Action on the Adoption Societies

Abstract

There had been concern about the way adoption societies operated since they began their work during the First World War. In Chapter 4 it was shown that members of the Tomlin Committee had considerable unpublished reservations about the societies’ obsessive desire for secrecy and their attitude to relinquishing mothers. As the Adoption of Children Act 1926 became an established and widely used piece of legislation the emphasis of those who were interested in the issue of adoption began to concentrate on the operation of the adoption societies themselves. Criticism centred on certain societies; on the whole the two main ones, the NCAA and NAS, were exempted. The Official Solicitor, who admittedly dealt only with cases involving wealthier families in the High Court, wrote glowingly of these societies:

I am decidedly impressed by the care exercised by them in placing children and by the substantial and in many cases immense benefits conferred by their help on children whose lot in life in most cases, would otherwise be far from enviable. I have had not occasion to criticise any of their methods.¹

However in 1930 the petition from the NCAA for a Royal Charter was turned down, despite its many worthy supporters and a list of well-connected signatories who included, besides Princess Alice and Clara Andrew, Lucy Baldwin, wife of the Leader of the Opposition; Dame Margaret Lloyd George, the wife of a former Prime Minister; Mrs Ethel Snowden, wife of the current Chancellor of the Exchequer; and Sir Thomas Inskip, then out of office but either attorney-general or solicitor-general for most of the period 1922–36.