ACTRESSES AS WORKING WOMEN 78

THE SOCIAL DYNAMIC AND ‘RESPECTABILITY’

for daily survival had no time to sew infants’ clothes. The events
leading up to an application could involve prolonged and
complicated hardship yet the need could be remarkably simple,
as this woman’s request for a walking dress for herself and clothing
for her 7- and 5-year-old children shows:
My husband was for years at—, but continued illness in the
form of rheumatism has deprived him of the use of his hands….
I have wandered about doing what I could—a short
engagement, for which I got very little money, set me up for a
time till my youngest child was born. I had to cut up some of
my own things, bad as they were, to provide it with clothing….
When I was strong enough I joined Mr.—’s company, with
whom I was for four weeks, getting an average of 10s. a week,
and sometimes my eldest child was able to earn a little more
by going on when required. But business was terribly bad, and
I had no money to send my husband. Then I secured an
engagement at—where I had to walk. It was very wet, and
when I arrived I was very ill from cold and want of food…. All
seemed bright again, when business fell off, and again my share
dropped down to a few shillings a week. I have pawned all I
can possibly do without, and now am looking forward with
some degree of hope, for Mr.—has promised to give me an
engagement. But I cannot join him for want of clothing. I do
not want money.42
From June 1892, clothing for six-month old infants, children, and
adults was also dispensed for a small charge, depending on an
applicant’s ability to pay, along with tickets for the Convalescent
Dinners Society and admittance to maternity hospitals and a seaside
convalescent home.

The radical nature of the Guild is apparent in the report of the
first annual general meeting, in February 1893, when 320 of the 355
members gathered on the stage of the Lyceum Theatre. Mrs Theodore
Wright urged that women doctors be employed in maternity cases.
More surprisingly, Geneviève Ward chastised members who claimed
that the Guild encouraged immorality, and she successfully ‘pleaded
for deserving women to be still helped, without reference to
husbands’. Fanny Brough, the President, emphatically assured
everyone that the Guild would continue to assist single mothers—
which was more than the Royal Maternity Charity was prepared to
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