Emily Hobhouse (1860–1926)

Emily Hobhouse was born in Cornwall, England, the daughter of a clergyman and his wife, and educated at home. She lived at home and cared for her father until his death in 1895. After this, she became involved in social work and political reform in the UK and USA. With her younger brother, L.T. (Leonard) Hobhouse, she was an active member of the Adult Suffrage Society. She opposed the Boer War and spoke against it at public meetings. In 1900, after learning of the dreadful conditions for Boer women and children driven from their homes by the British Army, she formed the Relief Fund for South African Women and Children and traveled to South Africa. She obtained permission to visit the concentration camp at Bloemfontein established by the British Army. Over the next few weeks, she visited several other camps and the town of Mafeking. Everywhere she went, she pointed out the unsanitary conditions and inadequate rations. She returned to England and published her "Report of a Visit to the Camps of Women and Children in the Cape and Orange River Colonies" to try to persuade the British government to bring an end to the British "scorched earth" policy and concentration camps. David Lloyd George and Charles Trevelyan took up the case in Parliament; however, there was little sympathy among the members for the Boers. She returned to South Africa in 1903 and helped set up 27 schools in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State teaching young women how to spin and weave. She was also a vigorous opponent of British involvement in World War I. In the 1920s, suffering from ill health, she accepted funds sent to her by the Boer people in order to buy a home in St. Ive, Cornwall.