Farewell To The East End

women with an iron hand for the purpose of gratifying vicious propensities in men.’
    Such speeches from the lips of an educated middle-class lady were deeply shocking, but they were enough to stir the conscience of the nation, and in 1883 the Contagious Diseases (Women) Act was removed from the statute books of Great Britain.

    Nancy’s misfortune was that she was the daughter of a poor woman who lived in Southampton, a naval dock town. She was the eldest of five children whose father had died. Their mother took in washing from the garrison, and Nancy carried it back and forth. She was thirteen at the time of her arrest.
    One of the volunteer police had observed her coming and going and lusted after her. He had unlimited power. One evening he accosted her.
    ‘What do you go to the Docks for?’
    ‘Please, sir, I take the washing.’
    ‘And what else?’
    ‘I collect the money, if you please, sir.’
    ‘What money?’
    ‘For the washing, sir.’
    ‘Is that all?’
    ‘Yes, sir.’ Nancy was beginning to feel frightened.
    ‘You’re a bad girl. You’re telling me lies.’
    ‘I’m not, sir. I’m a good girl,’ she whispered.
    ‘You’re a wicked girl. Come with me.’
    He grabbed her arm and hustled her along the dark street. She was sobbing now.
    ‘My mum’s expecting me. I must go home.’
    ‘If your mum knew what you’d been up to, she wouldn’t want you home, ever.’
    ‘I’m a good girl. I haven’t been up to anything. And I’ve got threepence in my pocket for the washing, and my mum needs it.’
    ‘Your mum would be ashamed to touch the money you’ve been earning if she knew how you’d earned it, you wicked girl.’
    They reached the police station, and he pushed the terrified child into a cell.
    ‘Wait there,’ he ordered, going out and locking the door.
    The Act required that a doctor should carry out the examination, so the police officer sent a message boy to call the doctor, who came quickly. They were hand in glove: two men, lustful and eager to discharge their duties to the letter of the law, and well beyond it, if they were sufficiently aroused. There were no witnesses, and none were required.
    The doctor barked at Nancy, ‘Can you write your name?’ She nodded, too terrified to speak. ‘Then write it here.’ He thrust a piece of paper and a pen at her. She signed. Unknowingly, she had consented to be examined.
    Swiftly the policeman picked her up and laid her on the half-length couch, pulling her skirts above her head and tying the ends under the table, effectively blinding and gagging her. The doctor grabbed her legs, pushed her knees towards her chest, and fixed her heels in the leather straps that were attached to metal stirrups. Her thighs were forced wide apart, and her bloomers were ripped off. Nancy thrashed around in terror, and, even though her legs were secured, she succeeded in throwing the upper half of her body off the table.
    As she fell backwards, hanging by her legs, one of her lower vertebrae was crushed against the metal edge of the couch. It was an injury from which she never recovered. The policeman swore and yanked her back on the couch, securing her arms and body with a leather strap, so that she was unable to move at all.
    Then the examination began. The Act required that the examining surgeon should first assess if a gonorrhoeal discharge or warts, or a syphilitic chancre was present on the external labia. If necessary, he could explore the vagina with his fingers, to feel for a chancre or other signs of venereal disease. If he was in any doubt he could use a vaginal speculum and forceps with which to examine the cervix. The doctor and the police officer took full advantage of all their legal rights. It took them forty-five minutes to conduct an examination that should only have taken two or three minutes.
    Today a clear plastic vaginal speculum is still used for clinical examination. Then it was a heavy metal instrument about five or six inches long made of two halves. When closed, it is roughly circular, about one and a half inches in diameter. This is inserted into the vagina. The jaws then open to about three or four inches, and a central ratchet holds it open so the cervix is visible. In the nineteenth century, the speculum would have been made of rough, unpolished metal, and I doubt if anyone would have taken the trouble to lubricate it.
    The surgeon and policeman thrust the speculum repeatedly into Nancy, twisting and turning it. They