Family Planning People - Lella Florence

LELLA FLORENCE
CHAIRMAN BIRMINGHAM FPA 1951-1961

Lella Florence was probably the most influential figure in the history of the Birmingham Family Planning Association and certainly the most colourful. Lella arrived in Birmingham in 1929 after her husband Philip Sargent Florence was appointed to the Chair of Commerce in the Faculty of Commerce of the University of Birmingham. An American trained as an investigative journalist, she worked enormously hard for the causes she believed in most; the peace movement, left wing politics, women’s rights and birth control.

She had a high profile in the Birth Control movement following her major role in helping to set up the Cambridge Birth Control Clinic in 1925 and writing the report of the investigation into the methods and acceptance of contraceptive methods provided to the first 300 women at this clinic. This report ‘Birth Control on Trial’ was published the year following her arrival in Birmingham, and was very well received. It was this enquiry which caused her to set her heart on backing a search for simpler and safer methods of birth control.

Naturally she joined the Birmingham Women’s Welfare Centre as an active voluntary worker and then as a Committee Member. Despite her previous work, her continued enthusiasm and the talks she gave city wide, she appears to have made no major impact on the centre itself in the 30’s. She was not, perhaps, very comfortable with her colleagues at the centre and they were resistant to her suggestions. Instead she threw herself into her other main involvements in local socialist politics and the disarmament and peace movement..

During the war years Lella and Philip were for the most part away from Birmingham. On her return to permanent residence in 1946 she took up her interest in Birth Control and made it her major work. She succeeded to such an extent that it has frequently been said that she started the Family Planning Association in Birmingham after the war! Her return coincided with the general growth of interest in birth control by women and the renaming of the Women’s Welfare Centre as the Birmingham Family Planning Association in 1950.

She was undoubtedly a most dynamic person whose energy was boundless. She soon realised that the Association needed not only to expand but to publicise its work, particularly if a centre of excellence was to be created in Birmingham giving not only birth control advice but helping women with fertility problems as well as marital and sexual difficulties.. When she became Chairman in 1951 the Association felt the full force of her drive and personality. She introduced new younger voluntary helpers, doctors and nurses and wanted the clinic run on more open lines of co-operation between all workers, Lay workers were there to help patients overcome their apprehensions and to ensure that they left the clinic as reassured as possible. She believed very strongly that clinic workers on a session were a team; that volunteers needed to be as committed as salaried staff and that a greater involvement by lay workers in the actual clinic session was essential for the well-being of the patient.


There followed a remarkable 10 years of clinic growth, expansion of services and public awareness of the Association during her Chairmanship. She was on the FPA National Council in the first two years of her Chairmanship, but preferred to concentrate on Birmingham.

Family Planning People - Audrey Court

PORTRAIT
Audrey Court – Chairman of Birmingham FPA 1961-68

Audrey Court was born in India in 1913. Her parents were missionaries and her father was head of Bankura College, attached to Calcutta University. He later founded a Medical School there. From the age of nine Audrey was based on Birmingham in a medical milieu, her guardian was her uncle Sir Leonard Parsons, a noted Birmingham paediatrician.

She went to Birmingham University and lived in University House while she worked for her B.A. in Social and Political Science in the Faculty of Arts. Among her other activities she took up running as Redbrick universities like Birmingham gave equal opportunities in sport to men and women. In the Inter-Universities contest she was picked for the 1st British Women’s Team in 1933 for the Student Games inTurin, but she had to withdraw from the University in 1935 because of a chest infection and took no part in Athletics that year. On her return for her final year at University in 1936 she was picked for the British Olympic Team to run in the Berlin Olympic Games and gained a silver medal in the 4x400m relay.

After qualifying she worked in the Youth Employment Department in the Education Offices in Birmingham. In 1938 she took a short course in Personnel Management and moved to York where she had been appointed a Personnel Officer in Rowntrees. In 1940 she married Harry Court, a lecturer in Economic History in the Faculty of Commerce at Birmingham University, who had been her tutor and who had been one of Lella Florence’s first tenants at Highfield.

In 1943 she had her first daughter and returned to Birmingham in 1945. In these circumstances paid employment was out of the question and Audrey was searching for a ‘cause’ for which she could work in a voluntary capacity. Lella suggested she should work as a volunteer on a sessional basis at Masshouse Lane Women’s Welfare Centre. She was unable to do this until early 1949 because of the birth of her third daughter. She very much enjoyed the work and became involved in the running of the Association. When Lella Florence became Chairman of the Birmingham FPA on Mrs Emanuel’s death, Audrey became a Committee Member and the Hon. Secretary.

She joined Molly MacMillan on the West Midland Federation of which she became Chairman. She was a member of the FPA National Executive and of other national sub-committees. When Lella Florence retired she reluctantly became Chairman of the Birmingham FPA Executive Committee. It was due to Audrey’s energy, involvement and foresight that the great expansion of the work of the Birmingham FPA happened in the 60s; sub-clinics throughout the city; special services such as the Psycho -Sexual Clinic; Sub-fertility clinic and Domiciliary Service; the Pill and the IUD trials; and the encouraging and sponsoring of the Birmingham Brook Advisory Centre which held its first session at the FPA Frederick Road clinic.

In 1968 she left the FPA to become Chairman of Birmingham Brook Advisory Centre and later #]became a member of the Board of Brook and one of its Vice-presidents. For Audrey a 'cause’ had become her life’s work and she was honoured for it with an MBE in 1991. She is still a Vice President of Brook Advisory Centre and President of Birmingham Brook Advisory Centre. When Community Health Councils were set up in 1974 she became a member of South Birmingham CHC and remained an active member, serving as Chairman for a time, until her retirement in 1990.

Family Planning People - Betty Hayes

PORTRAIT
- Betty Hayes

Betty Hayes was born in Wolverhampton and originally trained as a ballet dancer. When she married she and her husband, a university lecturer lived in Canada for some time before returning to Birmingham to settle in King’s Heath. Betty started working at the King’s Heath FPA Clinic as a layworker in the early 70’s.

Betty was extremely organised in her work and her warm personality endeared her to all who came into contact with her. When the Midlands Region FPA started Betty came to help with various activities first as a volunteer, later as a paid worker, and stayed with the Region for 14 years until just before it closed down. She worked as an ad hoc Information Officer and took out bookstalls, set up displays and organised the service for FPA speakers for talks in schools. In 1986 she worked in the Workplace Project and visited over 20 firms taking part all over the Midlands. She played an invaluable role with the Occupational Health staff explaining how to run the project and keep their records.

In 1981 the Well Woman Clinic started on Monday afternoon and Betty took on a new role as Clinic Secretary , running the clinic smoothly and making contact with patients, doctors and nursing staff. To listen to her on the phone was an example of how people should really answer those with worries and in distress. When the Menopause Clinic Secretary left Betty took on the position of Clinic Manager ably assisted by Yvonne Cleland.

The Region ran numerous courses and conferences for professional staff. Betty helped to organise these and provided delicious home made food which made such a contribution to everyone’s enthusiasm and comfort. By popular request her recipe for tuna crumble was duplicated and given out to the numerous course participants.
Cynthia, Yvonne and Betty made up a successful team running the Midlands Region. She always looked lovely, was always amazingly helpful, wonderful in a time of crisis, and made a tremendous contribution to women’s health in the Midlands.

Family Planning People - Zoe Long

Midlands Region Chairmen
Zoe Long


The Region was fortunate to have four chairmen each of whom had the right expertise at the right time in the evolution of the Region. In the first decade the
Zoe Long took over as Chairman in 1979. Her great expertise had been in running courses for the FPA Education Unit in London, and devising imaginative visual aids for the speakers. Before she came to live in the Midlands she already knew many of the Regional members having worked with them on Appreciation Courses for Health Visitors and her advice was invaluable when the Region organised courses for Social Workers and later for Pharmacists.

She became very much involved with the ongoing meetings between the Region and the Birmingham Marriage Guidance Council both of which bodies fielded a number of their experienced speakers. The aim was to produce a pilot teaching programme and visual aids which could be offered to schools. The discussions concentrated on the idea of pooling experience and resources to make educational activities more effective. Here again her input was invaluable. A workshop was held to evaluate the material and approach and was attended by Maurice Greenyer of the Birmingham Education Department; useful information and views were exchanged although no material was eventually published.

The FPA nationally continued to agonise about its role and its future. Zoe Long represented the Midlands Region on a Working Party on 'The Future of the FPA’. She was able to review this role in relation to the Region while conscious of her previous National viewpoint when she worked in London. After many weeks of research and discussion it was concluded that the Association’s main role should be in the fields of information and education.


Janet Sinclair

Janet was elected Chairman in 1982. She had wide experience as a family planning nurse, FPA Speaker, Chairman of Solihull CHC and work as a J.P. Janet came into the FPA as a nurse in 1965 in the Severn and Wye Branch. She then worked at Frederick Road Clinic from 1975-80. In the Region she helped with many of the Regional activities, giving talks to Youth Clubs, schools, Young Farmer’s Clubs and women’s institutes; helping to fight for a good family planning service on the Solihull, CHC which she chaired; and as a tutor on Social Workers’ Courses.

She was very keen on the project work that the Region was initiating in the community with ethnic workers and was excellent as the Chairman Representative on the National Council. She was full of ideas and had suggested Group Membership of the FPA to help raise money, which schools could join. But nothing came of it at National Level. She had enthusiasm and good sound common sense. When the Region was offered the opportunity to buy new premises she was extremely keen and supportive and continued her support through all the negotiations.

Family Planning People - Dr Bill Kind

PORTRAIT
Dr Bill Kind
Bill Kind became the first Chairman of the newly formed FPA Midlands Region based in Birmingham in 1976. He had been involved with the FPA both nationally and locally in Leicester where he lived for many years. In Leicester he and his wife Anne initiated the family planning service which Anne ran for many years afterwards. He not only drew up the way the clinic should be run but with Anne designed the layout of the clinics with its doctor’s rooms, sterilisation bays and nurses’ services.

He was influential in the Leicestershire Health Authority for more than 30 years. First as Medical Officer of Health for Oadby, Wigton and Market Harborough; then as Community Physician first for the Royal Infirmary, Leicester. After the reorganisation of the NHS in 1974 he became Community Physician for Leicestershire North West District until his retirement in 1982. He was also the Chief Scientific Adviser to Leicester County Council.

Bill was a multi-talented man. In practical terms he could turn his hand to anything, unblocking drains, bricklaying, building his own kitchen! He was able to give both practical and theoretical contributions to his many interests in education, where he prepared a programmed learning teaching pack for sex education with Dr John Leedham at Loughborough Training College.

Bill set up special services for the handicapped, underlayed by his philosophy, ‘life is never fair, grasp that fact and then you have a chance to live a reasonable life’. He ran courses on exploration of group work in Ireland with priests and nuns. He was a national archery coach and he designed and set up an Olympic Training Programme published in a Manual for British Archers. He was a good man and he did good things.

As a Chairman of a committee composed of representatives from all over the Midlands, Bill excelled in drawing together strands of opinion and creating a consensus. Committee meetings were always exciting and enjoyable epitomising Bill’s eagerness for life and his value for friendship and frankness. Things were always straight and above board for Bill, his phrase ‘for avoidance of doubt’ became a byword in the Regional Office. He steered the Region though it’s formative years with great success. He died in 1987.

Family Planning People - Ruth Kirby

PORTRAIT
Ruth Kirby

Ruth was a small lively personality with great enthusiasms and commitment. She was born in Manchester and until the outbreak of war she lived in London; she moved to India during the war as her husband Stuart Kirby was stationed there. Later she moved to Hong Kong where her husband was Professor of Economics at Hong Kong University. By this time they had three children. In Hong Kong Ruth became very much involved with the FPA and helped to set up a new FPA Clinic there despite contracting polio on a visit to Japan. Through this involvement she became very active in the IPPF and its work in the Asian sector; so began her lifelong interest in population problems at large and with FPA clinics particular.

In 1965 Stuart Kirby was appointed to the Chair of Economics at the new Aston University. He and Ruth lodged on the Hagley Road and got in touch with David Wightman who had met them on an academic visit to Hong Kong. The Wightmans invited the Courts to meet them for dinner. Discussion touched on population matters and then the IPPF. Audrey Court suggested that Ruth might like to come to the Frederick Road Clinic when she had settled into her new house.

Ruth started with sessional work as a layworker at the clinic but clearly needed something more demanding to occupy her. She was asked to take charge at the newly opened Alum Rock Clinic, was delighted to do this and came onto the Executive Committee. In 1968 she took over from Nancy Yarwood as Chairman of Clinic Management Committee. In 1971 she became Chairman of the Birmingham FPA.

Despite her rather quiet demeanor she was always anxious to be a figure of influence and maintained her great interest in population matters, giving many talks to schools on population and family planning. She was also heavily involved in Population Studies, the University Women’s Federation, and Amnesty International and later in the Jewish Community. Even when she had retired from active involvement with the FPA she was still interested in the work of the Midlands Region and often visited the FPA Centre at York Road. She died in 1990.

Famil Planning People - Ethel Emanuel

PORTRAIT
ETHEL EMANUEL: Chairman 1932-1951


Ethel Emanuel’s astonishingly long Chairmanship of the Woman’s Welfare Association beginning in 1932 ended ONLY with her sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack while recovering from a broken thigh on April 3rd 1951.

Ethel Emanuel, born Ethel Wolff in 1878, lived in Holland Park London for the first 28 years of her life. After her marriage to Dr J. G. Emanuel and their later move to Birmingham she lived in the same large house, 10 Harborne Road for 43 years. Dr Emanuel was appointed a consultant at the Queen’s Hospital and then became Professor of Medicine at the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, of which he had been a member of the Planning Committee.
The Emanuels had only one son Richard, born rather late in marriage and thus Ethel Emanuel was able to be involved in a very varied field of activities outside the home. Initially she was very actively associated with working girls’ clubs, both in London and later in Birmingham but then widened her interests to include others, notably, the newly formed National Council of Women of which she was a founder member in Birmingham in 1906. She became in turn Secretary, Treasurer and President and also representative on the Regional and National Executive Committees.

She became widely known in Birmingham through the variety of her Interests, including the Birmingham Settlement and her Jewish connections in which she was a founder member of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. She was always extremely tolerant in her viewpoint on religious matters and this must have helped her work with the Woman’s Welfare Centre.
When the Woman’s Welfare Centre was set up in Birmingham in 1926 she turned much of her energy and organisational skills to this work. In 1927 she was elected to the first Committee and in 1932 became Chairman. She steered the Committee through the thirties warding of much opposition and organised the running of the clinics held by the Centre. In addition, together with Dr Mary Winfield and a small band of lay helpers, she kept the clinics open in some form, despite the heavy bombing in the area of Masshouse Lane where the clinics were held throughout the war years.

A relative remembers her as a purposeful dowager yet very caring and hospitable. She was well read and a feminist in a non-aggressive way. Nevertheless she enjoyed a challenge and would go ahead with a project she thought right, and, once she had made up her mind, was not concerned with other people’s consent.

On the other hand she was a quiet, reserved and very private person who enjoyed a very loving relationship with those close to her. Her philosophy that ‘everything we do has a definite influence on the world - it either increases or decreases the total sum of good and evil’ underpinned her pre-occupation with social issues. She never took her committee work home with her, preferring to share her home which reflected her love of collecting beautiful furniture and other objects and for interior decoration with her small group of close friends and other acquaintances.

Amongst the interests she shared with her husband was, surprisingly, a keen love of mountaineering and at 69 years of age was climbing Tryffen in Wales that was rather like the North Face of the Eiger.

A much valued Chairman far nearly 20 years she could hardly have been more different from her successor Lella Florence, though both were fired by similar desires to improve the lot of women of their time.

Family Planning Family

Edward Mason and his wife, his daughter Dr Helen Humphreys and his granddaughter Dr Carolyn Wilkins


Edward Mason and his wife, his daughter Dr Helen Humphreys and his granddaughter Dr Carolyn Wilkins are three generations imbued with the same spirit of care and concern for people. Edward Mason was one of the moving spirits behind the first birth control clinic to open in Birmingham in 1927. His interest in birth control stemmed from his fight for women’s rights, both he and his wife were active in the suffragette movement. He was progressive and forward looking at a time when birth control was a subject which could not be discussed publicly. Opposition to birth control in Birmingham in 1926 was strong; at the first meeting to discuss the clinic project opinion, was far from unanimous and the minutes contained statements that ‘small families were due to selfish parents who preferred a car to a child’, and that ‘birth control would increase immorality.’ The protagonists pressed on and the Committee was formed.

In 1927 when the Women’s Welfare Centre in Birmingham was started Edward Mason became Treasurer, a position he held continuously for 20 years. His wife too served on the Clinic Committee and later on the Council. Among Edward Mason’s other interests were books, golf and bowls. In the same year as he became Clinic Treasurer he became President of the Birmingham Library and at a later date President of the Central Edgbaston Bowling Club. It says much for Edward Mason’s determination and powers of persuasion that he was able to get money for running the clinic from associates in the business world- he himself had a firm manufacturing scientific instruments. His great friend Sir John Sumner provided and equipped the first clinic premises in Castle Street; five years later when the clinic moved to bigger and better premises in Masshouse Lane, it was the work of the Treasurer to get the funds to finance the move. He kept his interest in family planning even when he was no longer actively connected with the FPA and it was due to his generous gift of a microscope that Birmingham family planning clinics were among the first to offer patients a cervical smear service. His forward looking outlook (even when he was over 90) made him the first and certainly the oldest subscriber to Birmingham Brook Advisory Centre.

His daughter Dr Helen Humphreys was drawn into the FPA at an early age. She remembers going with her mother to the clinic at the age of nine to pack parcels of birth control supplies to send out to patients. Later as a medical student she went down to the clinic, at the time she was doing her gynaecological training and Dr Mary Winfield inducted her into examining women and fitting caps. Later when she went into general practice there was a shortage of doctors at the clinic so she did some sessional work which she continued when she had her family. She was the first doctor working in the Domiciliary Service in Birmingham which became her particular interest, and also set up a preliminary Sub-Fertility service at the Clinic. She was later involved in helping to set up the Brook Advisory Clinic where she worked until her 70’s and also the Birmingham Pregnancy Advisory Service. Like the FPA in her father’s time, both these organisations were born in the teeth of fierce opposition and it took courage and determination to be involved.

In her turn one of Dr Humphrey’s daughters, Dr Carolyn Wilkins, became involved in the family planning movement. Soon after qualifying she did research into oral contraception in Miami and Yale for two years. On her return to London she took the Family Planning Training Course at Margaret Pyke Centre and then worked in family planning clinics in London. Later she undertook Psycho-sexual Training at the Tavistock Institute and had continued with this work. A remarkable family record over three generations.

Family Planning People 5

Mavis Walker

When Gilbert and Mavis Walker returned to Birmingham from Washington in 1946, Lella Florence, living next door, drew Mavis into the Family Planning circle. She became Assistant Treasurer with responsibility for subscriptions and therefore became a Committee Member. In 1967 Mavis became Treasurer until the post was abolished under the re-organisation of the FPA. During all these years she was a very active committee member and a much valued clinic worker.

In addition she gave considerable help to the patients' survey in 1952, undertaking the interviews of patients who had moved out of Birmingham. Later she helped ferry Domiciliary patients by car to the FPA clinic when this was necessary. During her long involvement with the Treasurer’s Office she undertook the financial overview with quiet efficiency through a period of great change and expansion.

Family Planning People

Family Planning People