Clara Rackham

Early life

She was born in Notting Hill, the daughter of Henry Tabor, an Essex gentleman from a non-conformist family based in Bocking and Emma Woodcock, who came from Wigan. She was educated at Notting Hill High School, St Leonards College of St Andrew's University (1892–3), Bedford College in 1894, and Newnham College, Cambridge. At Newnham 1895–8 she studied classics, and found a lifelong friend in Susan Lawrence. She then took an interest in nursery schools. Another concern was the Girls' Friendly Society.

Cambridge activist and politician

After marrying in 1901, Rackham moved back to Cambridge, where Adela Adam joined her to a suffragist club. In Cambridge she worked with Leah Manning. From 1902 she was active on behalf of the Women's Co-operative Guild.

Rackham became a member of the Cambridge Liberals in the early 1900s - and is first listed as a co-host of a public meeting in an advert on 24 October 1902 in the Cambridge Independent Press. Her attendance is also reported at the public meeting on 29 October 1902 at a meeting at the old Sturton Hall. The party were protesting against the Education Bill which as written excluded women from their role on school boards. The article in the Cambridge Independent Press goes on to mention that her objection to the bill was that it removed the ability of women to be directly elected by local voters to their existing roles, and accordingly would be reliant on the consent of other members of boards for their place, rather than having a direct mandate from the people.

As a local politician she was a Poor Law Guardian (1904–17), city councillor, and then county councillor.

Factory inspector

During World War I Rackham worked as a factory inspector, resigning in 1915 from the executive of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies to do so, a position she had held since 1909 (chair from 1912). One of four women appointed to temporary positions on 25 October 1915, she was chosen with Annette Tawney, wife of R. H. Tawney; she worked initially in Lancashire, and then in the London area. The post meant she turned down an academic position at Bedford College.

Labour party politician

Around the end of the war Rackham joined the Labour Party; though she stood as an Independent in the Cambridge town council election of March 1919. In 1920 Hugh Dalton was brought in as prospective Labour candidate for Cambridge: this happened through his contacts with a group including Susan Lawrence, Leah Manning and Rackham. He was defeated at the Cambridge by-election, 1922. For personal and political reasons, the relationship then broke off.

Leah Manning wrote that, during the General Strike 1926, the Cambridge strike headquarters was in Rackham's basement kitchen. While Rackham herself stood for parliament, she was not elected: she was a defeated candidate at Chelmsford (1922) and Saffron Walden (1935). In the late 1920s, she was a prospective candidate, for Huntingdon. From 1930 to 1932 she served on the Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance, where she clashed with the civil servant Raymond Streat (he thought the dole too high, and assumed this was the consensus view).

Legal interests

Rackham served as a magistrate, from 1920, which became a central concern; Margery Fry, another Justice of the Peace, was a good friend. She belonged to a group reporting on child sexual abuse to parliament in 1925, with Clara Martineau and Robert John Parr. From 1923 to 1931 she edited, and in general wrote, a legal column for Women's Leader, the journal of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship.

A member of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Rackham was also a founder-member of the Magistrates' Association in 1927. She was an advocate of probation, and opponent of corporal punishment. In 1933 she argued that no young person under the age of 17 should be sent to prision. At the time the age limit was 14.

Rackham resigned as a magistrate in 1950.

Other interests

Rackham was a part-time lecturer for the Workers Educational Association, and Chairman for the Eastern District. For the Standing Joint Committee of Industrial Women's Organizations (SJCIWO), she went onto the birth control subcommittee in 1923. She joined the British American Women's Crusade, and was a vice-president. In 1930 she was chairman of the SJCIWO.

In 1933 Rackham wrote to The Manchester Guardian regarding the recently passed Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Rackham drew attention to the range of options made available to magistrates when dealing with children in need of care or protection, while criticising certain aspects of the legislation for not going far enough.

Publications

Broadcaster

Rackham was an early female voice on BBC radio in the 1920s. She gave talks on the work of a magistrate, and legal matters. A series How we Manage Our Affairs in 1929 began with a talk "How we Elect our Councillors".

Family

In 1901 she married Harris Rackham; he had been a Classical Lecturer at Newnham from 1893. A classical scholar and Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, he was brother of Arthur Rackham. The marriage was childless; Harris died in 1944. Another brother, Maurice, married Marjorie Dale, daughter of Sir Alfred Dale, also known as a suffragist.

Margaret Tabor, Clara's older sister, was an Essex county councillor and was involved in the founding of Braintree High School.

Legacy

Rackham Close, in Arbury, Cambridge, is named after her.