I am editing my aunts memoir, by filling in dates and background details which she has omitted.
She started work at the age of 17 (1917) as a childrens nurse in a "country house" in Essex. I have been wondering how this would have occured bearing in mind that she was born and bred in Stepney. She had quite a well modulated voice and I have always assum ed that it was somethong she would have acquired this over the years mixing with the well to do etc. But I still wonder if a member of the landed gentry would have employed a "gorblimey" Eliza Doolittle to look after young children, bearing in mind that these children spent more time with their "minders" than with their parents.

thinking back, I cant remember that any of her siblings had cockney voices either, although of course I didn't know them as young people obviously. So did a church school education in the early 1900s include elocution ? I know that it included lots of singing and I suppose that hymns are difficult without "aitches". And in Catholic schools there were a lot of Irish Folk songs which would have presented the same kind of problem.
Anyone any thoughts, or have you come across a study of this ? Its amazing what you can get a grant for these days to get a doctorate .

cheers..Ed