Beschreibung
Two related documents offered together. (1) In Defence of the Public Servant: original printed wraps 15x22cm, printed by P.J. Milner, Kensington Gore, with Committee Chair's address (3 Gloucester Walk, Kensington W8), 24pp. Undated, c1925 with the timeline on the final page going up to 1924. Wraps very good. Interiors near fine with redaction of "Miss" to p3, lightly tanned, staples rusting. (2) Air Ministry Correspondence presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty May 1919: original self wraps, 20pp foolscap. Near fine, lightly tanned, with neat institutional ink stamps to the front, staples rusted. Violet Douglas-Pennant (1869-1945) spent 14 troubled weeks as Commandant of the short-lived WRAF until her dismissal in August 1918. Uncertain about whether to accept the role to begin with, her tenure had included unsuccessful attempts to resign. The Air Ministry document included here lays out 39 pieces of correspondence dating from 1.7.18 to 24.5.19 leading up to and around the dismissal, involving Douglas-Pennant herself, her Assistant Commandant, the Secretary of State for the RAF, the Air Council, the Prime Minister, among others. Douglas-Pennant claimed that she had been forced out by senior officers in an attempt to cover up "rife immorality" within the WRAF. The House of Lords formed a Select Committee in October 1918 to look into these claims, and in Dec 1919 reported that no evidence could be found to support them. The controversy continued to roll with Douglas-Pennant attempting to clear her name through her book "Under the Search Light, a Record of a Great Scandal" (c1922). Campaigning on her behalf was the Publication Committee of the Douglas-Pennant Case, chaired by singer, suffragist, and co-founder of the Society of Women Musicians, Gertrude Eaton (1861-1939). Some of the other Committee members listed here are authors Flora Annie Steel (Complete Indian House Keeper and Cook, etc) and Euphemia Margaret Tait (pen name John Ironside), mezzo soprano Dr Mary Davies, journalist and suffragist Nina Boyle, University College of North Wales Principal Sir Harry Reichel, and Secretary of the North Wales Quarreymen's Union RT Jones. This publication was presented to Douglas-Pennant at "a crowded and enthusiastic meeting at Lord Askwith's house as a proof of the unabated confidence felt in her by members of all classes who had worked with her, and as a mark of appreciation of the public services she had so unobtrusively rendered before and during the war" (p3). It challenges the findings of the Select Committee with counter-evidence, and records Douglas-Pennant's public work (1899-1918) and war work (1914 -18). Extremely rare, with Library Hub locating only 1 (LSE), and Worldcat locating 2 of later editions (University of Waterloo, 9th ed, 1926?; Utrecht University c1929). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 5054
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