Margery Fry Memorial Trust: Birmingham and West Midlands Area.

The collection mainly comprises annual reports, 1961-73 and miscellaneous items regarding penal reform.

(Sara) Margery Fry (1874-1958), social and penal reformer. Fry worked for the Friends' War Victims' Relief Committee in France 1914-18. She joined the Labour Party in 1918 and set up house in London with her brother Roger Fry in 1919. She was Secretary of the Howard League for Penal Reform (1919-26), where she campaigned vigorously for the abolition of capital punishment. She became increasingly involved with international penal reform. After her death a memorial fund was set up in her name to assist discharged prisoners by providing hostel accommodation. The Margery Fry Memorial Fund (later Trust): Birmingham and West Midlands Area opened its first home, Newell House, in Birmingham in April 1961. By 1972 it was operating six homes in the West Midlands.

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

This collection was deposited in the Centre by the Margery Fry Memorial Trust: Birmingham and West Midlands Area.

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/FMT

There are no restrictions on the use of this archive, apart from the requirements of copyright law.

Further deposits are not expected.

The Centre also holds the papers of the Howard League for Penal Reform, 1895-1977 (MSS.16), which include the Penal Reform League.