Pre-1900
18th and early 19th centuries
Higher education students in the UK have a long tradition of voluntary action. The roots of this movement lie in the religious societies formed at universities during the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century, some of which organised volunteers to visit sick people and prisoners. The best-known example is John Wesley’s so-called ‘Holy Club’ at Oxford in the 1730s. In the early nineteenth century overseas mission work was supported by missionary associations and prayer meetings formed by students and tutors at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, the London medical schools and the Scottish universities.
1860s and 1870s
In the period before 1914 British university and college students understood that the privileges of higher education carried social obligations. Supportive university tutors endeavoured to open up new outlets for students’ desire to serve, including as volunteers on the various schemes for university ‘extension’ developed from the late 1860s, on John Ruskin’s 1874 road-building experiment in Oxford, and by spending a few days or weeks living in poor areas of major cities.
In the 1870s and 1880s, following a model pioneered by pupils, teachers and old boys at Uppingham School in 1869, several Oxford and Cambridge colleges started missions in poor parishes of South and East London by raising money to sponsor a missionary curate. Former students were involved as volunteers and students were encouraged to visit the college mission during vacations. In exchange, visits to the colleges were arranged for groups from the mission districts. The idea was strongly welcomed by the bishops who had responsibility for the poorest parishes in South and East London. From small beginnings in rented houses, many college missions eventually became full parishes with considerable institutional presence, including churches, halls, coffee houses and club rooms.
1880s
Building on several earlier initiatives, in November 1883 Anglican clergyman Samuel Barnett formally proposed starting a ‘university settlement’ of educated men in the East End of London. Committees of undergraduates and tutors were founded in both Oxford and Cambridge to oversee the scheme and by the end of 1884 a settlement named after the recently deceased historian Arnold Toynbee had opened in Whitechapel along with its high church rival, Oxford House in Bethnal Green.
With the opening of these settlements Walter Besant declared that a ‘great voluntary movement’ was just beginning. In 1895 a large conference was held at Toynbee Hall to promote the idea of settlements. Forty-five further settlements opened across the UK by 1911. Although concentrated in London, settlements were started in cities across the UK by Glasgow University (1889), Manchester University (1895), the Welsh University Association (1901), Edinburgh University (1905), Liverpool University (1907) and Bristol University (1911). Although the actual residents were usually recent graduates, the settlements opened up many new volunteer opportunities for students as student secretaries, as regular volunteers or as vacation-time visitors and short-term residents.
1890s
Despite the publicity accorded to the university settlement movement after 1884, college missions continued to attract strong undergraduate support, particularly in Cambridge. By 1892 there were six Cambridge college missions in South London as well as missions supported by two Oxford colleges. In the 1890s and early 1900s several Cambridge colleges began to develop new forms of social work in preference to adopting a section of a parish on the traditional mission model. South London thus ‘bristled with Cambridge enterprises’ as an early report noted. For example a non-religious settlement, Cambridge House, developed out of the Trinity College Mission in 1896, Christ’s College started a home for working boys in 1904 and Magdalene College took over a lads’ club in 1905. Activities which volunteers might get involved with included mothers’ meetings, Sunday Schools, boys’ and girls’ clubs, savings banks, sports teams, cadet corps, drum and fife bands, boys’ brigades and, later, scout or guide troops.
The other important movement that helped channel student volunteering before the First World War was the Student Christian Movement (SCM). In 1893 a number of independent student Christian groups and organisations came together to form the British College Christian Union, an organisation which later changed its name to the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain and Ireland. As well as bible study and support for overseas missions, members took part in voluntary service in their spare time and during vacations, for instance for Sunday Schools (such as the famous Jesus Lane in Cambridge), for the seaside-based Children’s Special Service Missions or for medical missions and free dispensaries in large cities. In the early twentieth century the SCM began to take a more active interest in wider social problems in Britain. After 1903 several Christian unions started social study groups and began to actively co-operate with fellow students in voluntary service and settlement work.
Higher education students in the UK have a long tradition of voluntary action. The roots of this movement lie in the religious societies formed at universities during the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century, some of which organised volunteers to visit sick people and prisoners. The best-known example is John Wesley’s so-called ‘Holy Club’ at Oxford in the 1730s. In the early nineteenth century overseas mission work was supported by missionary associations and prayer meetings formed by students and tutors at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, the London medical schools and the Scottish universities.
1860s and 1870s
In the period before 1914 British university and college students understood that the privileges of higher education carried social obligations. Supportive university tutors endeavoured to open up new outlets for students’ desire to serve, including as volunteers on the various schemes for university ‘extension’ developed from the late 1860s, on John Ruskin’s 1874 road-building experiment in Oxford, and by spending a few days or weeks living in poor areas of major cities.
In the 1870s and 1880s, following a model pioneered by pupils, teachers and old boys at Uppingham School in 1869, several Oxford and Cambridge colleges started missions in poor parishes of South and East London by raising money to sponsor a missionary curate. Former students were involved as volunteers and students were encouraged to visit the college mission during vacations. In exchange, visits to the colleges were arranged for groups from the mission districts. The idea was strongly welcomed by the bishops who had responsibility for the poorest parishes in South and East London. From small beginnings in rented houses, many college missions eventually became full parishes with considerable institutional presence, including churches, halls, coffee houses and club rooms.
1880s
Building on several earlier initiatives, in November 1883 Anglican clergyman Samuel Barnett formally proposed starting a ‘university settlement’ of educated men in the East End of London. Committees of undergraduates and tutors were founded in both Oxford and Cambridge to oversee the scheme and by the end of 1884 a settlement named after the recently deceased historian Arnold Toynbee had opened in Whitechapel along with its high church rival, Oxford House in Bethnal Green.
With the opening of these settlements Walter Besant declared that a ‘great voluntary movement’ was just beginning. In 1895 a large conference was held at Toynbee Hall to promote the idea of settlements. Forty-five further settlements opened across the UK by 1911. Although concentrated in London, settlements were started in cities across the UK by Glasgow University (1889), Manchester University (1895), the Welsh University Association (1901), Edinburgh University (1905), Liverpool University (1907) and Bristol University (1911). Although the actual residents were usually recent graduates, the settlements opened up many new volunteer opportunities for students as student secretaries, as regular volunteers or as vacation-time visitors and short-term residents.
1890s
Despite the publicity accorded to the university settlement movement after 1884, college missions continued to attract strong undergraduate support, particularly in Cambridge. By 1892 there were six Cambridge college missions in South London as well as missions supported by two Oxford colleges. In the 1890s and early 1900s several Cambridge colleges began to develop new forms of social work in preference to adopting a section of a parish on the traditional mission model. South London thus ‘bristled with Cambridge enterprises’ as an early report noted. For example a non-religious settlement, Cambridge House, developed out of the Trinity College Mission in 1896, Christ’s College started a home for working boys in 1904 and Magdalene College took over a lads’ club in 1905. Activities which volunteers might get involved with included mothers’ meetings, Sunday Schools, boys’ and girls’ clubs, savings banks, sports teams, cadet corps, drum and fife bands, boys’ brigades and, later, scout or guide troops.
The other important movement that helped channel student volunteering before the First World War was the Student Christian Movement (SCM). In 1893 a number of independent student Christian groups and organisations came together to form the British College Christian Union, an organisation which later changed its name to the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain and Ireland. As well as bible study and support for overseas missions, members took part in voluntary service in their spare time and during vacations, for instance for Sunday Schools (such as the famous Jesus Lane in Cambridge), for the seaside-based Children’s Special Service Missions or for medical missions and free dispensaries in large cities. In the early twentieth century the SCM began to take a more active interest in wider social problems in Britain. After 1903 several Christian unions started social study groups and began to actively co-operate with fellow students in voluntary service and settlement work.
