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It is with a deep sense of loss that we record the death, after a very short illness, of Councillor Miss Clara Martineau, who has been for many years a prominent member of the Central Association for Mental Welfare and one of the leading workers in diis country for the welfare of the mentally defective. Miss Martineau, daughter of the late Sir Thomas Martineau, was born in 1874. She followed the tradition of her family in showing a keen desire to play her part in the public service, indeed one might well say that her life was given up to the service of the community, especially those weaker and afflicted members whose care requires special knowledge and understanding as well as warm sympathy and never tiring zeal.
In her early days she gained practical experience of social conditions among the poor by helping at the Women’s Settlement, Summer Lane, Bir- mingham, and by service on many social committees. She was the second woman member of the Birmingham City Council, and for four years she was the only woman on the Council. As early as 1916 she was elected to the Chair- manship of the Special Schools Sub-Committee of the Education Committee, and still held that Office at the time of her death. She served also on the Asylums Committee and was Chairman of the Mental Deficiency Act Com- mittee from 1921. She encouraged in every possible way the development of Special Schools, and it was largely owing to her efforts that the Coleshill Colony for Mental Defectives was established in 1930 to meet to some extent at least the great need for increased institutional accommodation in the Birmingham area.
She early became a recognised Authority on all matters relating to the care of the mentally defective, and served on a number of important Depart- mental Committees.
She exerted a marked influence in whatever sphere she worked, and in these later days when there was a tendency to economise at the expense of the social services she was a staunch advocate of the needs of the mentally defective. While she kept a broad view of the competing demands of other branches, she was unyielding in her championship of those permanent children of the State whose appeal to the general public is not quite so obvious or so strong as for example that of the blind or the crippled, and those who worked in close association with her know how warm were her sympathies with the poor and the weak and how unselfish was her devotion to the cause she had at heart. Although special emphasis has been laid on the work which Miss Mar- tineau did for those who suffered from defect, whether physical or mental, her activities were not restricted to this section of social and educational work, and actually Miss Martineau exercised a powerful influence through the whole educational service.
Another service in which Miss Martineau was deeply interested was that which related to the employment and welfare of young persons. From the time when the Local Education Authority became responsible for this in 1911, right up to the time of her death, over a period of 21 years, her enthusiasm showed no sign of waning. The continued development of this service, its growth in extent and usefulness, owed much to her sustained and active support.
The death of Miss Martineau has left a great blank which only time can fill. Let those who were privileged to know her and to work with her see to it that the causes to which she devoted her life will not suffer in the days of stress to come. P.D.I.
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