MIRY

CARPENTER (1807-1877)  , English educational and social reformer, was born on the 3rd of April 1807 at Exeter, where her father, Dr Lant Carpenter, was Unitarian minister . In 1817 the family removed to Bristol, where Dr Carpenter was called to the ministry of Lewin's Mead Meeting . As a child Mary Carpenter was unusually earnest, with a deep religious vein and a remarkable thoroughness in everything she undertook . She was educated in her father's school for boys, learning Latin, Greek and mathematics, and other subjects at that time not generally taught to girls . She early showed an aptitude for teaching, taking a class in the Sunday school, and 'afterwards helping her father with his pupils . When Dr Carpenter gave up his school in 1829, his daughters opened a school for girls under Mrs Carpenter's superintendence . In 1833 the raja Rammohun Roy visited Bristol, and inspired Miss Carpenter with a warm interest in India; and Dr Joseph Tuckerman of Boston about the same time aroused her sympathies for the condition of destitute children . Her life-work began with her taking part in organizing, in 1835, a " Working and Visiting Society," of which she was secretary for twenty years . In 1843, her interest in negro emancipation was aroused by a visit from-Dr S . G . Howe . Her interest in general educational work was also growing .

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bill introduced in this year "to make provision for the better education of children in manufacturing districts," as a first instalment of a scheme of national education, failed to pass, largely owing to Nonconformist opposition, and private effort became doubly necessary . So-called " Ragged Schools sprang up in many places, and Miss Carpenter conceived the plan of starting one in Lewin's Mead . To this was added a night-school for adults . In spite of many difficulties this was rendered a success, chiefly owing to Miss Carpenter's ulpvyearied enthusiasm and remarkable organizing power . In 1848 the closing of their own private school gave Miss Carpenter more leisure for philanthropic and literary work . She published a memoir of Dr Tuckerman, and a series of articles on ragged schools, which appeared in the Inquirer and were afterwards collected in book form . This was followed in 1851 by Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes, and for Juvenile Offenders . She sketched out three classes of schools as urgently needed: — (1) good free day-schools; (2) feeding industrial schools; (3) reformatory schools . This book drew public attention to her work, and from that time onwards she was drawn into personal intercourse with leading thinkers and workers . She was consulted in the drafting of educational bills, and invited to give evidence before House of Commons committees . To test the practical value of her theories, she herself started a reformatory school at Bristol, and in 1852 she published Juvenile Delinquents, their Condition and Treatment, which largely helped on the passing of the Juvenile Offenders Act in 1854 . Now that the principle of reformatory schools was established, Miss Carpenter returned to her plea for free day-schools, contending that the ragged schools were entitled to pecuniary aid from the annual parliamentary grant .

At the

Oxford meeting of the British Association (186o) she read a paper on this subject, and, mainly owing to her instigation, a conference on ragged schools in relation to government grants v . 13for education was held at Birmingham (1860 . In 2866 Miss Carpenter was at last able to carry out a long-cherished plan of visiting India, where she found herself an honoured guest . She visited Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, inaugurated the Bengal Social Science Association, and drew up a memorial to the governor-general dealing with female education, reformatory schools and the state of gaols . This visit was followed by others in r868 and 1869 . Her attempt to found a female normal school was unsuccessful at the time, owing to the inadequate previous education of the women, but afterwards such colleges were founded by government . A start, however, was made with a model Hindu girls' school, and here she had the co-operation of native gentlemen . Her last visit to India took place in 1875, two years before her death, when she had the satisfaction of seeing many of her schemes successfully established . At the meeting of the prison congress in 1872 she read a paper on " Women's Work in the Reformation of Women Convicts." Her work now began to attract attention abroad . Princess Alice of Hesse summoned her to Darmstadt to organize a Women's Congress . Thence she went to Neuchatel to study the prison system of Dr Guillaume, and in 1873 to America, where she was enthusiastically received . Miss Carpenter watched with interest the 'increased activity of women during the busy 'seventies .

She warmly supported the

movement for their higher education, and herself signed the memorial to the university of London in favour of admitting them to medical degrees . She died at Bristol on the 14th of June 1877, having lived to see the accomplishment of nearly all the reforms for which she had worked and hoped . (A .