‘Human dregs at the bottom of our national vats’

The 1913 Mental Deficiency Act, which aimed to control the breeding of the mentally deficient by removing them from society, was very much a product of its time. Each generation believes that its achievements are greater – yet fears that its underclass is more depraved – than those preceding it, and this fear reached its zenith in the years leading up to the Great War. Eugenics was a dominant force of the early twentieth century but, as with any trend, subject to the specific concerns and beliefs of each community. ³ Britain at this time was the greatest nation in the world, having conquered much of it. While always a mongrel race, the United Kingdom had been gradually infiltrated as a result of her imperialism and, until the postcolonial years, had readily absorbed much of the influx. With the possible exceptions of the Jewish and Irish enclaves, England in particular was homogenized, and therefore discriminated more on the grounds of class and intellect than on other factors. Class and intellect were the result of breeding successfully, whereas degenerative aspects were the result of carelessness. The poor, the unemployed and the ignorant were scapegoats for the ills of English society. The Mental Deficiency Act was passed at the same time as the foundation of a range of corrective institutions and organizations which shared the intention of instilling discipline and citizenship in the individual. Borstals, homes for ‘fallen girls’, birth control clinics, the Boy Scout movement and other phenomena of the time were the direct manifestations of eugenics in England. Through the legal union and a permeable border with the Celtic nations, some of these ideas spread, some were assimilated with variations – for example, the Magdelen Houses in Scotland for the reform of prostitutes or the Urdd in Wales as a youth movement, albeit with the veneer of cultural heritage – and some were simply appended.