Ruth Homan (8 August 1850 – 6 November 1938) was an educationist and women's welfare campaigner, who worked for many years on the

London School Board The School Board for London, commonly known as the London School Board (LSB), was an institution of local government and the first directly elected body covering the whole of London. The Elementary Education Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75) was ...

. She was also active in Liberal politics, and a supporter of progressive social policies. The

Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

holds a collection of Homan's scrapbooks and albums.

Life

Ruth Homan was born 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 ...

, London to Sir Sydney Waterlow, a philanthropist and politician, and Anna Maria (née Hickson). In 1873, she married Francis Wilkes Homan, but was widowed in 1880. The couple had one daughter, Winifred. Winifred lived with her mother at Fairseat, Tintagel, until she married Philip Stephens.

Work for the London School Board

Her family had been politically active, and friends of her father included

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...

. When she ran for the London School Board in 1891, she had prepared herself through stints as a school manager, a probationer at

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by ...

, and with the Country Holidays Fund (a charity). She also took cooking classes at the

South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...

School of Cookery. She was elected to the School Board as the representative for

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a borough in London, England. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames and immediately east of the City of London, the borough spans much of the traditional East End of London and includes much of ...

, and held the role until the School Board was abolished in 1903. A supporter of the Liberal Party and advocate of progressive policies, Homan "endorsed the development of the higher grade and evening continuation schools, the teaching of temperance principles in board school, and special teaching for 'afflicted' and delicate children." In addition to her work on the School Board, she was prominent in other charitable organisations, including the Poplar Board School Children's Boot and Clothing Help Society and the London Schools Dinners Association. Homan was also a member of council of the Women's Industrial Council, a vice-president of the Pupil-Teachers Association, and a member of a Club of Working Girls in the city. Homan was president of the Cornish Union of Women's Liberal Associations, as well as of the Hammersmith Women's Liberal Association. Alongside other liberal, upper-middle class London women, she was a member of the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Women's Local Government Society The Women's Local Government Society was a British campaign group which aimed to get women into local government. Its initial focus was on county councils but its remit later covered other local government roles such as school boards. History The ...

(WLGS). From 1910, for 11 years, Homan served as a

Poor Law Guardian Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930. England and Wales Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the poor ...

for

Ewell Ewell ( , ) is a town in Surrey, England, south of Centre of London, central London and northeast of Epsom. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 Census, it had a population of 34,872. The majority (73%) was in the NRS social grade, ABC1 ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

The Ethical Movement

With

Stanton Coit Stanton George Coit (11 August 1857 – 15 February 1944) was an American-born leader of the Ethical movement in England. He became a British citizen in 1903. Biography Stanton Coit was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 11 August 1857. He studied at ...

Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, mountaineer, and an Ethical Culture, Ethical movement activist. He was also the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell and the ...

, and Corrie Grant, Ruth Homan was a founding member of the West London Ethical Society in 1892, one of the formative bodies of the Union of Ethical Societies (which became

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

). The West London Ethical Society, part of the early

Ethical movement The Ethical movement (also the Ethical Culture movement, Ethical Humanism, and Ethical Culture) is an ethical, educational, and religious movement established in 1877 by the academic Felix Adler (1851–1933).

Death

After the death of her husband Ruth Homan moved to Tintagel where she built a large house called Fairseat after her childhood home in London. Towards the end of her life, Ruth Homan lived in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, where she was president of the

Tintagel Tintagel () or Trevena (, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle ...

Nursing Association and her local branch of the

Women's Institute The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organization for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being the ...

. She also established the village's social hall. She died on 6 November 1938 and was cremated at

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Crematorium.

References

{{authority control 1850 births 1938 deaths English feminists Members of the London School Board English humanists British educational theorists Educators from London Activists from London Ethical movement

Ruth Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ark ...