{{Short description|English social reformer (1848–1923)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} thumb|right|Chant in 1890 '''Laura Ormiston Chant''' ({{Nee|'''Dibbin'''}}; 9 October 1848 – 16 February 1923) was an English social reformer, women's rights activist, and writer.
==Life== Chant was born Laura Ormiston Dibbin on 9 October 1848, in Woolaston, Gloucestershire, the daughter of Francis William Dibbin (1811–1874), a civil engineer and Sophia Ormiston (1815–1894), who managed a girls institution.<ref>ORMISTON, T.L., ''The Ormistons of Teviotdale'' (1950), p.70, gives her father's name as ''Dibbin''. So does her ''Times'' obituary, 17 February 1923</ref> In 1871, she was a governess and eventually went on to pursue a career in nursing.<ref>1851 England Census, Tidenham, Gloucestershire, England, Laura Dibbin in the household of Francis W Dibben, Class: HO107, Piece: 2443, Folio: 463, Page: 4, GSU roll: 104180, ''Ancestry'' (ancestry.com: accessed 9 December 2020), citing the National Archives, London, England.</ref> Her father did not approve of this profession and disowned her. She worked as a nursing sister in the Sophia Wards in the London Hospital.
At work Chant met and later married Thomas Chant, M.R.C.S., L.S.A., of Bridgwater on 13 September 1877 in Capel, Surrey, England.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/h/a/chant_lod.htm|website=hymntime.com|title=Hymntime: Laura Ormiston Dibdin Chant|access-date=2018-10-26}}</ref><ref>"England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973," database, ''Ancestry'' (Ancestry.com: accessed 9 December 2020), Laura Ormiston Dibbin, 13 September 1877, Capel, Surrey, England; FHL Film Number 994423.</ref> They had four children: Thomas, Emmeline, Olive and Ethel Chant.<ref name="Orlando Project" />
Laura Chant wrote and lectured on social purity, temperance, and women's rights.<ref name="Orlando Project">{{cite web|url=http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?formname=r&subform=1&person_id=chanla|website=orlando.cambridge.org|title=Laura Ormiston Chant Orlando Project|access-date=2018-10-26|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402175203/http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?formname=r&subform=1&person_id=chanla|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her contemporaries called her "a helper of many."<ref name="Sketch 1894">"The Empire – The Decline and Fall," ''The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality'', Volume 8 page 8, (31 Oct 1894), accessed 10 November 2020.</ref> Her published works include pamphlets, hymns, a novel and a book of poetry and are described as reflecting "many of the tensions characterizing feminism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries".<ref name="Orlando Project" /> One of her most famous reform efforts was her protesting of music-halls as temptations to vice in 1894.<ref>'Death of Mrs. Ormiston Chant: A notable social worker', ''The Times'', 17 February 1923, p. 12</ref>
Chant died in Banbury, Oxfordshire, 16 February 1923 from a cerebral hemorrhage and heart failure.<ref name="Orlando Project" />
== Career ==
=== Nursing === thumb|Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant and companions en route for Greece The Sketch 14 April 1897 Nursing was Laura Chant's first major career. She worked in the London Hospital but was dismissed when she married Thomas Chant as it was against their rules.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Walkowitz|first=Judith R.|title=Cosmopolitanism, Feminism, and the Moving Body|date=2010|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25733485|journal=Victorian Literature and Culture|volume=38|issue=2|pages=427–449|doi=10.1017/S1060150310000100|jstor=25733485|s2cid=162658217 |issn=1060-1503|url-access=subscription}}</ref> She was also an assistant manager of a private lunatic asylum.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Susan|first=Brown|date=10 October 2020|title=Laura Ormiston Chant|url=http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?formname=r&subform=1&person_id=chanla.|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=10 October 2020|website=Orlando Project, Cambridge University Press}}</ref> On 8 April 1897 Chant and six other English nurses went to Crete to give aid and supplies during the Greco-Turkish War.<ref name="Sketch 1894" /> She received the "Red Cross of Greece" from the royal family of Greece because of these efforts.<ref name="Levine 2014">Philippa Levine, "Chant [nee Dibbin], Laura Ormiston," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, revised 29 May 2014, Accessed 10 October 2020.</ref> She went to Bulgaria to give aid to Armenian refugees from the 1894–1896 Hamidian massacres.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=CHANT, Laura Ormiston Dibbin|title=The Encyclopedia Americana|year=1918|volume=6|page=291|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA291}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=CHANT, Mrs. Laura Ormiston|title=Who's Who|year=1907|volume=59|page=318|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA318}}</ref>
=== Social reform ===
==== The Empire Theatre ==== One of the most prominent causes Chant was involved in was her protest of the Empire Theatre of Varieties in Leicester Square.<ref name="Donohue 2005">Joseph W Donohue, "Fantasies of Empire: The Empire Theatre of Varieties and the licensing controversy of 1894," (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2005).</ref> Chant shared in her pamphlet ''Why We Attacked the Empire'' that she was astonished by the immorality taking place in this theatre during their performances. She went to visit the theatre and observed many women who came to the promenade (an open space for people to walk around but still view the performance) to prostitute. She also believed that the clothing and the themes in these performances were immoral.<ref>Laura Ormiston Chant, ''Why We Attacked The Empire'' (London: Horace Marshall & Son, 1895).</ref>
Chant attended the 10 October 1894 licensing meeting of the London County Council for the renewal of the Empire Theatre and explained the immorality occurring in the theatre.<ref name="Donohue 2005" /> She gave a long speech detailing her grievances before the final decision by the committee was made. The license was renewed on 26 October 1894, but contingent on the promenade in the theatre being taken away and that no intoxicating drinks would be sold in the auditorium. Screens were placed around the promenade in the theatre but were eventually pulled down by protestors, who included the young Winston Churchill. They thought the restrictions were too hard on legitimate socialising.<ref name="Donohue 2005" /> Chant was made fun of in the popular music hall ballad "Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back".
Her work to reform the theatre was a catalyst to future discussions on the injustices in the music halls. Chant's reform efforts are considered one of the major factors that preceded the Music Hall Strike of 1907 in London. During this strike, theatre workers protested the lack of pay to match the time demands of increasing working hours.thumb|Laura Ormiston Chant
==== Organisations ==== * International Council of Women (1888) Chant traveled to the United States to represent England in this women's rights council. During the convention, Susan B. Anthony said in her opening remarks to the council that she admired Chant's poem in ''Verona and Other Poems'' titled "England to America."<ref>{{Cite book|last1=International Council of Women|url=https://archive.org/details/ofinternatreport00interich|title=Report of the International council of women, assembled by the National woman suffrage association, Washington, D.C., U. S. of America, March 25 to April 1, 1888. Condensed from the stenographic report made by Mary F. Seymour and assistants, for the Woman's tribune, published daily during the council..|last2=National Woman Suffrage Association (U.S.)|date=1888|publisher=Washington, D.C. : R. H. Darby|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> * Social Purity Alliance<ref name="Bland 1992">{{Cite journal|last=Bland|first=Lucy|date=1992-09-01|title='Purifying' the public world: feminist vigilantes in late Victorian England|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09612029200200013|journal=Women's History Review|volume=1|issue=3|pages=397–412|doi=10.1080/09612029200200013|issn=0961-2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * Founding member of the National Vigilance Association which focused enforcement of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 which outlawed brothels and prostitution. She was the editor of the journal ''The Vigilance Record'' which was published by the NVA. * Vice-president of the Peace Society<ref name="Levine 2014" /> * Chant was a founding member of the Women Guardians Society.<ref name="Bland 1992" /> * Ladies National Association * Women's Liberal Federation * British Women's Temperance Association * Vice-president of the Women's Vegetarian Union<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Gregory|first=James Richard Thomas Elliott|title=The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections|date=May 2002|access-date=|degree=PhD|publisher=University of Southampton|url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467032/2/886115_v.2.pdf|language=en|pages=|chapter=Appendix F: Officers and Members of the Women's Vegetarian Union|volume=2|author-link=James Gregory (historian)|chapter-url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467032/2/886115_v.2.pdf#page=58}}</ref>
=== Public speaker and author === Chant traveled around the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America and many other countries to give speeches about temperance and other moral causes. She was known for making her audience laugh or be brought tears with her moving words about the various topics she spoke about.<ref name="Sketch 1894" />
She spoke about temperance to the Unitarian Church Temperance Society in Boston, United States on 30 May 1890 in a speech titled "How I Became a Total Abstainer." She spoke about how alcohol poisons the brain and "as humanity advances in culture and development, the need of brain-power is greater."<ref>Laura Ormiston Chant, ''How I Became a Total Abstainer'' (Boston : Unitarian Church Temperance Society, 1890).</ref>
Chant was also known for her speeches as a nondenominational Christian preacher. In 1893 Chant addressed the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, held in Chicago in conjunction with the Columbian Exposition. Her speech was titled, "The Real Religion of Today."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barrows|first=John Henry|url=https://archive.org/details/worldsparliamen01barr|title=The World's Parliament of Religions : an illustrated and popular story of the World's First Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago in connection with the Columbian exposition of 1893|date=1893|publisher=Chicago : Parliament Pub. Co.|others=PIMS - University of Toronto}}</ref> In this sermon she shared the importance of appreciating and respecting the many religions that were created to worship God.
She also wrote the words and music for ''Action Songs for Children'' and several more volumes of music in the same vein, consisting of simple ditties embodying physical exercises for small children.<ref>"Laura Ormiston Chant,"Hymnary.com, accessed 10 October 2020, https://hymnary.org/person/Chant_LOD1?tab=texts .</ref>
==Selected works== * ''Verona and Other Poems'' (1877)<ref>Laura Ormiston Chant, ''Verona and Other Poems'' (London: David Stott, 1887).</ref> * ''Why We Attacked the Empire'' (1894)<ref>Laura Ormiston Chant, ''Why We Attacked The Empire'' (London : Horace Marshall & Son, 1895).</ref> * ''Women and the Streets'' * ''Sellcuts' Manager'' (1899)<ref>Mrs. Ormiston Chant, ''Sellcuts' Manager'' (London: Grant Richards, 1899).</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Biography}} * Lucy Stone * Julia Ward Howe
==References== {{reflist}} Churchill, Winston S., My Early Life, 65–66, discussing Ms. Chant's campaign to close the Empire Theatre in London
==External links== {{Commons category|Laura Ormiston Chant}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chant, Laura Ormiston}} Category:1848 births Category:1923 deaths Category:19th-century English women writers Category:19th-century English writers Category:English feminists Category:English governesses Category:English nurses Category:English social justice activists Category:English social reformers Category:English temperance activists Category:English vegetarianism activists Category:English women activists Category:English women's rights activists Category:People associated with the Women's Vegetarian Union Category:People from Gloucestershire