Jane McChrystal (French & Italian Studies, 1980, Cartmel) tells how taking a degree at Lancaster during the late 70's could inspire students to explore different ideas and paths, long after graduation...

"During the 1970s students at Lancaster had a rather different experience to their counterparts at other English universities. We didn’t choose which subject to major in until the second year and, at the same time, were given the opportunity to venture into another discipline in the form of a “free ninth unit”. Professor David Craig’s “Modern Literature and the Mass Media” proved a particularly popular choice. At a time when some more traditional institutions of Higher Education offered their students nothing to study outside the canon, Craig’s reading list included Keith Waterhouse’s, “Billy Liar”, a popular novel, now probably better known as the film starring Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie. His students were also treated to a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” during the ban imposed by the director on its distribution in British Cinemas. Some of the more adventurous among us even designed their own curriculum tailored to fit with personal enthusiasms – cutting edge stuff indeed.

My own experience of immersion in the languages and culture of France and Italy left me with a life-long love affair with both countries. A year abroad spent at Perpignan and Ferrara Universities was one of the most important gifts of my education at Lancaster, while its diverse student population introduced me to people from many other nations and opened my eyes to horizons I couldn’t have imagined before.

This breadth of perspective was an important legacy of the time I spent studying for a degree in French and Italian Studies. It set me on the road to a varied career as a chartered librarian, registered psychotherapeutic counsellor and an independent trainer and lecturer. Somewhere along the way, I also picked up a Masters and PhD in Psychology.

A fairly recent move from North London to the Isle of Dogs on the River Thames rekindled my fascination with the stories of the people who lived and laboured in docks, shipyards and factories of East London, where I grew up in the 1960s. In 2018 the call went out from Tower Hamlets Local History Library for volunteers to research the redoubtable women of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS). Founded by Sylvia Pankhurst in 1916, as a breakaway group from the mainstream Woman’s Social and Political Union, ELFS not only campaigned for the vote but also set up a very successful welfare programme for the impoverished people of the East End.

This was an irresistible opportunity, which resulted in my publication of “The Splendid Mrs McCheyne and the East London Federation of Suffragettes” in 2020. The record of Mrs McCheyne’s heroic efforts on behalf of ELFS were lying buried in the minutes of ELFS’ committee meetings until I happened to come across them in the course of my research.

A further stroke of luck arrived in the person of Anne Padfield, who discovered our common interest in her relative, Mrs McCheyne, when she emailed Tower Hamlets Local History Library with an enquiry about her. Anne was able to tell me all about Mrs. McCheyne and her family and how they fared through two world wars and migration to the suburbs. Her daughter, Georgina, was born into a whole new world of opportunity for women and became a lecturer at Dagenham Technical College, now the Barking campus of the University of East London.

And so, one project sows the seeds for the next. An investigation into changing attitudes towards how women should lead their lives while menstruating during the years Mrs McCheyne lived through led to a discussion of the results, “No Girl Left Behind”, which appeared in October’s issue of “History Today”. A further source of inspiration has been the life of Norah Smyth, whose pioneering photography leaves us with a wonderful visual record of ELFS activism and the tough lives of the people they campaigned for. Discovering her has presented me with the exciting prospect of visiting Florence to find evidence of her life and work at the Istituto Britannico during the 1920s and 30s

I’m in no doubt that my years at Lancaster fuelled an already curious mind and developed the confidence I needed to pursue new ideas and enter fresh fields throughout my professional life and beyond."

Many thanks to Caroline Hotblack (Cartmel 1980) for her memories of “Modern Literature and Mass Media”.

“The Splendid Mrs McCheyne and The East London Federation of Suffragettes” is published by The Choir Press.