Fiona Joseph
17 Sept 2012
On September 17th Solihull Local History Circle was host to Fiona Joseph who described the life of Beatrice Cadbury. This member of the Cadbury family is known as the heiress who gave away her fortune. She was the daughter of Richard Cadbury who controlled the fortunes of the family’s confectionery works. Beatrice was brought up as a Quaker. She became a more radical member of this sect after meeting the Dutch reformist Kees Boeke. After studying architecture at Delft University he spent a year in England. He met Quakers and joined their group. He attended Woodbrooke Quaker College in Birmingham where he was introduced to members of the Cadbury family. He met and married Beatrice Cadbury.
In 1912 the couple went to Syria as Quaker missionaries. Two years later they returned to Birmingham after the outbreak of World War I. The married couple became active in peace work which included a trip for Kees to Berlin. He was expelled from England and returned to Holland. Beatrice and the rest of the family soon followed him. Kees and Beatrice believed that war was generated by the entanglement of state and capitalism. Beatrice received a large share in her family’s business. She transferred this money to charitable organizations. Later, she gave her shares to a trust for the workers at the Cadbury factory at Bourneville. For a while Beatrice and Kees abstained from using money so as not to contribute to the state. They would pay neither postage, tolls, nor taxes and never used public transportation. As a result of this they were imprisoned several times and one of their seven children was born in prison.
In the late 1920s they withdrew from international peace movements. They then believed that they could build a better society by educating children and founded a school. The school was based on the Montessori methods. The school became well known in Holland and the Dutch queen Juliana sent her daughters there. Kees Boeke died in 1966 and Beatrice died ten years later after a short illness. The school remains in existence, still educating youngsters with a more modern and state inspired curriculum.