Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer
17 December -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of any Saint, page 527
Eglantine Jebb was born in 1876. After studying at
Oxford, she became a
teacher for a few years until ill-health led to her
resignation. She then devoted her energies to charitable
works and in 1913 went to Macedonia to help refugees in the
Balkan wars. After the First World War, she and her sister
Dorothy Buxton founded the
Save the Children
Fund, which aimed to help children who were suffering in
the post-war famine in Europe, a charity which is now global
in its scope. Eglantine fought for the rights of children
to be recognised, the League of Nations passing her
'Children's Charter' in 1924. She inspired many by her
personal spirituality and was greatly mourned on her death
in Geneva on this day in 1928.