Fact Sheet #19: 1960's INVESTIGATION INTO ILLEGITIMACY

Diana Dewar investigated illegitimacy in the 1960’s, her book ‘Orphans of the Living A Study of Bastardy’ was published in 1968.

Dewar found that unmarried mothers faced double standards of morality and regardless of the circumstances a man who fathered an illegitimate baby was never equally blamed, and rarely held legally accountable.

In 1968 blood tests to help establish paternity were still not a compulsory part of evidence in affiliation cases, official reluctance to determine paternity by blood test was linked to attitudes towards bastardy in Britain.

‘It would somehow be unsporting of the State to take much initiative in establishing the paternity of a bastard child, the man has simply been proving his manhood in a way which is an accepted ancient tradition.’

‘The male seducer is an attractive figure of popular imagination, the seduced are fools, or simply wanton or weak.’

Dewar revealed that Unmarried Mothers Homes in the 1960’s were still being run on the same lines as Homes in the 1940’s that were criticised for resembling prisons. The charity being practice in 1960’s Homes still carried overtones of revenge, the discipline imposed was still unreasonable, and the work assigned to heavily pregnant girls and newly delivered unmarried mothers was still too heavy.

Basic diet, heating and sanitary provision was still of an unacceptably low standard, and Workers abused their positions by exploiting unmarried mothers vulnerability to indoctrinate them with unwanted religious beliefs and practices.

A National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child Memorandum on Residential Homes dated February 1964 states:
‘There is still residual punativeness and a demand that girls should feel gratitude. Staff and Committee members have been known to express the view that conditions in the Homes are too comfortable.’

Unmarried Mothers Homes operating in the private sector were entitled to make their own specific rules, which included denying unmarried fathers the right to see their baby and its mother.
Dewar explained this denial of access reflected unmarried fathers new status and legal rights under the 1959 Legitimacy Act.

The father of a bastard could legally block adoption plans made by Social Workers and Moral Welfare Workers for his baby.

Dewar concluded: ‘The 1959 Legitimacy Act allows a father the right to sue for custody of his child.’

Inspite of the 1959 Legitimacy Act unmarried fathers like Tony Rohr, unmarried father of Pauline Collins daughter , were lied to and denied their rights.

Copyright © Patricia Basquill, 2002 - 2010