M.Phil request for advice on vice in Dover in the GW

[yperman]

- Good morning,

 

I am considering doing an M.Phil on the social impact of the GW on the Snargate Street area of Dover where there were a number of brothels and at least one pornographic cinema and "theatre". I am particularly interested in the response, if any, of the local protestant churches to these establishments I wondered if any kind forum members could flag up any existing research  and primary or secondary sources.

 

Many thanks,

 

Yperman 

[keithfazzani]

Firstly may I say that this is all new to me! Sources of information firstly I would have a look at PCC minutes from local C of E churches. These are I believe kept in the Kent Archives in Maidstone https://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure-and-community/history-and-heritage/kent-archives/start-your-research/search-online-now. There used to be at this time local "Watch Committees" charged with protecting morals, if any records exist then I suspect that these would also be kept in Maidstone. Where the records of non conformist churches are kept I couldn't say, but i suspect some may be found in the Maidstone archives. Canterbury Cathedral archives are also worth a trawl as sometimes one comes across correspondence concerning a wide variety of matters https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/heritage/archives-library/

[BullerTurner]

What an interesting subject for research - no witticism intended.  Some of the stuff recently referred to around STDs and their effects on troop effectiveness and morale, have been very illuminating.

[Moonraker]

Local newspapers of the period might carry reports of court cases involving women of easy virtue and brothels. Previously I have posted details of such cases in Wiltshire, which had a very high concentration of soldiers and, consequently, quite a few recollections in autobiographies, letters home and the like. And official documents of the Australian Imperial Force (which occupied many Salisbury Plain camps from 1916 to 1919) gave me some information on disease prevention.

 

Ever the pessimist (or realist), I did blink at how localised Yperman's approach is. Probably I could manage a couple of thousand words about cases of vice on Salisbury Plain and another thousand putting local morals into a national context, but I don't think I could compose anything long enough for a M.Phil thesis. Still, good luck!

 

A pornographic cinema and "theatre", eh? I haven't across that sort of thing in Wiltshire a century ago ...

 

Moonraker

[Gareth Davies]

I would start with Bruce Cherry's book They Didn't Want To Die Virgins.  It is focused on the Western Front, not the home front and SPODs, but in terms of references it would be a significant help.  Primary sources he cites include GCM registers, APM reports and the like from the NA, unpublished memoirs at the IWM, AWM material, and trench journals.  He then has 16 pages of published material listed.  

[IPT]

2 hours ago, Gareth Davies said:

 Bruce Cherry

 

I'm a simple, childish fellow, and I enjoyed that. Cheers.

[Guest]

The most important sources are going to be local authority records and police records. You must spend some time investigating their possible survival. Kent History Centre seems the likeliest place for Kent policing generally (after your local studies  service has been grilled thoroughly, of course). In particular, Dover had a Watch Committee and you should prioritise what happened to it’s records. The reports of the local Medical Officer of Health may help as well. Again, a short course in gestapo interrogation techniques and meeting witth the local studies folk will be useful

     British Newspaper Archive suggest there are accounts of various prostitutes being arrested. Whether any  case papers survive is a problem- the Kent History Centre bundles are worth a call.  One case that did come up on BNA is that of a prosecution for selling cocaine to troops in the Snargate area in 1916- the sale of drugs to troops was banned but,of course, drugs and prostitution are commonly linked (Should I call them bedfellows?). Dover local papers are likely to be your main printed sources-and hard work backtracking from there.

     The Home Office will have stuff on prostitution in Dover, buried away in the series listed below.  As Dover was a port city, with extensive military connections in wartime- movement of troops, garrison, naval operations- there will be stuff buried away in Admiralty and War Office materials. Whether British Army court martial records may have anything is an unknown worth investigating.

   Following on from Josephine Butler’s Campaigns against the Contagious Diseases Acts., her successor continued to campaign- their punlciations are held in extensor at LSE Women’s Library,which is worth a call anyway. The National Vigilance Association also got it’s nose stuck in as well.

   I have listed a few modern works- there are studies of prostitution in various cities-the most prominent ones being of Victorian York. There should be some more stuff on wartime prostitution but I will have to get back to you on that.

 

 

PROSTITUTION: Treatment of prostitutes.

Home Office: Registered Papers. Registered Papers, 1910-1919. PROSTITUTION: Treatment of prostitutes.

 

Held by:	The National Archives - Home Office
Date:	1906 - 1918
Reference:	HO 45/10523/140266
Subjects:	Crime | Sex and gender

 

 

PROSTITUTION: Inquiries into Prostitution, Disorderly Houses etcetera.

Home Office: Registered Papers. Registered Papers, 1910-1919. PROSTITUTION: Inquiries into Prostitution, Disorderly Houses etcetera.

 

Held by:	The National Archives - Home Office
Date:	1912 - 1917
Reference:	HO 45/10557/166505
Subjects:	Crime | Sex and gender

 

 

PROSTITUTION AND ALLIED OFFENCES: Memorandum on the state control of prostitutes in United Kingdom 1864-1921.

Home Office: Registered Papers. Registered Papers, 1920 onwards. PROSTITUTION AND ALLIED OFFENCES: Memorandum on the state control of prostitutes in United Kingdom 1864-1921.

 

Held by:	The National Archives - Home Office
Date:	1924 - 1925
Reference:	HO 45/20044
Subjects:	Crime | Sex and gender

 

 

PROSTITUTION AND ALLIED OFFENCES: Expulsion of foreign prostitutes: co-operation of National Vigilance Association.

Home Office: Registered Papers. Registered Papers, 1920 onwards. PROSTITUTION AND ALLIED OFFENCES: Expulsion of foreign prostitutes: co-operation of National Vigilance Association.

 

Held by:	The National Archives - Home Office
Date:	1913 - 1933
Reference:	HO 45/15041
Subjects:	Crime | Sex and gender

 

PROSTITUTION AND ALLIED OFFENCES: Disorderly houses: methods of police prosecutions.

Home Office: Registered Papers. Registered Papers, 1920 onwards. PROSTITUTION AND ALLIED OFFENCES: Disorderly houses: methods of police prosecutions.

 

Held by:	The National Archives - Home Office
Date:	1907 - 1949
Reference:	HO 45/22676
Subjects:	Crime | Sex and gender

 

Home Office: Registered Papers

Home Office: Registered Papers. , pardons, petitions of right, poisons, police, prisons, prostitution, public order, use of royal title by institutions and companies, universities, vivisection, wartime measures, warrants and wild birds. For

 

Held by:	The National Archives - Home Office
Date:	1839 - 1979
Reference:	HO 45
Subjects:	Children | Crime | Democracy | Ireland | Manufacturing | Mental illness | Mutual societies | Nationality | Prisons | Public disorder | Religions | Research | Sex and gender | Trade and commerce | Weapons

 

 

Briefs and evidential papers

This record is held by Kent History and Library Centre

·         See contact details

Reference:	Do/JQ/b
Title:	Briefs and evidential papers
Description:	This series complements the series Do/JQm and Do/JQm and Do JQr, providing evidence  in cases for certain years missing from the latter. It mainly consists of copied depositions and examinations (including some originally taken at Margate and Ramsgate), often with a note as  to prosecution, plea and verdict, and sometimes with prosecution briefs for certain offence  proceeding by indictment. After the Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879 the criminal business consists mostly of indictible offences, and the series subsequently consists mostly of prosecution  briefs, with only a few civil papers relating mainly to highway and footpath  alterations.   The Town Clerk or Superintendent of Police were authorized to conduct prosecutions by the  Watch Committee, and the unbundled briefs in this series were probably retained at the Town Clerk's office after trial, but for simplicity's sake they are catalogued here as judicial records, especially as in other instances they were left with the court and filed in the series Do/JQr.
Date:	1836-1939
Held by:	Kent History and Library Centre, not available at The National Archives
Language:	English, French
Access conditions:	THESE RECORDS ARE CLOSED FOR 100 YEARS

 

 

 

 

 

 

The under-secretary for war defends tolerated brothels!

J. I Macpherson (James Ian), 1880-1937.; Association for Moral and Social Hygiene.

London : Vacher and sons 1918

Association for Moral and Social Hygiene, 1916-1932, various reports, pamphlets and leaflets

 

 

 

 

Prostitution in cardiff, 1900-1959

Jenkins, Simon

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing 2017

PQDT - UK & Ireland

 

Male Heterosexuality and Prostitution During the Great War: British Soldiers' Encounters with Maisons Tolérées

Makepeace, Clare

Routledge

Cultural and Social History, 01 March 2012, Vol.9(1), p.65-83

 

 

The moral battlefield: Venereal disease and the British Army during the First World War

Simpson, David; Cox, Jeffrey (advisor)

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing 1999

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

 

British troops in France : provision of tolerated brothels

Association for Moral and Social Hygiene.

s.l. : s.n., n.d.

 

 

Is prostitution inevitable? : a discussion of causes and remedies : report of speeches delivered ... at a meeting in ... Portsmouth on June 18th, 1914

Mary Warnock; International Abolitionist Federation. British Branch.; Association for Moral and Social Hygiene.

London : British Branch of the International Abolitionist Federation 1914]

 

[Moonraker]

Kent Police Museum?

 

Moonraker

 

 

[yperman]

Thank you all very much! This is an amazing forum! I really appreciate the time, links  and help you all have given.

On 22/05/2018 at 16:35, Moonraker said:

 

Ever the pessimist (or realist), I did blink at how localised Yperman's approach is. 

I  agree it is a small area. I may have to expand my focus to the Middle Street and Cannon Row area of Deal for the Royal Marines and maybe the Cheriton Barracks in Folkestone.for the Canadians.  I  chose to start with  Snargate Street  because it was a geographically clearly defined area where a number of vice establishments are known to have existed and because it  was close to the Admiralty pier and the Granville and Wellington Docks. It  was also in the controlled area  requiring civilian identity cards and would have been - I am assuming at this stage in my research- policed fairly effectively. 

 

'They didn't want to die virgins' and Gibson's 'Behind the Front' initially  raised the question in my mind what about Dover? Was there a local  un-official policy of toleration for such activities?   Given the physical proximity of the area to  several of the town's  protestant Churches I am especially  intrigued to ascertain  their response. Of course as a  seaport Dover had a pre-war sex trade. The impact  of the Great War on the scale of the trade would make it impossible in a small town for the authorities to ignore it. My interest is in the politics and response by the local civilian and military authorities to the situation rather than its details.

[Wexflyer]

The records of the Association for Discountenancing Vice, and other similarly named societies, if still extant (and if they were active in the Great War period), may be singularly appropriate to your quest...?

(Yes, that was the actual name).

Edited 23 May , 2018 by Wexflyer

[Bernard_Lewis]

It might be worth looking at the Port of Dover Authority records. I'm not sure of the correct name for the port authority but ports usually had their own medical officer and, often, their own police force. The Board minutes might refer to 'improper' behaviour around the port. Might be some handy background info.

 

Bernard

[yperman]

21 hours ago, Wexflyer said:

The records of the Association for Discountenancing Vice, and other similarly named societies, if still extant .

 

8 hours ago, Bernard_Lewis said:

It might be worth looking at the Port of Dover Authority records. I'm not sure of the correct name for the port authority but ports usually had their own medical officer and, often, their own police force. The Board minutes might refer to 'improper' behaviour around the port.

Thank you both very much. Dover Harbour board had indeed its own police as well as the town police the RMP and navy shore patrols. The Society for Discountenancing vice is now at the top of my list. Many thanks

[seaJane]

I can direct you to some sources, probably although I do have someone else studying the subject in a more general fashion between the wars. Drop me a PM to remind me and I'll do some searching.

[seaJane]

The title deeds and agreements to many Snargate Street addresses are here: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q="snargate+street"&_p=1900&Refine+dates=Refine - I don't know whether any notes about building use will have been made. One building was a Methodist church whose archives, like these deeds, are at the Kent History and Library Centre.

 

It's probably worth searching Hansard as well: I picked up this item by putting Dover prostitution in the search box for the year 1914: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1881/may/05/contagious-diseases-acts-case-of. You might have to go through 1914-1918 year by year and search on synonyms such as "contagious diseases".

 

sJ

 

[yperman]

Thank you very much SeaJane. Yperman