English Debutantes Learn Housekeeping At The Monkey Club

Southland Times, Issue 23716, 14 January 1939, Page 14

English Debutantes Learn Housekeeping At The Monkey Club

“The Monkey Club” is surely an unusual name for any institution, but then, The Monkey Club is itself unusual. In southwest London this * club has its rooms, in a group of houses that once were the Danish and Albanian legations. The “monkeys” are debutantes who are learning to be housewives. There are 80 of them and they have all that money can buy. Their crest is the three wise monkeys and their motto is “Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil.” Writing from London, a New- Zealander describes the club and its activities. The Monkey Club is the only one of

its kind in England. The club was started in 1923 by Miss Marion Ellison, who now has as her partner the Hon. Griselda Joynson-Hicks, daughter of the late Lord Brentford. Her plan is to supply a social and educational club for society girls, who at 18 may not wish to enter a university, but who do not wish to idle away their days. Membership is limited to those who are proposed by two people who are already members or who serve a satisfactory probationary period of 10 weeks. All members promise to fulfil the code of the club. , ■■ 'fEDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES The educational side of the club’s activities presents a wide array of possibilities. There are five main branches: general education, music, secretarial

training, domestic science, and dressmaking. Biology, playwriting, contemporary international history, and foreign languages hold no terrors for these debutantes. A programme of lectures covers these subjects and many more, from which each girl chooses her own syllabus. Sometimes the girls work just to please themselves. In other

cases they work for examinations. So me of the girls train for careers. These generally take the secretarial course and the Royal Society of Arts examination. Others again simply want to further their education after they return from finishing schools abroad. I’or these Madame Mayer Lismann, the “Monkey’s” musical director, provides a complete musical training including orchestral work under Mr Boyd Neel. Lectures are given on current concerts and operas so that the “Monkeys will know how to listen to, and appreciate, | good music. Parties are arranged to make weekly tours of the art galleries and dancing, stage technique and elocution are popular courses on the art Domestic science is possibly the highlight of the club. Every debutante wants to be a good housewife, and to that end, if she is.a “monkey,” she dons white overalls and sets to work to J FT

clean windows, make beds, do washing ' and ironing and prepare vegetables. At £ the top of the club rooms is a complete flat where girls about to be married J take the “bride’s course.” Here they ‘ learn all the intricacies of house-keep- s ing from how to keep the household J accounts and how to train an inexperi- t enced maid to how to make shrimp cocktail or soap jelly. They invite • guests to visit them, and not only do t all the marketing and cooking but wait I on the table. . ‘ The “bride’s course” is no romantic < interlude. The brides are thoroughly s prepared to cope with all emergencies, < even to leaky pipes and broken arm- 1 chairs. ! Child welfare is an important part of the domestic course. The “monkeys” - have a perfect seven-pound “baby” - with moveable head and limbs. Under i the guidance of a nurse, they bath, i dress and tend it in the correct nursery i way. 1 The final course in the “monkeys’” i educational training is dressmaking, 1 millinery and design. _ 1 Apart from the exclusive little circle from which these girls are drawn, pro- : bably few know of the club’s existence ; except the people of Pimlico. In Hol- i bein Place, off the Pimlico road, is a i clothes shop called “Good Value,” i where a model evening gown direct : from a Paris salon can sometimes be : picked up for 5/-. The “monkeys” run : the shop. They provide the stock — men’s and children’s wear as well as : women’s—gathering it from their own ; and their friends’ wardrobes.. They

serve in the shop and keep its accounts. The shop was opened in June, and by the end of July it had made £67, all of which went to the Shadwell Hospital (the first children’s hospital to be built in London), where the “monkeys” support several beds. Simetimes the girls are at work in the shop for as long as 10 hours a day, especially at sale/time. The “monkeys” do not, of course, spend their entire time either in studying or in social work. They have many social advantages. Skating, riding and golf are favourite pastimes. Of the 80 members, 30 live in the club. Some have their own furnished flats; others have bed-sitting rooms and all live just as though they were at home.