The life and works of M Loane

The broad aim of this thesis is to examine the life and works of M.Loane, for although her six social studies are often referred to by historians, no detailed or critical study of her background or her corpus has previously been undertaken.
This thesis has been divided into a number of chapters. The introduction will set out the precise details of the study which follows, and provide a rationale for the structure adopted. The next chapter will provide an overview of contemporary social
studies of poverty, so that the work of M.Loane can been considered contextually. The biographical study of Miss Loane which follows forms a central part of this thesis: not only will it provide details of her career as a nurse and Queen's [i.e. district] nurse, experience which was essential to the content of all her writings, but, importantly, it will enable previously undisclosed information regarding the
clandestine literary partnership which existed between two of the Misses Loane to be revealed. Loane's methodological approach will then be considered, and her reputation as a serious social commentator considered within the framework of recent academic criticism of her methods. Subsequent chapters will concentrate on a thematic examination of The Queen's Poor: this social commentary has been selected
for a number of reasons. It was the first to be published and was certainly compiled before Loane retired as a Queen's nurse. Beyond this, it can be considered as representative of all the subsequent social studies, all the others being versions of the same structure, and all utilising the same methodology. The conclusion to this thesis will draw together all the strands of this study and emphasise the breakthroughs which have been made: in particular the prolific nature of this writer and her contribution to our understanding of working-class poverty at the turn of the twentieth century will be emphasised. The appendices will reinforce the content of the main thesis. The first of these will present a working bibliography ofLoane's published work, and will reveal the scale of the corpus produced between 1897 and 1911. The second will provide a working list of contemporary reviews of Loane's nursing publications and social studies. This will provide a contemporary view of the response to her writing,
and will serve as an indication of the popularity, accessibility and wide readership of Loane's social studies.