Dorothy Buxton and the Children of War

Last updated on: November 10, 2023 at 12:48 pm by Barbara O'Brien

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Dorothy Buxton and the Children of War 2023-11-10T12:48:59-06:00 Barbara O'Brien

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Dorothy Buxton (1881-1963) was a peace activist in a time of war and a humanitarian to war’s helpless victims. During the First World War she worked to show Britons the humanity of the enemy. And after the war she organized food drives for the starving people, especially children, in former enemy countries.

November 11 has been Veterans Day in the United States since 1954, when an act of Congress renamed the former Armistice Day. The original Armistice Day marked the end of World War I, when the guns on the Western Front fell silent on November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m. And this day also seems a fitting time to remember Dorothy Buxton. At the same time, Dorothy’s story resonates with current events, especially the Hamas-Israel War and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

She was born Dorothy Frances Jebb, in Shropshire, England, and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. The Jebbs were a family with a tradition of social activism. Dorothy’s mother founded an association to promote arts and crafts in rural areas. Her sister Louisa was a founder of the Women’s Land Army of World War I, which boosted British food production while the men were off fighting. And after the war her sister Eglantyne, with Dorothy’s help, founded the Save the Children Fund, now an international charity. Dorothy was married to Charles Roden Buxton (1875-1942) in 1904. Charles was a politician with an interest in peace activism himself. During World War I Dorothy and Charles both joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) and left the Liberal Party for the Independent Labour Party, which they thought better represented the interests of the working class.

Dorothy Buxton: Notes from the Foreign Press

World War I began in Europe in 1914. In 1915 Dorothy began an information service called “Notes from the Foreign Press.” Through neutral countries she imported more than a hundred newspapers, many from enemy countries. She brought together linguists, translators, and shorthand typists to produce English translations of editorials and essays from around the world, including Germany and its allies, presenting many perspectives on the war. She worked with an editor named Charles Kay Ogden whose publication, the weekly Cambridge Magazine, was dedicated to presenting a range of opinions. Soon “Notes from the Foreign Press” took up half of the magazine.

Although Dorothy was a pacifist, “Notes” included pro-war opinions. But she was keenly interested in publishing pacifist voices from the nations Britain was fighting. More than anything else she hoped to discourage hatred of foreigners. She was alarmed at the demonization of the German people in the British press. She believed this would prolong the war and make an eventual peace settlement impossible. She hoped publishing the words of German pacifists would remind Britons of their humanity. She also drew attention to censorship throughout Europe and how anti-war voices were suppressed. She published news of anti-war demonstrations in Germany. She also documented that British hard-line policies were increasing support for the German military in Germany. This took courage while British troops were being killed at an alarming rate.

The Blockade and the Hunger

Wars are fought with more than weapons. Beginning in 1914 Britain coordinated with allies to create a naval blockade of Germany and Austria-Hungary. As a result of the blockade, some poor decisions by the German government, and some crop failures, there were severe food shortages in Germany and Austria. In the winter of 1917 the people in some German cities were living mostly on turnips. Later it was estimated there were 424,000 war-related deaths of civilians over the age of one in Germany during the war. Most of these deaths were related to malnutrition and starvation.

Armistice did not end the blockade. It was continued to force Germany to agree to the Allies’ terms. Dorothy and her sister Eglantyne joined with others to pressure the British government to end the blockade. At one point Eglantyne was arrested in Trafalgar Square for distributing leaflets declaring the blockade was starving babies. And it was.

Charles Cripps, the 1st Baron Parmoor, organized a Fight the Famine Council (FFC) in January 1919. Dorothy Buxton provided the facts and figures to the FFC to make the case for lifting the blockade. Dorothy went on a fact-finding trip to Germany in March and April 1919. With some of her own funds and a large donation from the Quakers, she was able to provide some food and medicine to Germans. When she returned to Britain, Dorothy and Eglantyne created a committee separate from the FFC to raise funds to provide milk and other essentials to the children of Europe. This was the beginning of Save the Children. When she gave fund raising speeches, Dorothy Buxton would hold up a can of condensed milk and say, This is religion. This is morality. Her audiences responded with applause and money.

Postscripts

Eglantyne took over leadership of Save the Children, which would expand around the globe. Today it is operating in 120 countries.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919. German civilians suffered ontinued deprivation until the blockade was lifted in July 1919. The prolonged blockade and the harsh terms of the treaty created great, lingering grievance among Germans. Many historians think this created conditions that made the rise of Adolf Hitler and World War II possible.

After Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Dorothy became concerned about what she was hearing about Germany. While she did what she could for refugees, she began hearing reports of concentration camps. She circulated these, but the British Foreign Office did nothing. During the war she was an activist for the welfare of refugees and for humane treatment of German prisoners of war.

If Dorothy Buxton were with us today, she might be warning us that ignoring the humanitarian crisis in Gaza for the sake of “fighting terrorism” is self-defeating. It’s creating new generations of terrorists. Sometimes nations do have to use their military power to defend themselves. But ignoring the suffering of civilians caught in the middle is likely to create conditions that support worse violence down the road.

Men of the 4th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders (51st Division) giving food to a French refugee child, 1918. Source: Wikimedia Commons. This image was created and released by the Imperial War Museum on the IWM Non Commercial Licence.

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