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1900Homes for Indian nannies
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1904Sherlock Holmes
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1908Christabel Pankhurst
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1910Suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh
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1912Captain Scott's Diary
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1914Suffragettes protest
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1914Indians on the Western Front
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1915World War I
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1917Wilfred Owen: WWI poetry
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1917Russian Revolution
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1925Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
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1926The General Strike
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1929The Great Depression
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1931Gandhi in Britain
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1934British Union of Fascists
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1938Appeasement
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1938Kristallnacht
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1939Wanted poster for Hitler
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1939World War II ultimatum letter
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1939The Keys
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1940Dunkirk evacuation
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1941Dig for Victory
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1943Make Do and Mend
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1944Auschwitz survivor
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1945The Atom Bomb
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1947Independence and Partition
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1948Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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1948NHS established
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1948Immigration from India
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1948Windrush: post-war immigration
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1955Chinese restaurants
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1956Middle Eastern food
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1957Wolfenden Report
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1959Paul Robeson's Othello
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1960Man lands on the moon
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1962Cuban Missile Crisis
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1963Assassination of Kennedy
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1964Beatles arrive in the USA
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1965Mods and Rockers
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1966England win the World Cup
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1967Robert Kennedy Assassinated
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1968Dr. Martin Luther King
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1968Student protests, Paris
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1970Women's liberation
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1970Punk fanzine
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1971The Oz trial
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1972The Black Panther
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1974President Nixon resigns
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1976The Sex Pistols
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1981Charles and Diana marry
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1989Tiananmen Square massacre
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1989Fall of the Berlin Wall
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1990Release of Nelson Mandela
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1998Peace declared: Northern Ireland
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1998The Belfast Agreement
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Intro
In 1900 the Ayahs’ Home for Indian and Chinese nannies was opened in Hackney at 26 King Edward Road, Mare Street. Run by the London City Mission, it had 30 rooms for more than 100 ayahs.
Ayahs were employed by British families to look after their children on the sea voyage home. On arrival in Britain, they were often discharged and left to find their own passage back to India. Such mistreatment led to the setting up of the Ayahs’ Home. The Home provided accommodation for ayahs awaiting their return engagement as well as a refuge for ill-treated and stranded ayahs.
The ayahs were seen as ‘picturesque’ by the public, while missionaries treated them as ‘children’ to be ‘saved’ by Christian teaching. Ayahs were seasoned travellers: some, like Mrs Antony Pareira, made the journey over 50 times.
