- 1979 edition.Signed.185 pages.
- Publisher. Selwyn Press
- Hardcover. Format B. D/j. B/w photos
- Condition. Very Good. Some shelf wear on d/j.
Jeannie Begg was born on 7 October 1886 of Scottish parents. Her close-knit Presbyterian family considered her the most dynamic and boisterous of the children
In 1908, Begg decided to become a missionary and enrolled at the Presbyterian Women’s Training Institute in Dunedin. In December 1910 she sailed to American Samoa, where she taught at Atauloma Girls’ School and ran a daily health clinic. She quickly had to learn how to deliver babies, working with an obstetrics manual by her side. She earned the love and respect of many Samoans and developed a keen understanding of cultural differences.
After nearly nine years, Begg was impatient for new challenges. Through her contact with Jane Addams of Hull House, a model settlement in the slums of Chicago, she studied at the School of Social Work associated with Columbia University, New York. Supporting herself by working as a waitress, English teacher and factory worker, she also studied sociology at the university. She completed a thesis on Inwood House, a bleak reformatory for delinquent young women, proposing that it be sold and the inmates rehabilitated within the community. She also spent time working with women police and probation officers in New York.
In 1926 Begg was recruited to become general secretary of the Auckland YWCA, beginning a long association with the organisation both within New Zealand and internationally. She transformed the YWCA into a focal point for many Auckland girls. Her story-telling ability, energy and willingness to treat everyone equally made her popular and even revered by those who came into contact with her.
A big woman, forthright but good humoured, she was never daunted by the size of any task. By 1928 Begg supervised a paid staff of 13, and the organisation had 150 volunteers and a paid membership of nearly 2,000. She also fostered the formation of women’s sports organisations, working with like-minded women to establish hockey, cricket and athletics clubs in the city and to obtain a sports ground for their use in Remuera.
Jean Begg championed feminist causes and challenged women to become involved in commerce, civic life and politics, chastising them for being ‘apathetic’. Although many of her colleagues in women’s organisations were conservative, she was egalitarian in her approach. She believed that as New Zealand was a democratic society ‘anything that tends towards class distinction should be done away with’, and she spoke out against the privilege of private schools.
In 1931 Begg left New Zealand to take up the post of YWCA national general secretary for India, Burma and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). She eventually developed a network of 65 clubs, stretching from Italy, Egypt, Palestine and Iraq to India, Burma and Japan. With her formidable organisational abilities she requisitioned some of the most luxurious hotels and palaces for YWCA clubs, although no alcohol was served. She recruited many of the women who ran the clubs from the New Zealand YWCA.
In 1945 Jean Begg was asked to set up welfare services in Singapore for internees being liberated from Japanese camps. She immediately took over the famed Raffles Hotel – much to the annoyance of some male military officers. In 1946 she turned down the position of national general secretary of the New Zealand YWCA, claiming that she was too old and ‘worn-out’. Instead she went to Japan to rebuild the YWCA there. In the wake of the war there was much anti-Japanese sentiment, but she called on her helpers to treat the Japanese people with respect and fairness. For her war services Begg was appointed an MBE (1943), OBE (1946) and CBE (1948).
She died in Dunedin on 15 February 1971. She was accorded a military funeral and her ashes were buried in the soldiers’ cemetery at Andersons Bay, Dunedin.
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