Special Collections & Archives

Dame Lilian Barker of Whitelands College, by Gemma Bentley (Whitelands College Archivist)

February is LGBT+ History Month, so in this Snapshot from the Archives we feature a remarkable woman whose pioneering work in the fields of education, prison reform and anti-poverty campaigning have left a lasting legacy for the welfare of women and girls.

“Her whole appearance was unusual” with masculine-styled jackets and hats “but most remarkable, she had her hair cut short, an unheard of thing in those days.”
(Gore, E.: ‘The Better Fight – the story of Dame Lilian Barker,' 1965). This image shows Lilian in 1900. (Source: Library of Congress).

Lilian Barker (1874-1955) remains one of Whitelands College’s most famous and extraordinary alumni. Born into a large family in straitened circumstances (and with an alcoholic father) in Kentish Town, she was independent and charismatic, and sought refuge in hard work. From an early age, she was instinctively drawn to teaching and would become a “teacher of genius”, working often with the most difficult and unruly children, whilst constantly pioneering new ideas and championing the downtrodden and impoverished in her neighbourhood.
In 1894, after four years as a ‘pupil teacher’ (during which she often clashed with her supervisors, telling them “you must have your way of course, but I still say I am right”), she was accepted for the two-year teacher training course at Whitelands College.

A fellow student later recalled: “Lily was a law unto herself, and to defy all the conventions and break all the rules she did, took courage in Whitelands in those days.” 
Such thwarted conventions ranged from refusal to wear the regulation Sunday bonnet, to crawling under dormitory partitions for midnight feasts, to absconding from college (usually to go out for tea), and to openly criticising and clashing with the principal. Nevertheless, she was a brilliant student. In her biography of Barker, "The Better Fight," her niece Elizabeth Gore claims that “for both the years she was in college she was voted the most popular girl of the year.”
After completing her training Lilian continued to teach, and try out her sometimes controversial ideas, as well as dedicating seven years to care for her invalid mother. Then, in 1913, she was appointed principal of a new experimental evening institute for women, aimed at improving the lives and prospects of the poorer inhabitants round the Edgware Road area. She became increasingly a champion of ‘down and out’ and ‘fallen’ girls and women, both collectively and through extraordinarily generous efforts to help and support them individually – a practice she would maintain throughout her life.
When war broke out she set up first aid, signalling, and cookery courses for the newly formed Women’s Legion. But in 1916 came her biggest challenge yet, as she took charge of the 30,000 women employed on wartime munitions work at the Woolwich Arsenal. 

Lilian Barker, right, wearing a hat, surrounded by workers from the 'danger buildings' at Woolwich Arsenal, May 1918. (Source: Imperial War Museum).

In recognition of her efforts, in 1918 she was one of the first women to receive a CBE. Whitelands’ College celebrated this achievement noting: ‘Her present position of power and trust at Woolwich Arsenal is not the result of any influence but that of her own worth and personality. For years before the war her work in schools and institutes was only a part of her social activities. She made the cause of East End working women and girls her own, and to hear her speak at public meetings..…was an object lesson in the convincing power of a strong personality combined with absolute sincerity, kindliness, and common sense.’

After the war she continued her struggle for women and girls’ rights as she embarked on a new career as governor of the sole borstal for girls, at Aylesbury, transforming the place beyond recognition, reforming rehabilitation and aftercare, and creating indelible, lifelong bonds with many inmates and colleagues.

A unique personality, she became an increasingly influential and recognisable figure, with correspondents and friends including Queen Mary, George Bernard Shaw and Nancy Astor, as well as “her girls” from the schools, factories and prisons.

She maintained these correspondences all her life, hand writing letters within a day or two of receipt, to “people who had worked with her… [or] people she had helped, to find a job, a new way of life after a spell in Borstal or in prison. After five, 10, 20, even 50 or 60 years – still they wrote. And she wrote back.”

As a result of her success and tireless efforts she was invited to become the first female prison commissioner in 1955, and became heavily involved in particular with Holloway prison.  Her work arguably provided the basis for the modern, more humanitarian correctional system.

She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1944, a year after her retirement at the age of 69 (nonetheless embarking on a very active and vigorous kind of retirement). After her death of a heart attack in 1955, many tributes were paid to her ‘marvellous and brilliant work by the London newspapers including the Times’, whose obituary ended ‘Her epitaph comes from her own lips: ‘I have laughed more people into being good than if I had preached for hours.’ '

Personal life

Lilian met her partner Florence Francis (known as Fluff or Florrie) when both were young women teaching at Sunday School.

‘The Better Fight’, published in 1965 when male homosexuality was still illegal in Britain, refers discreetly to their ‘friendship’ and to Florence as Lilian’s ‘greatest friend’ who ‘belonged…to the home part of Lily’s life. She alone of all Lily’s friends and relations did not work, either at the Arsenal or at any other time, not because of reluctance on her part, but because Lily wished to keep some part of her life separate and inviolate…’

They lived together from 1914, sharing their home, often with numerous dogs, family members and guests, for 40 years until Lilian’s death.

Gemma Bentley, Whitelands College Archivist.

Sources and further reading:

Gore, Elizabeth: ‘The Better Right – the story of Dame Lilian Barker’ (1965)

Review of ‘The Better Fight’ by Herbert Brewer in Eugenics Review 1965 Sep; 57(3): 141–142.

Whitelands College Annual

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilian_Barker

Queer Places by Elisa Rolle: http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/klmno/Lilian%20Barker.html

Cherry Potts tribute: https://cherrypotts.co.uk/tag/lilian-barker/