Dorothy Buxton

Overview

Dorothy Buxton (née Jebb) born Ellesmere, Shropshire, England March 3, 1881 (d. 1963). British humanitarian; Christian Socialist; Quaker pacifist. Denied exit to Hague Women's Peace Congress, 1915; founding member of WILPF. Opposed WWI with publication of news from the continent. Opposed postwar blockade of Germany with Fight Famine Committee, 1918, leading to co-founding of Save the Children, 1919. Protested about mistreatment of German civilians to Nazi leaders, 1935.

Quotations

On the food blockade of Germany: “[It is] dreadfully suggestive of the practice of placing women and children in front of the firing line. . . Our spurious patriotism, our moral indolence, all that tissue of pretenses which we call ‘civilisation’, has passed the death sentence on the child, but the child in its feebleness and its pain has passed sentence on our ‘civilisation.’” (Union of Democratic Control, May 1919 in Patrick Wright, Iron Curtain, p. 323; 1939 portrait by Arnold Gersti, BBC)