Huddersfield’s Humanitarians: A history of the aims and origins of the Huddersfield and District Famine Relief Committee

This thesis makes the contribution of an in-depth history of a small famine relief organisation in Huddersfield, providing a new case study to the historiography, whilst also contextualising this smaller organisation within the history of Oxfam, and famine relief in Greece and the wider world. The major actors within the organisation, such as Elizabeth and Hugh Wilson are analysed, and it will be expressed that they provided an incredible contribution to the survival of the organisation. For the first time, this thesis will put the famine of Bengal and Greece within the same frame of reference, highlighting how both were caused by British wartime policies, and how Hudfam interlinked the two to provide relief for both events. Furthermore, the importance of pacifism, Quakerism, and internationalism, to the origins of Hudfam will be stressed, all of which are features of a continued network of concern with Huddersfield since the First World War.