The Curtis Report 1946
Report of the care of children committee
Appointed:
Miss Myra Curtis CBE
*Mrs J L Adamson M.P.
*Mrs Cazalet Keir, M.P.
Mr H Graham White M.P.
Mrs Clement Brown
Mr R J Evans
Miss Lucy G. Fildes
Miss M. L. Harford
Dr Somerville Hastings
Alderman Miss K Jones, O.B.E.
The Reverend JH Litten
Mr J Moss
Mrs Helen Murtagh
Mr Henry Salt
Professor J C Spence M.C. M.D.
Mrs F. G. A. Temple and
Mr S. O Walmsley
To be a committee to inquire into the existing methods of providing for children who from loss of parents or from any cause whatsoever are deprived of a normal home life with their own parents or relatives; and to consider what further measures should be taken to ensure that these children are bought up under conditions best calculated to compensate them for the lack of parental care.
Miss Myra Curtis was chairman of the committee and Miss D.M.D Rosling of the Home Office and G T Milne were appointed joint secretaries.
The Report was signed by
Herbert Morrison
Henry Willink
R A Butler
*Resigned and replaced with Muriel E Nichol, and Mrs J L Adamson, M.P.
Resigned and appointed by Aneurin Bevan
*The report cost £2119 13s 2d
Unlike most other reports that precede the relevant legislation, this one is nearly unique for the period in regards to the numbers of female participants. Obviously this is due to the widespread, then current, understanding that childcare was a remit of the woman, and was something that they would intrinsically, almost biologically know about. The biological link between mother and child, that was highlighted in the studies of the war-time evacuated children, continued to be stressed in professional circles until the 1970s.
A cruel diagnosis that emphasised the womens role in neglecting the child more than the mans, while simultaneously suggesting that there is something fundamentally, physically wrong with her if she couldnt feel, want or was unable to look after her own child