{"id":7104,"date":"2020-01-05T14:59:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T14:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7104"},"modified":"2020-01-05T14:59:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T14:59:48","slug":"catherine-gurney-obe-1848-1930","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7104","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Gurney OBE 1848-1930"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Catherine Gurney\/Gurney Fund<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>To quote one of Her Majesty\u2019s Inspectors of Constabulary: \u2018The nursing profession have their Florence Nightingale but the Police Service has Catherine Gurney and we must never let them forget her.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catherine Gurney was born on 19 June 1848, at Normanby House, Lavender\nHill, Battersea, south London. Her parents were Joseph, who worked at the firm\nof William Brodie Gurney, shorthand writers to Parliament, and\nHarriet (n\u00e9e Tritton). The Trittons were a banking family. This affluent,\nreligious middle-class family was related to the Gurney banking family of\nNorwich.  After Gurney\u2019s father died the family moved to Notting Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her grandfather W.B. Gurney played a leading role in the abolition of slavery, as did her great aunt, Martha Gurney.<\/strong> The prison reformer Elizabeth Fry (n\u00e9e Gurney) was another relative.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gurney ignored the social mores dictating that \u2018a woman\u2019s place was in the home\u2019. The first indication of her drive and initiative came in the early 1870s, when she began a Bible Class at Wandsworth Prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Police Institute 1885 founded by Catherine at Adelphi Terrace WC2\/CPA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What? D\u2019you think a police officer has a soul?\u2019 This chance remark from\na policeman who escorted her from Wandsworth back to her home in Notting Hill led\nGurney to set up the Christian Police Association in 1883, initially in her\nhome.  She went on to open London\u2019s first Police Institute at 1 Adelphi\nTerrace WC2. It served as a headquarters for the Association and was a drop-in centre\nfor members of the police force from the UK. It is still operating under the\ntitle CPA.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gurney saw the need for a dedicated sanctuary for policemen recovering\nfrom injury or illness, and in 1890 founded the Police Convalescent Seaside\nHome in Hove. Over 100 police officers were cared for there in its first year.  She went on to establish the Southern Police\nConvalescent Home and Orphanage in Hove in 1893. It was relocated to Sutton\ntemporarily before being opened in Redhill in 1895; 735 children passed through\nfrom its founding in 1890 to 1939. It finally closed in 1947 and its work was\nreplaced by the Gurney Benevolent Fund, renamed The Gurney Fund in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1897, while visiting Harrogate, Catherine negotiated the purchase of\nSt George\u2019s College building and grounds. She then built the Northern Police\nConvalescent Home in 1901 within the grounds. It is now called The Police\nTreatment Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these institutions were paid for through the personal fund-raising\nefforts of Catherine Gurney amongst her friends, family and other wealthy\npatrons in the north and south of England. Where funding fell short, she\narranged loans on which she paid the interest herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gurney served as World\u2019s Superintendent of Work among Policemen and was\nthe Honorary Secretary of the International Christian Police Association. The\nwork that she started in her own home with six members became an International\nAssociation with branches in the UK, America, Australia, India, China, Japan\nand South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basis of the association was entirely non-sectarian and\nnon-political, its object being the spiritual and temporal welfare of the\npolice. It also aimed to establish institutes, convalescent homes and\norphanages, and had a police temperance union connected with it.  Catherine was a temperance worker for many\nyears and recognised the connection between alcohol and violent crime. The\nGurney Fund continues her legacy by providing for the children of deceased or\nmedically retired police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catherine was made an OBE in 1930, shortly before her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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