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Margaret Beavan (1877–1931) By John Archibald Berrie, painted in 1928. National Museums Collection Walker Art Gallery |
Margaret Beavan, (1875–1931), was born at 28 Bowring Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, on 1st August 1875, she was the eldest daughter of Jeffrey Beavan, a bookkeeper and later fire insurance manager, and his wife, Ellen Catherine Williams. The Beavans were a close family who lived in comfortable circumstances. The family did at one time briefly emigrate to the United States, however, the climate proved unsuitable for the younger children. Margaret herself suffered from bronchitis and they returned home. Margaret regularly attended Sefton Park Presbyterian Church.
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Belvedere School-Belvidere Road-Princes Park-1900 |
The Beavans strongly believed in educating their daughters, and both Margaret and her younger sister Jessie attended Liverpool's Belvedere School as day pupils. This school was a popular choice among the local middle classes, and fellow pupils included Maude Royden, a preacher and suffragist. Established in 1880 and housed in a row of elegant period villas, the school looked every inch the independent establishment it was designed to be.
Margaret Beavan was not particularly clever academic however she was a diligent and popular pupil, and ended her school career as head girl. She went on to Royal Holloway College at Egham, Surrey, where she studied mathematics, French, and English for three years (1894–7) but opted to sit no formal degree. She returned to the family home and took over responsibility for running the home and caring for her recently widowed mother. Margaret began voluntary teaching for the Earle Road Mission, a working-class Sunday school overseen by Sefton Park church. Here she discovered an aptitude for the work and especially for coping with the more difficult adolescent boys.
Through
Belvedere Old Girls' Association, Margaret Beavan renewed an acquaintance with
Edith Eskrigge who was now working at the Liverpool Victoria settlement. The
settlement was looking for a teacher to run small classes for disabled children
who had no formal educational provision in the city, and Margaret was persuaded
to undertake this work. 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. But 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 its, the Settlement concentrated on poverty relief for the people
living in squalid conditions, including the provision of food and medical
attention.
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Victoria Settlement, Netherfield Road, 1949 |
The move from
Earle Road Mission to the Victoria settlement was a significant one for
Margaret, as it took her out of the realm of Christian voluntary work. and she
quickly established herself at the as a worker with a special interest in
invalid children, often referred to as the Little Mother of Liverpool. As well
as the Victoria settlement school she became a visitor for the Kyrle Society, a
charity working with invalid children. in 1891 a Mr A V Paton a man who devoted
all of his time to helping children and the West Kirby Convalescent Home for
Children noticed the work being done by Margaret Beavan and With his guidance,
they started the ‘Invalid Children's Aid’. A society built around a London
model founded a few years earlier. It was manned by volunteers who tried to
help sick children to go to the country for convalescent. Unfortunately it was
quite disorganised as they literally picked children up off the streets. This
was starting to get beyond the means of the Kyrle Society, so they had to look
for help somewhere else, and they subsequently joined with the Crippled
Childrens' Workshops that were better organised and functioning well. In January
1908, the Invalid Children's Association was founded. The name was to changed in
1919 it became the Liverpool Child Welfare Association. Margaret Beavan was its
chief from its inception in 1907 until her death in 1931.
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Open air Hospital, Tuberculosis wards, Leasowe. |
This new group
was tremendously successful in promoting child welfare. Its most famous success
was the establishment of the Leasowe Open-Air Hospital for Children, on the
Wirral peninsula, which pioneered treatment of paediatric tubercular cases. Before
Leasowe Open Air Hospital was completed most TB children were in non-specialised
adult hospitals in Liverpool. They would attend Leasowe for short stays, and
Margaret Beavan often transported them herself, treating them to café teas
which formed a vital part of her holistic approach to patient care. She
believed in helping mothers as well as children, and organized several holidays
for ‘tired mothers’, which she always extended to unmarried women.
Her dedication
to children kept Margaret Beavan away from political matters, however, she was
a passive advocate of constitutional suffrage campaigns, but never very
involved in this work, although she occasionally appeared in support of her
sister Jessie who held office in the local branch of the National Union of
Women's Suffrage Societies. It was only after the war that she took advantage
of the new political climate, seeing this as a way to advance her deep concern
for children and their welfare. It was in 1920 she became Liverpool's first
woman magistrate, selected for her record of work with disadvantaged
youngsters. Despite her privileged background she was sympathetic to many of
the cases she encountered. She used her position on the probation committee and
her philanthropic contacts to establish a working boys' home aimed at giving
first offenders a new start in life.
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Margaret Beavan, First appearance wearing robes Armistice 1927 |
Her lack of political astuteness was painfully obvious when she undertook a civic visit to Italy in May 1928. She was greatly impressed by what she perceived as advances in child welfare under Mussolini, and greeted him warmly in Rome. Such ill-considered actions undermined public confidence and in the May 1929 general election when Margaret stood as a Conservative parliamentary candidate for Everton, she was defeated by her Labour opponent. This was the first time she had lost a campaign, and she took it very much to heart. However she was far more concerned that the errors she had made as a politician were damaging the reputation of her children's charities. Although opposition came from all quarters she increasingly blamed local socialists and this, combined with her actions in Italy, made her particularly unpopular among the very classes for whom she had worked so tirelessly.
She died,
unmarried, after an attack of influenza, with chest complications, on 22
February 1931 at the Hospital for Children at Leasowe, which she had helped to
found, and was buried at Childwall parish church, Liverpool. Her death allowed
for some rehabilitation of her reputation at a large civic memorial service.
However, the achievements of her public life have never been fully separated
from the mistakes of her final years, and she remains an obscure historical
figure in Liverpool, despite her dedication to the people of the city and her prominence in Liverpool life.
Sources
Liverpool Central Library
Liverpool Records Office papers and
photographs
I. A. Ireland, Margaret Beavan of
Liverpool (1938)
P. J. Waller, Democracy and sectarianism:
1868–1939 (1981)
Child Welfare Association archives
Child Welfare Association MSS
Robert F Edwards
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