaret Simey, little is known of Janet Edith McCrindell who was also a prominent figure of that time. Frederick D'Aeth was a disillusioned minister who, at the age of 30, moved to Liverpool in 1905 to teach at Liverpool University. Though largely unheralded, he went on to be a central figure in the transition from Victorian notions of private philanthropy to the modern conception of the welfare state. His pioneering work in the field of social administration as well as his indefatigable efforts to convince charitable groups in Liverpool to coordinate their disparate efforts provided insight for Janet Edith McCrindell.
He had taken an appointment as junior lecturer at Liverpool University and was the first paid lecturer in the newly-formed School for Social Work Training. Integral to the development of the School as a centre for training, in 1909 he became Director of Reports for the Liverpool Council for Voluntary Aid, in which position he ably co-ordinated diverse charitable organisations both within Liverpool and farther afield, in the pioneering use of outstanding social administration skills. This acted as a form of communication between charities and the Poor Law institutions. A lot of its work also involved developing juvenile groups, such as boys and girls clubs and in 1917 he took an office in Castle Street where Jane McCrindell was appointed to develop the Guilds of Help into full blown Citizens' Institutes. Jane had inherited a large family Victorian house and took in as boarders a number of professional women who were pioneers in pursuing equal opportunities as lawyers, house property managers, etc. Here Margaret Simey would type Janet's letters, deal with callers, answer the phone and help run the house. Margaret became the first female graduate in social science from Liverpool University in 1928. They would become the first female academics, the first generation 'professional' women to lead independant lives away from their families. 

In 1920 Janet was a secretary on the Personal Service Committee for Liverpool Council's 'Merseyside Recreation Fund' together with Frederick D'Aeth, Secretary and Miss Dorothy Keeling. She has left a vivid account of the first 'social work' course at Liverpool University 1908-9 in Margaret Simey’s 'From Rhetoric to Reality: Life and Work of Frederick D’Aeth', during which time she was at the famous Victoria Settlement on Netherfield Road North that served the people of Everton for the best part of 100 years. The community centre, founded in 1897, crossed all the age boundaries with its community work and was still going strong up to the 1970s. Set in an elevated position between York Terrace, Hobart Street and Melbourne Street, its main buildings were originally old merchants' houses dating back to the late 1700s. The centre began its work at a time when Everton had some of the worst slums in the North West and pioneered many developments in social work. It always saw its main priority as a focal point for community development in Everton, reaching out to the families in those steep terraced streets in one of the most densely populated areas of the city. In the early days the Settlement concentrated on poverty relief for the people living in squalid conditions, including the provision of food and medical attention. However folk singing and dancing also took place here and they learned Morris dancing from Florrie Warren in 1907; the following year Warren returned for a month and on Midsummer Eve there was probably the first North Country Open Air Festival before it gave its first public display in 1910. In an article in the EFDS News ( English Folk Dance and Song ), Janet recalls earlier times around Liverpool, "About this time, (1909 or ’10) some of us started propaganda in the Yorkshire villages taking the opportunity of a holiday in a farmhouse on the slopes of Fugleborough. This first 'Travelling Morrice' (on bicycles) was, alas, only a women's side (although a village boy accompanied us as a fiddler.)." Margaret Simey was at that time a student and she recalls, "It wasn't part of my course. The course had no practical work whatsoever. It was strictly theoretical. But Janet got me roped in to one of the leading girls' clubs, which was a real education, down by the docks. It was on the strength of that kind of reference that I suppose I got the job. She was a very competent youth leader indeed." Margaret kept in touch with Janet McCrindell, Dorothy Keeling, Josephine Duckworth as she believed, " that generation were alright, because they’d been reared as suffragettes and they knew, that was why we wanted to vote, that you could get political action."

In December 1927 a meeting took place at the Liverpool University Settlement attended by representatives of numerous agencies including the police and the education authorities to discuss the need to tackle the 'problem' of half-caste children. The meeting led to the founding of the Liverpool Association for the Welfare of Half-Caste Children with chairman Professor Percy Roxby from the Department of Geography at Liverpool University joined by others including Miss Janet McCrindell; the Warden of the David Lewis Club, a girls club associated with the Men's University Settlement.

Janet was appointed an area organiser in 1931 for the Townswomen Guilds.formed to carry forward the work of political education started by the Womens Citizens Association. She was organiser for the area and was one of the first ever who had taken the Sanitary Workers Certificate because there was no social work certificate. Here she continued to train Margaret Simey who had worked as secretary and housekeeper for her a lot in youth work. She subsequently acted as D'aeth's lieutenant in promoting the Guilds of Help before becoming warden of the large girl's club associated with the Men's University Settlement.

A newspaper report of the time stated, 'Miss Janet McCrindell, a member of the British Federation of University Women, in the course of a tour of New Zealand, arrived in Christchurch from the West Coast on Saturday, and was yesterday afternoon entertained at Ballantynes by members of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Federation of University Women. Miss McCrindell,who was welcomed by Mrs B. C. Penney, president of the local branch, is greatly interested in social welfare, and in appreciation of many years of active social work and also of valuable social research work, she was honoured by the Liverpool University in 1936 by having the honorary degree of Master of Arts conferred upon her. At the gathering she spoke interestingly of her work.'  

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/05/a-liverpool-exemplar-samuel-hope.html