Papers of Dame Eileen Louise Younghusband (1902-1981), social worker and writer

The original catalogue was compiled by NISW and is therefore not arranged according to archival standards. It is largely chronological and has been divided into sections or classes. Classes A-G consist of professional research material kept originally in 'Resource Boxes'. Some additional papers have been added to these by NISW staff. Class H is not chronological but has been left mainly in original order. Classes J-T are mainly personal and family papers.

Dame Eileen Louise Younghusband (1902-1981), welfare worker, born in London on 1 January 1902, was the daughter of Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942), soldier, diplomat, explorer and mystic and his wife, Helen Augusta, daughter of Charles Magniac MP of Colworth, Bedfordshire. Her childhood was spent in Kashmir, where her father was British Resident, 1906-1909. Her unusual father was one of the formative influences on her life. On the family's return to England in 1910, she was educated privately and then attended the London School of Economics, gaining an external certificate in social studies, followed by a university diploma in sociology in 1926. In 1929 she was appointed half-time tutor at the LSE, obtaining a full time post there four years later. Her interests lay in the problems of the poor and deprived and much of her time was spent as a voluntary social worker. In 1933 she was appointed a JP in Stepney and she worked in the clubs run by the Bermondsey settlement. She later became involved in courses financed by the British Council for refugee women returning to their own countries after the second world war. In 1941 Eileen Younghusband became principal officer for training and employment for youth leaders for the National Association of Girls' Clubs and two years later undertook a survey of the welfare needs of the recipients of benefit. In 1955 the Ministry of Health invited her to chair a working party on the role of social workers in the health and welfare services; its report recommended that training courses should be set up for social workers in the polytechnics and colleges of further education as well as in the universities. As a result the Council for Training in Social Work was set up and a social work certificate initiated. A further outcome of the Younghusband report was the establishment of the National Institute for Social Work Training, in which she was much involved. She pioneered in 1954 a generic course at the LSE which became the prototype for professional social work training in other universities. In 1961 she was awarded an honorary fellowship. She insisted that good social work practice lay not only in acquiring knowledge and skill, but also in the possession of personal qualitities of a high order. Eileen Younghusband was also tireless in her work overseas, working after the second world war for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. She worked as consultant in Geneva in 1948, and also in Greece and Hong Kong, she made study visits to the India and Pakistan in 1952-1953, and was a frequent visitor to America. She served as external examiner to the universities of Hong Kong, Columbia, Nottingham, Khartoum, and at the University College of Makerere. She was president of the International Association of Schools of Social Work and later an honorary life president, which gave her the opportunity to visit Africa and Asia. In 1976 she was given the Rene Sand award, the highest award in the field of international social work. She was appointed MBE (1946), CBE (1955) and DBE (1964). For further details, see the entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.

Her published works include the following:

1st Carnegie Report 1947: Report on the Employment and Training of Social Workers. Dunfermline: Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.

2nd Carnegie Report 1950: Report of the Working Party on Social Workers. Dunfermline: Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.

UN Report 1958/59: 3rd International Survey of Training for Social Work. UN.

‘Younghusband Report’ 1959: Report of the Working Party on Social Workers in: Local Authority Health and Welfare Services. London: Ministry of Health.

Younghusband, E. 1964: Social Work and Social Change. London: NISW/ George Allen and Unwin.

Younghusband, E. (ed.) 1965: Social Work with Families, Readings in Social Work, 1. London: NISW/ George Allen and Unwin.

Younghusband, E. (ed.) 1966: New Developments in Casework, Readings in Social Work, 2. London: NISW/ George Allen and Unwin.

Younghusband, E. (ed.) 1967: Social Work and Social Values, Readings in Social Work, 3. London: NISW/ George Allen and Unwin.

Younghusband, E. (ed.) 1968: Education for Social Work, Readings in Social Work, 4. London: NISW/ George Allen and Unwin.

Younghusband, E. 1978: Social Work in Britain, 1950-75. London: Allen and Unwin.

Dame Eileen Younghusband died in a car accident on a lecture tour in the in the USA at a point when preparations had commenced for her 80th Birthday celebrations.

This deposit was previously sorted and catalogued for the National Institute of Social Workers and this list is taken from that catalogue; a few small amendments have been made. Not all files described in the original catalogue were found on deposit but the boxes did include some files not described there. A paper copy of the original catalogue is available in the Centre.

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

Link to full catalogue: https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/ELY

Unknown.

See also papers of BASW and predecessors including Association of Childrens' Officers, Association of Child Care Officers (MSS.378/ACCO), Association of Social Workers (MSS.378/ASW); Society of Mental Welfare Officers (MSS.378/SMWO) and others