– A book review by the WLHG
published in Windlesora 11 (1992)
© 1992 WLHG
I take great pleasure in reviewing Valerie Bonham’s latest book about the Community of St John the Baptist in Hatch Lane, Windsor. The second volume in the trilogy about this remarkable community is based on meticulous research into the archives of the convent where the case histories of fallen women have been collected and have now been made available to the author. Full and informative footnotes have been neatly confined to the end of each chapter so that the text flows with readable enjoyment and the work of the Sisters unfolds before us in the pages of this book.
The social conditions of the second half of the 19th century were such that many otherwise respectable women had fallen out of respectable society and stood in need of help. It was the work of the Sisters to rescue such women and within the compassionate and safe walls of the convent, help them to regain their self-respect after retraining them for domestic work in the world outside.
The difficulties of such a mission could only be undertaken by those Sisters (often from privileged and titled families) who had tremendous strength of character and an unshakable vocation. Such a woman was Harriet Monsell. the Mother Foundress of the Community. As the author points out, it is a great pity that the correspondence of Mother Harriet has perished. She was an outstanding figure, who moved easily in the highest circles and counted amongst her friends William and Catherine Gladstone and Archbishop Tait. Such were her achievements that she should have been as famous as Florence Nightingale and to have been included with the eminent Victorians.
Valerie Bonham has also tackled with great skill, that period in church history known as the Oxford Movement, when controversy raged in the Church of England but also led to the flowering of such missions as that of the Community of St. John the Baptist.
The book is a substantial and richly detailed work which the local and religious historian might dip into and come away rewarded with information from an impeccable source. A researcher in Women’s Studies would find a collection of case histories which catalogue not only instances of oppression but also, in the character of Harriet Monsell, the first glimmerings of female emancipation.
Sheila Rooney
BONHAM, Valerie A Place in Life: The Clewer House of Mercy, 1849-83
Valerie Bonham and CSJB 1992 ISBN 0 9508710 2 8 Paperback £10.95 304pp.
Windsor Local History Group 