Making Marmalade and Imperial Mentalities: the case of a Colonial wife

Miriam Cheales was born in Southern Rhodesia on the 28th October 1914 at Lincoln Farm in Beatrice, just south of Salisbury to Alan and Irene Cheales. They returned to England to deal with family business in the early 1920s and Miriam was brought up in rural Lincolnshire. After completing her education she undertook some training in basic physiotherapy, and served as a nurse during World War Two. In September 1945 Miriam married Frank Staunton. As Frank was also originally from Rhodesia, with his family farming substantial amounts of land they decided to return to Africa and Frank took a post as a native commissioner. Upon arrival in Southern Rhodesia, Staunton was both adjusting to married life and finding herself back at "home" despite the fact she rarely thought of herself as Rhodesian. Like many middle class colonial women, who had the drudgery of housework alleviated by the presence of black servants, Staunton became involved in voluntary work. As Deborah Kirkwood notes "settler women took with them the Anglo-Saxon tradition of voluntary service and 'do gooding' so characteristic of British and American middle-class society"2. Staunton became involved in the Federation of African Women's Clubs also known as the Homecraft movement which was an attempt, to "teach groups of African women in the villages something about hygiene & health for themselves and their families".3 Staunton devoted large amounts of her time to working within the women's clubs, noting in one letter to her brother that "this FAWC is jolly nearly a full time job".4 It is interesting to note the ambiguities surrounding Miriam Staunton's role in the clubs, when it is remembered that she was the wife of the local native commissioner, who was the 'man on the spot'.5 The ambiguity of the situation is further highlighted when it is remembered that most wives held conservative views and would not have socialised with African women on the scale that Staunton did. In his own memoirs Miriam's husband, Frank reflected on the fact that "Miriam [was]... a bit too friendly towards the Africans"6, as his superiors often commented on the level of socialising Miriam did with African women. She herself noted that we are rather pioneering in social relationships. Certainly I have the dear black sisters popping in to see me at all hours, which I would not have thought of 4 years ago. I am really fond of many of them as people... (Quite a number of Europeans have never met them on equal terms so to speak). 7 Staunton's papers are located in Rhodes House Oxford, and I spent a week using them in April 2009. Comprising just three cartons, the physical size of Staunton's papers cannot do them justice in what they can offer the women's and imperial historian alike. Staunton's papers primarily consist of letters she wrote to her mother and brother who remained in Britain, alongside various ephemera relating to the voluntary work she did within the Homecraft Movement. In this paper, I will be examining the contents of Staunton's papers with the suggestion that the collection illuminates not only the rituals of Staunton's domestic milieu but that a reading of them helps shed light on broader political themes, regarding what Carolyn Martin Shaw has called white women's attempts to further the colonial project.8 I would argue that Staunton's papers highlight the often ambiguous dimensions of colonialism, and help to further examine the somewhat precarious position of white women within the story of the British Empire. After using Staunton's papers it becomes clear that they are particularly strong in three key areas. Firstly the way in which Staunton comments upon her own domestic circumstances, secondly her work within the Homecraft movement and thirdly her attitudes towards UDI. The Domestic Setting Describing in detail the "little bungalow [which] faces west and does get very hot", a large proportion of Staunton's letters focus on the Rhodesian landscape and her own garden. …