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Lady Astor and the Ladies of the Night: The Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the Politics of the Street Offences Committee, 1927–28

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2012

Extract

Section 54 (11) of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839 criminalized the act of a common prostitute causing annoyance by soliciting in public.2 For the police to implement this legislation was no simple matter, as no definition of “prostitute,” or indeed “annoyance,” was scribed in statute law. Although common law aided the interpretation of this offense—the case of Rex v. de Munck (1918): “We are of the opinion that prostitution is proved if it is shown that a woman offers her body commonly for lewdness of payment in return”3—in practice, identifying a “common prostitute” and defining “annoyance” was left to the discretion of the individual police officer. Although specific squads were deployed to target streetwalkers in West End police divisions, where the presence of prostitutes was more likely to cause public offense, a “blind eye” was often turned to women soliciting in the less salubrious streets of the metropolis. Local knowledge gained on the beat and the informal advice of colleagues shaped an unofficial police policy of containment and toleration.4

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Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2012

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References

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2. Public General Acts, 2 and 3 Vict., cap. 47.

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29. Reading University Library, Astor papers (hereafter RUL), MS 1416/1/1/751, press release of Consultative committee of Women's Organizations to the provincial press; Daily Graphic, July 9, 1921; Smith, Harold L., “British Feminism in the 1920s,” in British Feminism in the Twentieth Century, ed. Smith, Harold L. (Aldershot: Elgar, 1990)Google Scholar, 51. The CCWO had the support of male MPs and campaigned against parliamentary candidates hostile to women. The group also served as a forum for networking: Thane, “What Difference Did the Vote Make?” 269.

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39. Logan, Feminism and Criminal Justice, 98.

40. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC April 24, 1925, May 15, 1925.

41. HC Debates, 5s, vol. 186, July 8, 1925, cols. 423–5. For the rallying of the cause see: RUL, MS 1416/1/1/517, Neilans to Astor, 3 July 1924; WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC 24 April 1925.

42. HC Debates, 5s, vol. 186, 8 July 1925, col. 424; RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Lord Astor to Earl Dunsmore, July 16, 1925.

43. TNA, HO 45/12663, L.N. Blake Ogders, Home Office acting principal secretary, to C.J. Harris, private secretary to the parliamentary secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip) Rt. Hon. Bolton Meredith Eyres-Monsell, July 20, 1925.

44. Ibid., June 22, 1926: signature illegible.

45. The Times, July 9, 1925; Lord Desborough speaking for the government, 65 HL Debates, 5s, December 9, 1926, cols. 1401–2.

46. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/558. Conference on the solicitation laws held at Lady Astor's house, 4, St. James's Square, November 30, 1926.

47. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Lady Emmott, convenor of the Parliamentary and Legislation Committee of the NCW, to Lady Astor, July 22, 1925.

48. TNA, HO 45/12663, unsigned letter from the Magistrates' Association to the Home Office, June 12, 1925.

49. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Canterbury to Astor, July 31, 1925.

50. See The Times, February 19, 1927.

51. Logan, Feminism and Criminal Justice, 98.

52. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Joynson-Hicks to Mr Robert Hudson, July 21, 1925; WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC April 16, 1926; and RUL, MS HL 1926, cols. 1401–2.

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55. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/556, Joynson-Hicks to Astor, March 23, 1926, Astor to Joynson-Hicks, March 27, 1927.

56. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC 8 Nov. 1927. For the details of the membership of the Committee see The Times, October 15, 1927.

57. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC October 11, 1927. On August 23 1927, Francis Henry Bateman Champain was convicted at Bow St. Police Court for “persistently importuning male persons.” His sentence of 3 months hard labor was quashed at quarter sessions. Six days later, Graham Bell Murray was convicted for a drunk and disorderly offence at Marlborough St. Police Court; his fine of 40/- and 5 guineas costs was quashed later: Report of the Street Offences Committee, 7.

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61. TNA, HO 45/24902, A. Locke, Home Office assistant secretary, memorandum, July 5, 1929.

62. Helen R.E. Ware, “The Recruitment, Regulation and Role of Prostitution from the Middle of the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day,” (PhD diss., University of London, 1969), 571.

63. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Miss Matheson, political secretary to Astor, to Miss West, June 22, 1925.

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69. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC, March 16, 1923.

70. Ibid., MEC, December 18, 1925; and RUL, MS 1416/1/1/520. “Report of the conference on the Street Offences Committee,” January 15, 1929; and Vigilance Record ns, nos. 1 and 2 (1929).

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76. Thane, “What Difference Did the Vote Make?” 281–82.

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85. Ibid., MEC November 20, 1925.

86. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/556, Neilans to Matheson, June 29, 1926. He had responded to a letter dated May 21. A month later, Miss Neilans “pointed out that public attention had been drawn […] in the House of Commons to the fact that Lord Meston had, some three years ago, been appointed Chairman of a Government Committee on Education Grants and apparently the Committee had ceased to function and had not yet produced a report”: WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC, July 16, 1926.

87. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/556, Neilans to Matheson, December 15, 1925.

88. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 12, 68, q. 6365.

89. Ibid., 59, q. 6297.

90. Ibid., 19–20, q. 5954. See also E.H. Kelly, “Some notes on the Report of the Street Offences Committee,” The Magistrate, supp. 6 (June 1929).

91. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 12, 3–4, qq. 5820–21. There was an assumption that the Committee had already made their mind up on the subject and had treated the AMSH “with marked discourtesy”: WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC, March 13, 1928.

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102. TNA, HO 45/12663, H.B. Simpson minute, March 5 1925. Blackwell agreed on March 20, and the permanent undersecretary, Sir John Anderson on March 23.

103. Ibid., Blackwell minute, April 9. 1923.

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117. The Times, April 25, 1934.

118. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC November 14 1926; RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Lankester to Astor, July 28, 1925. In this he was in agreement with Sir Chartres Biron. See the latter's comments to the Street Offences Committee: TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 12, 41, q. 6153.

119. See, for example, his comments to the Street Offences Committee: TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 4, December 2, 1927, 4, q. 1546.

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126. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 6, 20–1, qq. 2428, 2433, evidence of Horwood .

127. TNA, MEPO 2/1902, “Royal Commission on Police Powers and Procedure, Horwood memorandum, final copy submitted to commission,” n.d.

128. Mort, Capital Affairs, 169–70.

129. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 6, 40, q. 2644, Biron statement.

130. Ibid., SOC 1, 38, q. 274.

131. Public General Acts, 5. Geo. V., Cap. 83.

132. TNA, HO 45/12663, Horwood to the Home Office undersecretary, February 4, 1925.

133. TNA, MEPO 2/2290, Biron to Horwood, August 4, 1924.

134. TNA, HO 45/12663, Muskett to the secretary of the Metropolitan Police Office, October 27, 1927.

135. TNA, MEPO 2/2290, Superintendent? [signature illegible], “Summary of Superintendents' reports submitted by verbal directions of Deputy Commissioner, respecting the question of the practice adopted by magistrates and Justices at various Courts in dealing with cases of prostitution,” August 25, 1924.

136. Lopian, “Crime, Police and Punishment,” 120–22.

137. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 6. December 20, 1927, 21–22, qq. 2439–40.

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143. Jix Collection, in the possession of Sir Crispin Joynson-Hicks, 4th Viscount Brentford of Newick, J4/.B–11, Byng to Joynson-Hicks, September 12, 1930.

144. TNA, MEPO 3/739, Byng to Lord Riddell, Newspapers Proprietors' Association, May 23, 1929.

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156. Ibid., Helby evidence, 6, 16–17, Smith evidence, 28.

157. TNA, MEPO 2/2399, “Return showing the number of Crimes committed and Persons apprehended during the month of November, 1931, as recorded on the Morning Report of Crime.”

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165. Ibid., 354.

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180. TNA, HO 45/24902, Blackwell minute, March 13, 1929.

181. Vigilance Record (January–February 1929), ns, nos. 1 and 2.

182. Self, Prostitution, 6–7, 136.

183. Justice of the Peace and the Local Government Review, 51, December 22, 1928; TNA, HO 45/24902, Locke minute, January 14, 1929; and ibid., Blackwell minute, January 21, 1929.

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188. TNA, HO 45/24902, Anderson minute, January 23, 1929 and his letter to Viscount Byng of Vimy, commissioner of police of the metropolis, January 25, 1929.

189. Ibid., R.L. Bicknell, Home Office assistant principal, minute, February 8, 1929.

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199. Emsley, “Sergeant Goddard,” 93–9.

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207. Daily Mail, November 8, 1932.

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216. TNA, HO 45/24902, G.R. Hill, counsel at the Parliamentary Counsel Office, to Blackwell, April 23, 1929, Hill to Brass, June 24, 1929.

217. Stefan Slater, “Street Sex for Sale in Soho, 1918–39: Experiences, Representations and Attempts at Control” (PhD diss., University of London, 2007), 213–16.

218. TNA, HO 45/24902, Hill to Brass, July 5, 1929.

219. Ibid., Brass minute, March 26, 1926

220. WL, 3/AMS Box 44, Extraordinary meeting of the Financial Committee, April 24, 1933.

221. Bingham, Gender, Modernity and the Popular Press, 113, 141.

222. TNA, HO 45/24902, the Dowager Lady Nunburnholme, convenor of the Moral Welfare Committee and president of the National Council of Women, to the HO, June 25, 1935.

223. HC Debates, 5s., vol. 338, cols. 2209–12.

224. Ibid., vol. 341, col. 693.

225. WL, 3/AMS Box 46, MEC December 13, 1938.

226. TNA, HO 45/24902, K.B. Paice, private secretary to the parliamentary undersecretary, Geoffrey William Lloyd, minute November 22, 1938.

227. WL, 3 AMS Box 46, MEC February 14, 1939.

228. TNA, HO 45/24902, Paice minute, February 18, 1939.

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