Lady Muriel Paget’s Mission to Daugavpils (Part II)

Abstract

In February 1920, Lady Muriel Paget established a children’s hospital in Daugavpils. It was the start of a relief Mission which operated until the autumn of 1922, taking the form eventually of infant welfare clinics and feeding kitchens. From the start of 1921, this Mission was broadened to include Riga and, eventually, Tallinn and Kaunas; but the core of the operation remained Daugavpils. This article explores the centrality of Daugavpils to the work of the Mission, the evolution of Lady Muriel’s ambitions, and the often fraught relationship with her chief funder, the Save the Children Fund (SCF).

The article is published in two parts. Part I covered the period from the origins of the Mission in February 1920 until Lady Paget’s dramatic journey to Daugavpils in October 1920. It explored two major themes. First, it considered how the Mission evolved from an attempt to bring aid to “the Polish frontier” of Russia, and possibly Russia itself, to a Mission focused on Latvia and the Baltic states. Second, it explored the problems faced in establishing and running a hospital, and the gradual realisation that a combination of kitchens and smaller welfare clinics offered a far more effective way of administering aid. Part II of the article focuses on the evolution of the Mission, as SCF funding raised the possibility of greater ambition, but ultimately caused a rift over the correct nature of relief work. As the work done by the Mission evolved, it became clear that SCF, as the main funder, felt that its ambitions had moved away from emergency relief and were becoming closer to developmental work. Funding for the Mission was ended just as a series of child welfare initiatives were getting under way. The Daugavpils flood of April 1922, however, pulled the Mission back to its original ambition of emergency relief.