Geraldine Cadbury
Dame Geraldine Southall Cadbury, DBE (29 June 186430 January 1941) was a British Quaker, author, social and penal reformer. Geraldine was one of the first women in Birmingham to become a magistrate. From 1923, she chaired the justices’ panel in the Children’s Court of Birmingham. In the 1930's she assumed prominent positions on several Home Office Committees and International Associations. Early life. Geraldine Southall was born in Birmingham, the daughter of Alfred Southall (1838–1931), a chemist by trade and a temperance worker who taught a working men's adult school class, whilst her Irish mother, Anna  Strangman Grubb (1841-1912), was a supporter of women’s suffrage. Geraldine was educated at Edgbaston High School for Girls and briefly at the Quaker school, The Mount, York. She married Barrow Cadbury (1862–1958) in 1891 with whom she had three children, Dorothy Adlington, (1892–1987), Paul Strangman (1895–1984), and Geraldine Mary, (1900–1999). Social and Penal Reform. Geraldine worked as a volunteer social worker in Birmingham’s pioneering Children’s Court and as a volunteer probation worker. The Greet Free Kindergarten in Birmingham was opened in a room supplied by Geraldine Cadbury in 1904 using staff from the Froebel college in  Edgbaston. It was the initiative of Julia Lloyd, a Quaker, of the banking family who had studied in Germany at the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus and then returned to work with Caroline Bishop. In 1920, following the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, Geraldine was one of the first women in Birmingham to become a magistrate. From 1923, she chaired the justices’ panel in the Children’s Court. In 1925, Geraldine was appointed to the Home Office Departmental Committee on the Treatment of Young Offenders; which paved the way for the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. In 1928, Geraldine helped  design the second purpose-built juvenile court in England and over the next few years, she was appointed to a number of prominent positions on Home Office Committees and International Associations, including; Geraldine Southall Cadbury travelled widely investigating juvenile justice provision in Europe, America, New Zealand and Australia. In 1938, she published Young Offenders Yesterday and To-day, Published by George Allen & Unwin, 1938, a history of the treatment of young offenders in England from the reign of Athelstan in the tenth century to Geraldine’s experiences of the juvenile justice system. She was also known for her opposition to  the death penalty and from 1923 supported the work of what later became the National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. Cadbury died in 1941 in the Birmingham area aged 75. Awards. In 1918, she received the Medal of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in recognition of her humanitarian service in World War I In 1937, she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for public and philanthropic services in Birmingham. The Barrow Cadbury Trust. The Barrow Cadbury Trust was founded in 1920 by Barrow and Geraldine Cadbury.