Clare Winnicott

Clare Winnicott (née Clare Nimmo Britton, known as "Elsie"; 30 September 1906 – 17 April 1984) OBE was an English social worker, civil servant, psychoanalyst and teacher.

Clare's family moved frequently during her childhood, first to Clapham, South London in 1912 during World War I.

The war had a profound impact on the Britton family as widespread rationing took a heavy toll on the family's standard of living and culminated in the loss of Clare's uncle during the fighting on the Western Front with the British Expeditionary Force.

At the conclusion of the war, Clare's family moved to Southend-on-Sea, Essex where she completed high school in 1925.

Throughout the 1926 General Strike and the Great Depression, the church worked to support the men and women of Great Britain.

The church hosted dinners for women who could not afford food and helped unemployed men find work, all organized by Clare's father.

Clare went on to attend Selly Oak College in Birmingham, a Baptist affiliated school, and earned her qualification as a teacher from 1929 to 1930.

After graduating she went to Norwich where she worked for the Young Women's Christian Association from 1931 to 1937.

Clare's father retired in 1935, and died in 1945.

After taking a one-year social science course at the London School of Economics (LSE) from 1937 to 1938, she worked in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales with the Commissioners for Special Areas to assist unemployed juveniles in finding work.

While the region continued to suffer the economic hardships of the Great Depression, she instituted the "Boot and Shoe Fund" in order to provide children's shoes for affected families.

In 1940, during the Second World War, she returned to the LSE to train for a career in social work.

She enrolled in the thirteen-month mental health course, Britain's top programme for psychiatric social work.

The course included psychoanalytic theory under educational psychologist and psychoanalyst Susan Isaacs, a pupil of John Carl Flugel, who published studies on the intellectual and social development of children and promoted the Nursery school movement.

Clare also worked under the child psychiatrist Mildred Creak, who is known for the development of diagnostic criteria for autism.

While on the course Clare was recognized as a gifted student, described by one classmate, Marjorie Jones, as "academically brilliant".

The London School of Economics also suffered as a result of the war, and the programme had to be suspended for a year as the school relocated to Cambridge.

The school's departments were divided and spread across the campus leaving the students in the social work program isolated.

Not only did the war affect the school Clare attended, but the impacts of the Blitz would also find their way to Clare personally and leave a lasting impression on her as a young woman.

During the German Luftwaffe's bombing of Great Britain, Clare's maternal grandparents fled Southend-on-Sea after their house was damaged by bomb blasts.

The early years of the Second World War proved intensely destructive in her life as, by 1941, her maternal grandmother had died and her younger brother had narrowly evaded capture by German troops during the Battle of Crete.

Unlike her classmates Clare did not pursue a career in a mental health clinic or hospital setting on completing the LSE course.

Having witnessed firsthand how the war forced countless English families to evacuate their homes, fathers and brothers sent away to war, while mothers joined the workforce on the Home front, and a great number of children were left separated from their families, she believed that she could make more of an impact with her training by aiding the evacuations with the National Association for Mental Health.

She then moved to the Midlands to take a position with the regional health authority.

After a few months, she was ordered to assist with the Oxfordshire evacuation scheme.

This involved organising care for over eighty children affected by the evacuation.

In Oxfordshire she met Donald Winnicott, a medical supervisor, who visited every Friday to check up on the evacuation scheme in the area.

Clare explained her ideas about children channeled into the evacuation system and Dr. Winnicott, a paediatrician, shared this vision.

Donald and Clare collaborated on the article, "The Problem of Homeless Children."

The article describes the responsibilities of a social worker in the evacuation scheme as well as impacts of the war on child behavior.

Many colleagues of Clare and Donald expressed that their ability to collaborate effectively was unparalleled.

She played a pivotal role in the passing of the Children Act 1948.

Alongside her husband, D. W. Winnicott, Clare would go on to become a prolific writer and prominent social worker and children's advocate in 20th century England.

Born in the northern seaside town of Scarborough, Yorkshire, Clare was the eldest of four children.

Her father, James Nimmo Britton, a Scot who had migrated south, was a gifted Baptist cleric whose oratory skills led to considerable growth in attendance at the numerous churches to which he had been assigned.

Her mother was Elsie Clare Slater.

James Britton also founded the Avenue Baptist church in Southend-on-Sea where the Britton family was very socially involved.

In 1949, Clare's mother was elected the first woman deacon of the Avenue Baptist Church.

Clare's skills as a talented communicator and compassionate guardian of those in need can be drawn back to the example set by her mother and father throughout her life as young adult.

As a teenager Clare was a leader in her Sunday school, and actively participated in the Christian youth organization, the Girls' Brigade.