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This thesis analyses the reasons for the growth of private sector defined benefit occupational pension schemes in the UK in the first two thirds of the twentieth century and their decline after 1967, slowly at first but rapidly after about 1995. The thesis analyses, in more depth than previous studies, the data available from surveys by government departments, starting in 1936, and industry bodies from 1975. This data shows not only the rise and fall of total pension scheme membership but also the strong correlation between employer size and pension provision, the continuing improvements in benefits, and the rising underlying costs of providing pensions, masked in the 1980s and 1990s by apparent pension fund surpluses. From 1994 there is survey data on employers' attitudes to pension schemes. National accounts data and a database on large company schemes compiled for this thesis are also used. The effect of the favourable tax treatment of pension schemes from the 1920s, and the restriction of these advantages from 1986, is assessed, as is that of other government policies, beginning in 1961 with the introduction of the graduated state pension, with an option to contract out. From 1973 numerous government measures served to protect the security and real value of DB pensions but increased costs and risks for employers. Costs also rose because of much increased life expectancy and, from 2000, lower investment returns. After 2000 new accounting standards and the new regulatory regime reduced the ability of employers to push pension costs into the indefinite future. Other changes in taxation from 1989 gradually reduced the personal interest of company directors in continuing defined benefit pension schemes.

This study is a collective biography of London's female grocery proprietors, employing quantitative and qualitative techniques to probe (mainly) genealogical sources. It is the first study of British female entrepreneurs to focus on the shop-keeping sector which, though a frequent choice for women, was dominated by men. Of approximately 1500 'Grocers & Tea Dealers' in the 'Post Office London Trades Directory' (1911) about a tenth were led by women. A broad range of genealogical sources was supplemented by others which are novel in this context. These included Inland Revenue Valuation Office Field Books, Charles Booth's poverty maps and police notebooks, and the exterior of surviving shop buildings. This study examines directly comparable cohorts of men's and women's businesses across an unusually broad spectrum of business characteristics. It argues that men and women operated their businesses in a similar way: most were one-location sole proprietorships, based at home and employing family members. The shops themselves, and the streets where they were located were of a similar type, whether the owner was a man or a woman. There was no 'typical' female, or male, grocer. Female grocery-shop proprietors were a diverse assortment in terms of birthplace, class, ethnicity, occupational experience, age, marital status, and household composition. This study inquires further into socioeconomic status than previous surveys and develops new categories to analyse the reasons why women started their businesses. The 'space' of the grocery shop sector was dominated by men, in terms of both the physical space but also of the role of grocer and business-owner. Yet many women, from diverse backgrounds, ran successful businesses in this sector. This study argues that a grocery business inhabited a liminal zone in several senses, where formal/informal, domestic/commercial and public/private overlapped. This blurring of lines helped women to subvert cultural norms, particularly those which associated women with domestic activities. This study breaks new ground by comparing the longevity of women's businesses with men's in the same sector. It challenges prevailing definitions of 'entrepreneur' and 'success' to reveal and assess the contributions of female grocery-shop-keepers to their families and to the economy.

This thesis examines the origins of government subsidy of live music and theatre in Britain before and during World War II. It challenges the prevailing narrative that in Britain before 1939 the issue was rarely raised and even more rarely supported. The thesis reveals that the 1930s was a period of intense discussion about state involvement in the arts, with active movements in favour of subsidy and strong support within parts of the government; and that these discussions continued during the war independently of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), the state agency set up to distribute money for theatre, music and the visual arts. This is the first attempt to study these issues in detail. The focus is research into three campaigns. First, Alfred Wareing's League of Audiences gained thousands of column inches of favourable press coverage between 1934 and 1938 and at several points appeared close to success. It raised fundamental issues about the role of the arts in what many saw as a struggle against an increasingly mechanised society where film, radio and recording were damaging not only the live arts but society more generally. Second, the Stage and Allied Arts Defence League ran a remarkably successful campaign for 'negative state subsidy' - the removal of Entertainments Duty, imposed on live theatre and music in 1916. The tax concessions it gained in the 1930s were worth more than any annual grant to CEMA or the Arts Council before the 1950s. The third was John Christie's 'Council of Power'/National Council of Music, active from 1938 to 1944. Christie, founder of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, gathered some of the leading cultural figures of the day as an 'alternative Arts Council'. During the war Christie's Council attracted opposition from John Maynard Keynes, CEMA's Chairman, and Rab Butler, the Minister responsible for CEMA. This conflict influenced the design and principles of the Arts Council. The thesis demonstrates that campaigns for state arts funding had high profile and considerable influence before and during the war; that the creation of an arm's length government body to channel public funds to the arts was close to realisation in the 1930s; that through tax breaks the government actively supported live music and theatre during the 1930s; and that even after CEMA was established, its evolution into the Arts Council was neither smooth nor certain.

This thesis examines the role of the Labour MP George N. Barnes (1859-1940) in the establishment of the International Labour Organisation in 1919. It focusses primarily on the creation of the Labour Convention (Chapter XIII, the 'Labour Chapter' in the Treaty of Versailles) and its adoption by the Peace Conference. It has been recorded that Barnes considered this his proudest achievement; however Labour Party historiography has not adequately taken account of his valuable contribution to the advance of social and economic justice for the world's workers. By examining the challenges Barnes faced in his dual role as representative of British organised labour and plenipotentiary with the British Empire Delegation, the argument is made that he was particularly well suited to successfully steer the Convention through to its adoption. An understanding will be gained of the role that Barnes played as an international diplomat and spokesman for organised labour in the Peace Conference setting, and how he channelled contemporary ideas about labour's place in the post-war world through his approach to policy. It is further argued through examination of his background, beliefs and political ideology that Barnes was an important figure of whom historians of the early Labour Party should take more account. This project aims to provide fresh insight into George N. Barnes as a trade unionist and politician and ascertain how his work in Paris helped Britain's 'socialist' Labour Party achieve an image of respectability years before forming its first Government in 1924.

This thesis examines the experience of women in veterinary training and work, from 1919 until the present day. Structured chronologically in order to highlight continuity and change, it looks at the reasons women were drawn to a career as a veterinary surgeon, and what factors influenced their ability to access veterinary school and the veterinary workplace. Presented as a prosopography, it utilises a range of sources, including personal testimony, to recover traces of women's opinions, aspirations, attitudes and agency in a profession that remained overwhelmingly male until the late twentieth century. In this way, it uses gender as a lens to open up new perspectives on the structures, working practices and conditions of veterinary medicine. By offering a longitudinal study, this research brings new insights into the experience of professional women in the twentieth century. It focuses on women in the private sector to demonstrate how their experiences diverged from their contemporaries in the public sector, with a particular focus on the business aspect of veterinary medicine. It also demonstrates how notions of sexual difference were constructed within the profession and how, in the absence of complex bureaucratic or hierarchical structures, they survived into the twenty-first century. By examining this issue, and by transcending the classic demarcation between the disciplines of history and sociology, this thesis brings historical analysis to bear on the current issue of the 'feminisation' of the professions.

This thesis explores the history of marital violence from the founding of the Irish Free State in 1922 to the passage of the Family Law (Protection of Spouses and Children) Act in 1981, the first piece of legislation in post-independence Ireland to deal exclusively with family violence. We will see that while many men beat their wives with impunity, there was little public discussion of marital violence for the first fifty years of Irish independence. It was not until the early 1970s, with the arrival of the second-wave feminist movement, that the Irish 'rediscovered' the problem of marital violence. Once the reality of spousal abuse was widely acknowledged, change quickly followed: activists established emergency refuges for battered women and their children, the government passed a number of legislative reforms that provided protection for abused women, and the public began to more openly discuss the problem of marital breakdown. For most of the period under review, the battered woman occupied an extremely vulnerable position. It was common for a chronically abused woman to remain with her violent husband because she had no money to support herself (or her children) and no recourse to the law. Because of women's inferior status, I argue that marital violence represented a social problem in post-independence Ireland: an abused woman had a socially determined inability to escape her husband's violence as a result of her economic dependence, limited legal options, and social and religious expectations. Because so few women had a path of escape, I explore the ways in which they learned to cope with their abusive partners and how they resisted and responded to the violence. Additionally, I examine the meanings that contemporaries-from the troubled couples themselves to their local communities to legal professionals-assigned to marital violence. By analysing the ways in which a wider audience understood and reacted to marital violence, we can draw broader conclusions about gendered expectations within marriage, the nature of family life, and the relationship between family and community.

This thesis explores the relationship between town halls and Conservative governments over two policy changes which reduced local autonomy: the Housing Finance Act 1972 imposed rent increases on council housing, and the 1980 Housing Act gave tenants the Right to Buy. The literature on local authority resistance concentrates on high-profile battles between government ministers and Clay Cross and Norwich councils, but the coverage of London boroughs is sparse, except for that on Camden’s defiance in 1972. This thesis aims to assess the responses of eight Labour-controlled boroughs in the capital to the controversial legislation, including Greenwich, targeted by government ministers for being especially ‘difficult’ over the Right to Buy. The thesis examines the extent to which Labour-controlled local authorities sought to resist the government measures, their strategies and the outcomes; splits in Labour groups over implementation and any differences between 1972 and 1980. Attention is paid to the role of local Conservatives in the controversies. The thesis relies on minutes of council meetings and reports in local newspapers, supplemented by some oral interviews. It was recognised in 1972 that for resistance to be effective, Labour authorities needed to agree a common strategy, but attempts to do so failed. While councillors increasingly feared incurring legal sanctions, the Parliamentary Labour Party urged them to accept a compromise which could lessen the rent increases. Camden rebelled for several months, despite a serious split among Labour councillors, and only complied when ministers made their position financially untenable. Labour groups remained more united over implementing the Right to Buy scheme as they had other priorities and could delay or frustrate individual sales. The boroughs did the minimum necessary to operate the government scheme and resisted pressure from ministers over their performance. After initially refusing to implement the 1980 legislation, Greenwich subsequently survived threats of intervention through negotiation. Overall this thesis demonstrates that there was resistance among the boroughs studied to both policy changes which encroached upon their autonomy, but that the political battles were mainly fought on housing issues with Conservative councillors invariably supporting their party in government.

The clinical specialty of psychogeriatrics developed to provide dedicated mental health services for people over age 65, often treating people with complex combinations of mental, physical and social difficulties. Clinical reports in 1943/4 showed that physically and mentally unwell older people could benefit from active treatment, but the old age health specialties -geriatrics and psychogeriatrics - followed different paths of development. By 1970 there were about 200 consultants in geriatrics, but merely a handful of psychogeriatricians. Psychogeriatric services did not fit conveniently into policies and plans categorised as either psychiatric or geriatric, and suffered from lack of defined responsibility at all levels of health service management. Political, economic, demographic, legal, social, epidemiological, clinical and scientific factors influenced service development. Negative attitudes towards older people and unwillingness of society, including the medical profession, to provide actively for them were repeated obstacles. Tensions existed between doctors advocating better mental health services for older people and various influential committees nationally and locally. Debates over responsibilities and allocation of resources, and professionals’ attitudes towards the new psychogeriatricians and their specialty, contributed to its tortuous development. Leaders in the specialty showed determination, dedication, clinical acumen, organisational and research skills, and the ability to motivate and inspire others. In 1989, the Department of Health recognised psychogeriatrics as a medical specialty. By that time, specialist psychogeriatric services had increased substantially and were available to over 70% of the UK population. Until recognition, there were obstacles to providing appropriate specialist training for psychiatrists and the government did not collect relevant and specific data to assist with developing and monitoring services. Lack of data was associated with difficulty obtaining an equitable allocation of resources, despite clinical and epidemiological research indicating that dedicated, specialist-led services were needed and effective.

Helena Normanton was the first woman to be admitted to an Inn of Court after the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1922. The Bar was closed to women until the passing of this legislation. She was also the first woman to be briefed both in the High Court and the Central Criminal Court. She went on to become one of two first women King’s Counsels and practised law past retirement. Normanton’s childhood ambition was to become a barrister. She declared that her one goal in life was to open the legal profession to women. This thesis will consider what role Helena Normanton played, if any, to the formal opening of the legal profession (in particular the Bar) to women in 1919 with the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act and will examine her subsequent legal career in order to better understand her role in the fight for substantive equality. Normanton’s battle to practise was an essential part of the struggle for women’s legal equality during that period and therefore her life needs to be recorded, especially as the effort for equality is still ongoing. Normanton’s archives are too sketchy for an honest and complete biography, but much of her journey towards practice as a barrister can be told, especially when placed in the context of the women’s movement. Her story is essential because, as Parry wrote, ‘appreciation of the role of the individual agent ... can influence if not steer the course of the wider legal, historical and social development’.1 Female lawyers need to understand their heritage as women now total half of law undergraduate entrants. Normanton’s entry to an Inn of Court marks women’s formal entry to the legal profession. Her career is a good example of the beginning of women’s struggle for substantive equality in the legal profession. Her story needs to be revealed and examined ‘to produce a more complete and truthful explanation of how things were, and how they are now’.

Historians of the British welfare state have only recently begun to assess the continued importance of charitable and voluntary organizations in the delivery of welfare services. My thesis contributes to this growing area of research on the nature of the British state, its development, and its interaction with civil society. Through a historical analysis of the records of the Citizens' Advice Bureaux (created in 1939) and the National Council of Social Service (its parent organization), the thesis seeks to place the history of this small but important voluntary organization in the context of the post-war history of the changing relationship between the state, society and individual. The data was collected from January 2009 to June 2012. The research also focuses on the motives of individual volunteers, many of whom were drawn from the expanding and diversifying middle classes. Rather than suggesting that volunteering was an act designed to reassert social leadership, this research paints a more complicated picture, showing that class was not the only factor in influencing people's decisions to volunteer. Volunteering continued to provide an outlet for multiple groups including married women and retired professionals of both sexes. Overall the initial findings of the research suggest that rather than signalling a decline in voluntary effort, the growth in scale and complexity of the welfare state actually created more opportunities for volunteering and for volunteers. It was the increasing demand for voluntary services that triggered concerns about a lack of funds in voluntary organizations, rather than a decline in charitable giving per se. Voluntary organizations continued to act where the state could not for reasons of financial, political and other constraints. What is more the political significance of voluntary organizations in this period has often been underestimated. Voluntary organizations such as the CAB continued to influence policymakers in order to protect and expand the rights of disadvantaged groups including the elderly, immigrants, the disabled and other groups affected by poverty, poor housing, consumer issues and legal problems.

The history of women in Britain's armed forces is dominated by wartime participation and, latterly, explanations of wider employment of servicewomen in the 1990s. Women's service is mainly attributed to lessening the need for men. Reasons suggested for 1990s' developments have included social factors, technology, servicewomen's career aspirations and policy-makers' attitudes. However, army issues overshadow accounts that emerge from the other Services. When regular service was introduced, women were excluded from seagoing, flying and weapons' training. Terms of service on marriage and pregnancy ensured careers were long-term opportunities only for childless women. This thesis accounts for how the reputedly egalitarian Royal Air Force (RAF) integrated its servicewomen, expanding their employment into armed guard duties and flying 'non-combat' aircraft, while asserting that women's exclusion from combat was upheld. This contrasted with the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS). As a separate, shore- based organisation, it illustrated the conservative approach taken by the naval authorities. Yet it was the Royal Navy (RN) that opened main combat roles to women first. This thesis argues that the Admiralty reluctantly established a peacetime WRNS in response to Air Ministry and War Office policy. It restricted women's employment until failure to adjust to social change led to a personnel crisis in the late 1980s. Unable to follow the RAF's piecemeal widening of women's roles, seagoing in warships was approved in 1990, overturning women's exclusion from main combat roles. RAF combat jet flying followed as a consequence. However, for the vast majority of airwomen, the 1982 decision to introduce weapons' training made them as combatant as male counterparts. Exclusion from land warfare continued; the RN and the RAF followed the army's lead. The armed forces' right to be different from civilian maternity policy succumbed to legal challenge rather than commitment to modernising terms of employment.