Suffer the Children? Divorce and Child Welfare in Postwar Britain

Rosemary Elliot

doi:10.1177/0363199020945746

Abstract

This article explains why a consensus emerged in the 1950s that courts should be satisfied with the arrangements made for children before parental divorce was granted. I locate this within an evolving child welfare landscape in the context of high levels of divorce in England. The issues at stake were the relationship of child welfare to parental marital status, how this should be established in individual cases, and the legitimacy and boundaries of state intervention in divorce cases. Such developments were absent in Scotland, where the Scottish judiciary believed in upholding the autonomy of parents to make their own arrangements.

Highlights

This article explains why a consensus emerged in the 1950s that courts should be satisfied with the arrangements made for children before parental divorce was granted
When contemporaries came again to consider the question of whether the grounds for divorce should be liberalized in the 1960s in England, the issues regarding children had already been thoroughly aired over two decades and the parameters for legal intervention put in place
In Putting Asunder, a 1966 report produced by a group appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to review the divorce law in England, with reference to the “happiness of children,” the authors said they “should like to see the power and the duty of the court to ensure the protection of children somewhat enlarged”[192]; while the newly appointed Law Commission, reporting on extending the grounds for divorce in 1966, reiterated the point that “the state [had] the duty to protect the interests [of children] in divorce.”

Summary

Pressure for reform

Curtis had argued that children of divorcing parents were not analogous to those in need of social work intervention, the idea that divorce, constructed as “breaking a home,” necessitated state intervention gained ground in the years following the publication of the Denning Committee report. The Deputy Principal of the Probation Service was, she noted, doing the work, a man who had been “at the Central Criminal Court for years, and before that, in Hampstead.” While he was, she suggested, very knowledgeable about men and boys, she was doubtful he knew much about women as he was “unmarried.” Mrs Turner concluded that “it is far from carrying out the recommendations in the [Denning] report.”[86] While a dedicated court welfare officer appears to have been appointed in December 1950, debate remained about the extent of his work geographically and whether he should be required to investigate every case where there were children.[87] This issue gained urgency with the passage of the Legal Aid Act in 1949, which was in part a response to the rising number of divorces and inadequate legal provision, in the context of postwar social and welfare reform. If such things did not pose a risk to the life or health of the spouse, it was difficult to gain a divorce on cruelty grounds

Divorce and child welfare in Scotland

From recommendation to legislation

Conclusion

Author Biography