Maude Alethea Stanley was a British youth work pioneer and women"s welfare activist.
Background
Stanley was born at Alderley Park, Chelford in Cheshire, the third daughter and fourth of ten children of the politician Edward Stanley and the women"s education campaigner Henrietta Stanley (later Baron and Baroness Stanley of Alderley).
Career
The Honorary
Stanley herself has been described as low church. Her youngest sisters, Katharine Russell, Viscountess Amberley, and Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle, both campaigned for women"s suffrage. Russell himself thought of her as the perfect aunt and an embodiment of kindness.
The next year, Stanley contemplated travelling to the continent to nurse the wounded in the Franco-Prussian War.
Following a long trip abroad, she and her mother moved to Dover Street. A woman of Stanley"s social position was expected to devote time to charity and social work, but her involvement exceeded expectations.
Stanley"s approach gradually became more secular and she started concentrating on youth work. She started opening night schools and clubs for girls, spending much of her income for that purpose.
She set out to reach young men and women on the streets and in the courtyards by talking to them, playing cards and gambling.
In an attempt to promote inter-club co-operation, she established Girls Club Union in 1880 (which eventually grew into London Youth). Stanley also functioned as Poor Law Guardian, became manager of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1884 and governor of the Borough Polytechnic in 1892. In 1890, she wrote Clubs for Working Girls, the first text about young women"s clubs, and took a lifelong interest in the welfare of working teenaged girls.
The circle of philanthropists she belonged to included Henry Solly and Octavia Hill.
Stanley lived with her mother until the latter"s death in 1895. The outbreak of the First World War distressed her and caused her to leave London.
She died of a heart condition at Alderley Park. The funeral was held at Alderley Park two days later, and was followed by a memorial service at Smith Square.
Both Mary of Teck, Queen of the United Kingdom, and the queen dowager, Alexandra of Denmark, sent representatives to the memorial service.
Queen Alexandra"s wreath was inscribed with: "In memory of dear Mission Stanley and all her many good works. From her devoted Alexandra.".