REMARKABLE WOMAN

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 18

REMARKABLE WOMAN

DAME HENRIETTA BARNETT

One of the very remarkable women of modern times died recently in London. . This lady, Dame Henrietta Barnett, who had attained the age of 85 years, died just when a great scheme of social reform which she started 30 years ago was coming to a triumphant completion;

Her interest was largely centred in garden suburbs and good housing for the people, and alone she founded the Hampstead Garden Suburb, riow^a feature of that district. She was a friend of Queen Mary, who more than once visited the suburb to open new buiidings; but besides, the suburban work Dame Barnett had a vast range of social activities, and her amazing health and energy only just gave but about eighteen months' before her death.

At one time, when-interviewed, she gave the following simple rules for health as she had proved them:—Rise at 5.30 a.m. every day; work very hard; read newspapers, carefully every day; eat very little; • say prayers very often. ..■■■■■ > .

Dame Henrietta \\#is the widow of the late Canon S. A. Barnett, who left a West End parish to work among the poor of Whitechapel. His wife threw herself wholeheartedly into the work of her husband. Between them they persuaded a number of undergraduates (among whom was the late Arnold Toynbee) to spend their holidays with them, at Whitechapel, and out of the enthusiasm for social service then engendered came the institution known as Toynbee Hall. This is an educational centre for those of small means, and has- filled a most useful place in the life of the people