A Mysterious Death: Maud Davies, Pioneering Sociologist

Jane Howells raises some intriguing questions about the tragic death of pioneering sociologist, Maud Davies, in 1913.

 

Life in an English Village was published in 1909. Subtitled An Economic and Historical Survey of the Parish of Corsley in Wiltshire, this pioneering study was written by Maud Frances Davies, inspired by Sidney and Beatrice Webb when she was a student at the London School of Economics. John Chandler of the Hobnob Press had long planned to produce a reprint of Maud’s book, and invited me to write a substantial new introduction about Maud. [1] This was published in 2013, on the centenary of the author's death.

Maud was born in London in 1876. In 1897 the family bought Corsley House, west of Warminster in Wiltshire. Her father, Byam Davies, became an inspector of Poor Law schools for the Local Government Board. Children in workhouses increasingly attended local elementary schools, an improvement Davies had recommended from some of his earliest reports. It is very possible that Maud’s interest in social issues stemmed from his work. 

 

 

 

Photograph of Fiona Stansbury as Maud Davies for the Available Light Production television documentary, Death of a Sociologist, in 2001 outside Corsley Church. Photograph by John Chandler.

Maud Davies first enrolled at the LSE in 1901. The Webbs, with other members of staff mentioned in the preface to Life in English Village (Lilian Knowles, Hubert Hall and John McKillop), inspired generations of students. They were particularly important to a woman breaking away from traditional expectations for someone of her gender and class. Maud learnt methods of historical scholarship and a scientific approach to research which believed that policy change should be based on factual analysis.

At the same time as starting her Corsley project, Maud Davies participated in early work on the Victoria County History of Wiltshire (VCH). VCH employed numerous educated women as researchers and authors.  Hubert Hall recommended Maud as “one of his most promising postgraduate students”. Sadly, Maud’s work for the VCH was never published as the Wiltshire volumes did not survive financial difficulties after 1908. [2]

Meanwhile, Maud was making progress with her Corsley study. Part 1 covers the parish's history to what was then the present day at the end of the nineteenth century.

The second, longer, part of the book presents the results of her comprehensive survey of the parish. She asked households to complete a questionnaire and to keep family budgets and diaries of food. Reports were sought on “the characteristics” of households, by consulting “a person who knew the parish intimately”, possibly the Rector or schoolmaster. Information on religion, insurance, amusements, friendly societies, medical attendance and women's employment was gathered to fill the picture.

From the start Maud was determined to preserve the anonymity of her respondents. But once the book was read by locals it became clear that individuals were easily identified, and in January 1910 the parish council resolved to ask her to withdraw the book from local circulation. This was reported under the headline “slandering the poor” –  their interpretation of what Maud had written. Her purpose had been to improve living conditions by exposing and analysing poverty, but this was seen as critical of a way of life. It is said that Byam Davies attempted to buy up as many copies as possible. Life in an English Village did receive a number of favourable reviews beyond the immediate area, in Fabian News and The Economic Journal for example. When Maud Davies died, Edward Pease, Secretary of the Fabian Society, declared, “This book will be read 100 years hence, and will always remain a classic of sociological enquiry”. It is widely quoted by modern historians as providing analysis of an Edwardian rural community, in parallel with the better known work of Booth, Rowntree, Rowley and Mann.

Meanwhile Maud was becoming an active member of the Fabian Society, particularly the Fabian Women’s Group. She presented papers on “Women Workers in Village Life” and “Women in Agriculture after the break-up of the Manorial System”; attended Fabian Summer Schools; and sat on the “Citizenship” and “Women’s Right to Work” sub-committees.

Maud Davies wrote a substantial booklet on School Care Committees, concerned with children’s welfare in deprived areas of London.  She was critical of aspects of the committees’ work when she spoke at the National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution, in the summer of 1911.

Towards the end of 1912 Maud was said to be “run down by overwork” and decided to travel. On 3 December she left from Southampton, spent six weeks in Jamaica, sailed on to New York, and returned to Liverpool, docking on the night of 31 January 1913. On Saturday 1 February passengers took the boat train to London, arriving at Euston at 2.30pm. Maud’s decapitated body was found in the early hours of the following morning on the line some 70 yards from High Street Kensington station.

The inquest returned an open verdict, adding that there was no evidence of murder. But many questions remain. Did she die by accident or by her own hand? Her friends and relations were consistent in believing she was unlikely to commit suicide. Why did she leave her luggage at Euston, travel to Kensington and then buy a ticket to Notting Hill Gate? Was she so unwell she could not prevent herself from falling from a train, or from wandering off the platform? Why did she curtail her plans for a world tour? Why did she return from New York using a different first name, and on a second class ticket? Does this suggest she was short of money, which might fit with the disappearance of a necklace and cross she took with her? Her latest investigation was into the white slave trade; was she travelling incognito for research or had she crossed ruthless elements of the trade?

If her family did not oppose her chosen way of life, that does not mean they actively encouraged her independence of spirit. She was clearly building a reputation for herself, and was held in high regard by friends and associates in her varied activities. “A mystery still” was how both the Wiltshire News and Daily Express closed their final reports.

Notes

[1] Maud F Davies, Life in an English Village, originally published 1913, reprint with new introduction by Jane Howells, 2013 Hobnob Press. www.hobnobpress.co.uk

[2] The typescript is at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre as WSA 1946A.