The Hon. Ellen Joyce: Imperialist and promoter of women’s emigration

In 1855 Ellen married James Gerald Joyce the Rector of Stratfield Saye. The following year their only child Arthur was born. 

Like his father Arthur Joyce became a clergyman and was rector of St Martins Winnall in 1887. The Church was demolished in 1971 but the Queen Anne style former rectory St John’s Croft that Ellen shared with him until her death in 1924 remains and is now a Bed and Breakfast. The green space opposite the Croft is known as Joyce’s Gardens.

As a committed Anglican Ellen Joyce was eager to spread her faith and was alert to her charitable obligations. In 1875 she had been approached by Mary Townsend the founder of  the Anglican Girls’ Friendly Society and invited to become one of its first Associates. 

The founding Associates also included Winchester women, novelist Charlotte Yonge and Mary Sumner who went on to start the Anglican Mothers’ Union an organisation that Ellen Joyce also supported. The GFS sought to protect vulnerable young working girls and women from sexual exploitation. Self-improvement was a strong theme in the GFS and girls were encouraged to be proud of belonging to the society. Whilst the GFS prioritised chastity and temperance as essential attributes for membership it also supported girls to learn business skills and enjoy respectable cultural leisure pursuits. The role of the Associate was to run a local club for members and to help them with finding good jobs. To this end the GFS started ‘departments’ to look after members’ needs. These included an industrial department, a department for sick members, a literature department under the direction of Charlotte Yonge, and a department for GFS members emigrating instigated in 1883. It was here that Ellen found her niche and embarked on a life time of advocacy for her twin passions - opportunities for women to better themselves, and imperial patriotism. 

In 1882 she founded the Winchester Women’s Emigration Society which later in 1888 amalgamated with other organisations to become the British Women’s Emigration Association (BWEA). As GFS emigration correspondent she invited members of the society seeking to emigrate to do so through the society. Applicants were personally vetted by her to ensure that they were the ‘right sort of woman’, both practically and morally qualified to serve the empire as ‘civilizing’ agents. For Ellen Joyce emigration was ‘missionary work done by hundreds not units’. Ellen Joyce drew on her contacts at the highest level to secure recognition for her members’ value in the destination country. She corresponded with churchmen and government officials with responsibility for emigration and colonial development.

A distinctive feature of Ellen Joyce’s work for emigration was in her attention to detail and personal interest in each woman. Opportunities for emigrating were promoted in the GFS magazine Friendly Leaves. In 1907 her column advertised possibilities in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the US and Canada. Emigrants going to Canada on the April voyage of the SS Ottawa were advised that the crossing would be cold. They were alerted to employment opportunities including a position for a lady organist ‘in a healthy town’ at $300 a year. Other advantages of travelling with what were known as Joyce parties were the benefit of a shipboard chaperone, help with onward travel and contacts on arrival. Ellen Joyce wrote personal letters of introduction for each woman in her parties. The expertise that underpinned the success of the Joyce emigration parties was built on Ellen’s personal experience of travel. She had been to South Africa and was familiar with Canada, having made two visits and crossed the continent on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Emigrants’ luggage was branded with the Anchor Cross logo which symbolised hope and religious faith and which, as it was identified with the respectable status of the Joyce parties, acted as a passport for smooth negotiation of immigration. An advantage endorsed by Ellen’s son Arthur who had accompanied as Chaplain a party travelling to Canada in 1903. He noted that the anchor label prevented  the interference of customs officials in what he referred to as the ‘precious boxes’ of the women. Ellen Joyce’s interest in her charges did not stop there, she followed up their progress and was known to chastise employers who were not treating them properly. 

Ellen Joyce’s contribution to the imperial project through emigration was recognised at local and national level. A project in Winchester that Joyce and other local philanthropists including Laura and George Ridding, were associated with was Connaught House, a Diocesan Training Home for Friendless Girls. This provided a recruiting ground for suitably trained young women of good character and physical capability. 

The Chronicle of February 21 1885 included an endorsement from Mr Moss MP who looked upon Connaught House as ‘a nursery for the emigration of women’. He reinforced the attractions of emigration by recommending Australia as a destination noting that the climate in Australia was ‘most salubrious, and fruits grew in such abundance that pigs were fed on peaches’. In the same article the Dean of Winchester also commended Ellen Joyce’s determination to serve young women’s wellbeing and prospects saying that she was ‘a tower of strength’ and that ‘they had a great debt of gratitude to Mrs Joyce for what she had done’. The British government was equally impressed and she was awarded the CBE for her services to women’s emigration in 1920. 

Politically Ellen Joyce was aligned with the Conservatives and was an active supporter of the Primrose League which engaged women and men in fund raising and social initiatives to encourage support for the party. Her enthusiasm for empire was even more ardent. Her conviction that British imperialism was beneficial not only to the ‘mother country’ but to the colonies is to modern eyes outdated and uncomfortable. However, her views were representative of opinions articulated in the magazine Imperial Colonist which mistakenly prioritised British culture and Christianity particularly Anglicanism as superior. Even more shocking, is the racism evident in her support for the campaign for a ‘White Australia’. 

In a letter to the President of Winchester Diocesan G.F.S. Council in 1921, she asserted: "The absolute necessity in the cause of religion and morality, of stimulating the Protected Migration of members, to parts of the Empire where good women are really needed to preserve in those far parts of our possessions a high standard of morals, [and] in equalising the sexes, to multiply a race practising religious habits and in one part of our vast Dominions to keep for King and Empire a “White Australia“."

So, Ellen Joyce is a problematic figure who despite making a positive difference to many young women who otherwise had few advantages is tainted by her association with a colonial racist initiative. This may account for her memorial being consigned out of sight in the crypt of Winchester Cathedral.