Clara Grant
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Clara Ellen Grant
OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(21 June 1867 – 10 October 1949), known as 'The Farthing Bundle Woman of Bow', was an educator, a pioneer in London of infant children's education,Maria Castrillo
'Unlocking the power of youth: Clara Grant and her pioneering educational work in the East End of London'
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
, Senate House Library (2018)
and a social reformer. She founded in 1907 the Fern Street Settlement, set up to feed and clothe poor and hungry children in the East End of London.


Early life

Clara Grant was born in the village of Chapmanslade in
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
in 1867, one of nine children born to Maria and Thomas Grant, a painter and glazier. Her home was one of books as both her parents were well-read, while her father was a self-taught musician and the organist at the local church. Grant described herself as 'the only plain one of a family of good-looking sisters' However, she developed other skills including intelligence, independence, diplomacy and a strong social conscience. Aged 5, she was one of the first pupils of Chapmanslade's new national school, where she proved to be a headstrong and difficult student. In 1875, she and her family moved to
Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...
where for a brief period she attended a national school followed by a seminary for young ladies in Fromefield. By the age of 13, she was a pupil teacher at Christ Church infants' school and by the age of 14, she was senior pupil teacher. Hers was a Christian upbringing and as a young woman, Grant had an independent streak, deciding to further her own education in order to become a teacher in London, to which aim in 1886 she undertook training at Salisbury Diocesan Training College.Morse, Elizabeth J.
Clara Ellen Grant
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (2012)


Career

Her first teaching job was as headmistress in a church school in her home village in 1888. From late 1890 to 1893 Grant achieved her ambition of teaching in London when she was the head of a small school in
Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. It was Historic counties of England, historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. Hoxton lies north-east of the City of London, is considered to be a part of London's East End ...
, then a deprived area. During this period she advanced her own education through a series of university extension courses and lectures at
Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England that does not accept students or award degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the Will (law), will of Sir Thomas Gresham, ...
. Apart from a brief and unfulfilling period teaching at a boarding school in 1893, from 1894 to 1900 Grant dedicated her life to working with the poorest children in
Wapping Wapping () is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between Tower Bridge to the west, and Shadwell to the east. This posit ...
, then one of the most deprived areas of London. In 1896, Grant added to her Christmas card a short 'wants list' through which she hoped for the donation of old clothes and unwanted household goods for her pupils' families. From this list, she little realised she would develop her life's work. It had been her intention to join the universities' mission to central Africa, but instead she was to devote her life to the children of the East End of London. In 1900, she was appointed headmistress of All Hallows School in Bow, one of five small schools in the area, all of which were made of tin. In 1905, Devons Road Infants' School in
Bromley-by-Bow Bromley, commonly known as Bromley-by- Bow, is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, located on the western banks of the River Lea, in the Lower Lea Valley in East London. It is an inner-city suburb located 4.7 mil ...
, a new purpose-built school opened to accommodate all the children from the tin schools, with Grant again as headmistress.Clara Grant on the Clara Grant Primary School website
/ref>


Charitable work

A disciple of the German educator
Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique nee ...
who originated the
kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
, Grant came to believe that children could not be taught effectively if they were cold, hungry and unhappy. In 1907 she set up the Fern Street Settlement, initially in her own home but from 1911 in a series of converted terraced cottages to feed and clothe the children of the poor of the East End of London. The Settlement fostered links to the Voluntary Health Visiting Association, which sent a staff member and a nurse once a month for one year to visit each baby born to a family with a child at Devons Road Infants School. Inspired by the work of the
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
priest and social reformer Samuel Barnett of
Toynbee Hall Toynbee Hall is a charitable institution that works to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the East End of London and elsewhere. Established in 1884, it is based in Commercial Street, Spitalfields, and was the first university-affili ...
among the poor of
Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...
and
Spitalfields Spitalfields () is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and situated in the East End of London, East End. Spitalfields is formed around Commercial Street, London, Commercial Stre ...
, Grant organised hot breakfasts for her young pupils, buying porridge, milk, bread and butter from her own pocket. In addition, she supplied her pupils with clothing and boots. Realising that children needed to be able to play in 1913 she conceived the idea of the 'Farthing Bundle' of toys costing a
farthing Farthing or farthings may refer to: Coinage *Farthing (British coin), an old British coin valued one quarter of a penny ** Half farthing (British coin) ** Third farthing (British coin) ** Quarter farthing (British coin) *Farthing (English c ...
, a scheme that was to last for more than fifty years. The toys in each bundle were made from recycled materials and were distributed to poor children. In this way, a piece of firewood could be fashioned into a simple doll by wrapping it in newspaper; while a pair of worn stockings stuffed and tied with string could be used as cricket balls. Other gifts might include whistles, shells, beads, reels, marbles, fancy boxes, decorated pill boxes, ballroom pencils, scraps of patchwork, odds and ends of silk or wool, coloured paper for dressing up, cigarette cards and scraps.Definition of Farthing Bundles
- Oxford Reference
Queen Mary visited the Settlement after which she often sent Grant greetings cards to be reused in the 'bundles'. Demand for the 'farthing bundles' became so great that Grant decided she could only assist her smaller charges, and as she did not have time to inquire of their age or anything about them she devised a wooden arch 4 feet 4½ inches high on which was engraved the phrase "Enter Now Ye Children Small; None Can Come Who Are Too Tall". The children had to pass through this arch without stooping before they could receive a bundle. On average 500 children would begin queuing at 6 am to walk through the arch. The children paid a farthing per bundle which Grant intended to give the children the dignity of feeling that they were not receiving charity but had actually paid for their gift. It also gave them the right to complain if they felt their bundle was inadequate. So that taller children would not be left out, Grant later set up a 'penny shop'. The 'farthing bundles' operated throughout
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the Depression of the 1930s,
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and into the 1960s, some years after Grant's death. In 1964 a boy might have found in his bundle a comic, a cardboard aeroplane, a pencil and notebook, chalks, marbles in a matchbox, a ball and a toy car – all for ½d (half an old penny), farthings having been out of circulation since 1961. During WWI, Grant helped with organising the local air raid shelter and comforted those who had lost loved ones during the conflict. Grant retired from teaching in 1927 but was never able to bring herself to retire from the Settlement. Grant published a series of nine manuals for infant school teachers to promote her views on the importance of play and recreation for children. To that aim she advocated for parks and organized sports for children and outings for their mothers. Her ''The Teacher's Book of Toy Making'' was published in 1917, while her book ''The Teacher's Book of Drawing Chats: A Series of Chats for Babies Accompanied by Drawings'' was published by Evans Brothers of London shortly after. She later wrote two autobiographical and self-published works to raise money for her educational and philanthropic work: ''From 'Me' to 'We': Forty Years on Bow Common'' (1930) and ''Farthing Bundles'' (1930).


Honours

In 1949, aged 81, Grant was awarded an
OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
for her services to education. She later wrote, "To me has fallen the happy task of sharing gifts among our people. There is nothing so embarrassing as wearing as an ill-fitting halo – but a life one would not change for any other."


Death

Clara Grant died in 1949 aged 82 at her home at 38 Fern Street and was buried in
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is a historic cemetery, cemetery,public park and local nature reserve (including a Site of Nature Conservation Interest, Metropolitan Site of National Importance for Nature Conservation) in the London Borough of Tow ...
, near to her Fern Street Settlement. She never married.


Legacy

She is commemorated by the Clara Grant Primary School – renamed from the Devons School in 1993 – and Clara Grant House in Mellish Street on the
Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England. It includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Haml ...
. In 2014 Grant was recognised by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with a purple People's Plaque on the wall outside the Settlement in Fern Street, the work of which continues to this day. In 2015 a
blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
was unveiled on her former home in
Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...
in recognition of her lifetime's work in education.Honouring our past heroes in education - David Warburton: Member of Parliament for Somerton & Frome website
/ref> In recent years Grant has been criticised for failing to advocate birth control as a means of alleviating poverty and for failing to recognise the social causes of poverty. Her claim that she did not want to get involved in the contraception issue gives more the impression of a Victorian spinster's reluctance to discuss such matters than a failure to understand the problem. Certainly, she clearly understood the connection between poverty and its social causes as much of her writing comments on society's responsibility towards its poorer members in the matters of health, housing and recreation.


References


External links


Clara Ellen Grant - The East End website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Clara 1867 births 1949 deaths People from Frome People from Bow, London 20th-century British philanthropists British social reformers Heads of schools in England Burials in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire