Agatha Mary Harrison (1885–1954) was an English industrial welfare reformer and unofficial diplomat.

Life

Harrison was born in

Sandhurst, Berkshire Sandhurst is a town and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest borough in Berkshire, England. It is in the south eastern corner of Berkshire, and is situated west-southwest of central London, north west of Camberley and south of Bracknell. S ...

to a Methodist minister and his wife. She did not attend university but she gained some education as a pupil teacher.Agatha Harrison
Quakers in Action, Retrieved 20 March 2017 She joined Boots the Chemist and then the

Metal Box Company A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typical ...

where she was an advocate for women's rights. Despite her lack of academic qualification she was appointed to the first Industrial Relations academic post at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

in 1917. Three years later the

Young Women's Christian Association The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

sent her to investigate industrial conditions in China. She found child labour and she managed the difficult task of persuading employers to stop this exploitation. Geoffrey Carnall, ‘Harrison, Agatha Mary (1885–1954)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 20 March 2017
/ref> In the 1920s she went to America to continue her work with the YWCA. She returned to the UK in 1928 to work for the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

. She served as an assistant to

Beryl Power Beryl Millicent Le Poer Power (September 17, 1891 – November 4, 1974) was a British civil servant. She ran a number of programmes during the second world war and worked in China for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration af ...

who was working for the Whitley Commission looking at labour conditions. She met Gandhi and agreed to help him with the cause of India's independence. She spent long periods in India working so closely with Gandhi that she was a go-between during his hunger strike in 1939. After the war she returned to help with negotiations. She and

Charles Freer Andrews Charles Freer Andrews (12 February 1871 – 5 April 1940) was an Anglican priest and Christian missionary, educator and social reformer, and an activist for Indian independence. He became a close friend of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gan ...

arranged for Gandhi to visit the UK.Agatha Harrison
Open University, Retrieved 20 March 2017

Death and legacy

Harrison died in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

in 1954 at a peace conference held to discuss the

French Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

and she was buried locally. The Indian government founded a scholarship in Harrison's name at

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics ...

.Agatha Harrison Memorial Fellowship for Indian Student in the UK, 2016-2017
2016, Retrieved 20 March 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Agatha 1885 births 1954 deaths People from Sandhurst, Berkshire English Quakers Indian nationalists