Sylvia Scaffardi (1902 - 2001) and Elizabeth Acland
Allen (fl.1936 - 1960)
Sylvia Scaffardi (nee
Crowther-Smith) was in her early 20s and working as an actress when
she met Ronald Kidd (1889-1942), sometime actor, journalist,
publisher and bookseller, in London in 1926. Kidd moved in
Bohemian and radical circles - Scaffardi described him as a 'very
individual brotherhood-of-man' type of socialist - and by the early
1930s he was running a leftwing bookshop off the Strand. They
lived and worked together until his death, and the formation of the
National Council for Civil Liberties in 1934 was the high
point of their political collaboration.
'Police clear a march', 27 January 1931 [copyright Getty
Images]
- mounted police charge demonstrators during one of the Hunger
Marches
The origins of the NCCL lie in the
work which Kidd began in 1932 of observing the Hunger Marches as
they arrived in London and reporting on the policing of the events.
Sylvia joined him in this work (including at an anti-Nazi
demonstration on 17 December 1933), and when the committee which
formed the nucleus of the NCCL first met on 22 February 1934, she
was elected Honorary Treasurer.
In July 1934, she began to receive a
salary for her work and the title of Assistant Secretary.
Effectively, the organisation's first office was the room at no.3
Dansey Yard, off Shaftesbury Avenue, where Kidd and Scaffardi
lodged. They ran the NCCL together in its early years, with Kidd as
General Secretary, supported by an Executive Committee which
included Vera Brittain, Claud Cockburn, Rev. Dick Shepherd, Harold
Laski and Kingsley Martin, and by the lawyers DN Pritt and WH
Thompson on the General Purposes Committee. However the volume of
work put pressure on Kidd's health and from 1938 onwards, the
number of office staff employed by the organisation had to be
gradually increased.
Circular letter issued by NCCL about
the Prevention of Violence (Temporary Provisions)
Bill, 1939 [DCL/47/1]
The first decade of the NCCL's
existence was dominated by several key issues, but particularly:
the fight against fascism; the debate over 'non-flam' films and
censorship; and the Harworth Colliery affair. The NCCL was at
the forefront of the anti-fascist campaign in Britain during the
1930s and thereafter. The associated anti-Semitism of groups
such as Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, the evident
sympathy with the Right of large elements of the judiciary and
police force, and the misuse of powers relating to the holding of
public meetings (where for example the Public Order Act of 1936,
introduced after riots at fascist meetings, was then used to ban
meetings by Left and other groups) dominated the campaigning
activities and early history of the organisation. The
'non-flam' films affair again revealed the high-handed attitude of
public authorities in attempting to censor, via the Cinematograph
Act of 1909, what the public could watch on film. The NCCL
also played a major role in the Harworth Colliery affair of 1937,
which led to the organising of a petition of some 250,000
signatures in support of a group of striking Nottinghamshire
miners.
Scaffardi resigned as Assistant Secretary of the NCCL in August
1941, at a time when her mother was dying of cancer and Kidd was
suffering from a recurrence of heart problems. In November, Kidd
had to give up the post of General Secretary and was made Director
of NCCL instead, in an effort to reduce his workload. However he
did not recover his health and died at the age of 53 on 12 May
1942. Scaffardi continued to to sit on the Executive
Committee until the mid 1950s, and remained a lifelong supporter of
Liberty.
Oswald Mosley, 1 May 1948 [copyright Getty Images] -
addressing
an anti-Communist rally in Dalston, East London
Elizabeth Acland
Allen joined the NCCL as Appeals Officer in 1941 with
a background in running the International Peace Campaign and the
Women's Liberal Federation. The IPC was set up in early 1936
to co-ordinate the work of existing pacifist organisations and
other groups opposed to war, and campaigned in support of the
League of Nations. Allen was involved in organising its main
international event, the World Peace Congress, which was held in
Brussels in September 1936. After the outbreak of war, it had
difficulty sustaining its activities and was wound up in early
1941. The Women's Liberal Federation had a much longer history,
founded as it was in the late 1880s. Traditionally it was
more radical in its approach and had more of an interest in
international affairs than the Liberal Party itself.
Allen took over as General Secretary of the NCCL in November
1941, as Ronald Kidd moved into the nominal post of Director.
It shall not happen here was the title of Elizabeth
Allen's most important publication as General Secretary and it
emphasised that the focus of the NCCL's work remained
anti-fascism well into the 1940s. The pamphlet was published
in 1943 and sold 25,000 copies, and was accompanied by a conference
on the same subject.
The most important campaign which took place under Allen's
leadership began in earnest in 1950 and sought the reform of
the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913. Under the Act, people
could be labelled as 'moral defectives' on wide-ranging and
questionable grounds, and abuse of the mental health system was
therefore common. The campaign was driven forward by Frank
Haskell, who joined the NCCL in 1946 as head of the Mental
Deficiency Department. After a decade of conferences,
publications (including the pamphlet 50,000 outside the
law), legal action in individual cases and finally the
submission of evidence to a Royal Commission, the NCCL achieved the
abolition of the 1913 Act. Under the new Mental Health Act of
1959, Mental Health Review Tribunals were set up to reconsider
individual cases. Volunteers organised by the NCCL acted
on behalf of patients, securing the release of 1000s of
people. This campaign ensured, amongst other things,
that women were no longer at risk of being incarcerated
for mental deficiency simply for giving birth outside marriage.
Biographies
Sylvia Scaffardi
Elizabeth Acland
Allen
Sylvia Scaffardi
Born in Brazil in 1902
Partner of Ronald Kidd from 1926 onwards
From 1932 onwards, joined Kidd in observing the policing of the
Hunger Marches
Co-founder of the National Council for Civil Liberties, 1934
Appointed Honorary Treasurer, then Assistant Secretary of
NCCL, 1934-1941
Member of Executive Committee of NCCL until mid 1950s
Married John Scaffardi in 1958
Author of Fire under the carpet (1986) and Finding
my way (1988)
Joined the Green Party in the late 1980s
Elizabeth Acland
Allen
Joint secretary of the International Peace Campaign and
co-organiser of the Brussels Peace Congress, 1936
Member of executive committee of Women's Liberal Federation
Joined the National Council for Civil Liberties in early 1941 as
Appeals Officer
Appointed General Secretary of NCCL in November
1941
Stepped down and became Hon. Secretary in 1958
Succeeded by Martin Ennals as General Secretary in 1960