Ellice Hopkins

Who was Ellice Hopkins?

Ellice Hopkins was a Victorian social campaigner and author, who vigorously advocated moral purity while criticizing contemporary sexual double standards. In 1874 she established the Soldier's Institute at Portsmouth, and in 1876 toured several British towns, recruiting thousands of women to the Ladies' Association for the Care of Friendless Girls. Her biographer describes her as 'instrumental' in the passing of the Industrial Schools Amendment Act of 1880. Her works, such as A plea for the wider action of the Church of England in the prevention of the degradation of women, criticized the contemporary double standard by which women were disproportionately blamed for sexual immorality. In 1883 she co-founded the White Cross Army, and continued her political campaigning. The historian Frank Mort has described her as a "central figure in the feminist agitation for criminal law regulation in the 1880s".