Eglantyne Jebb: the woman who Co-founded Save the Children

On 25 August 2026, it will be 150 years since Eglantyne Jebb was born. She never had children of her own, yet she changed childhood for millions of them.

Jebb founded Save the Children in 1919, and five years later wrote the document that would eventually become the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. This is her story, and why it still shapes our work today.

By 1918, the First World War had ended, but an Allied naval blockade of Germany and Austria-Hungary continued, and children were starving as a result. Jebb was outraged. Together with her sister, Dorothy Buxton, she printed flyers reading "Our blockade has caused this - millions of children are starving to death" and handed them out in Trafalgar Square.

She was arrested and fined £5 for her protest. The judge who tried her case was so struck by her conviction that he paid the fine himself, becoming the first-ever donor to what would become Save the Children.

In 1919, Jebb and Buxton founded the Save the Children Fund. A year later, they set up the International Save the Children Union in Geneva, turning a UK campaign into a worldwide movement. In 1921, the charity chartered a cargo ship, the SS Torcello, carrying 600 tonnes of food and medical supplies to help children caught up in famine in Russia.

Jebb's most lasting achievement came in 1923, when she drafted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It set out, for the first time in international law, that children have rights simply because they are children, including the right to food, healthcare, protection from exploitation, and support in times of crisis.

The League of Nations adopted the declaration in Geneva in 1924. Jebb put its spirit simply:

"The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered."

Jebb died in Geneva in 1928, aged 52, having spent her final years still campaigning for children's rights. Her declaration was expanded by the United Nations in 1959, and in 1989 it became the foundation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, now ratified by more countries than any other human rights treaty.

More than a century on, Save the Children is still guided by the principle Jebb fought for: that every child, everywhere, has rights that must be protected. Since 1990, we have helped cut the number of children dying before age 5 by over half. Since 2000, we have helped reduce the number of children out of school by over a third. And since 1990, we have helped reduce child marriage worldwide by nearly a third.

Jebb once said: 

Save the Children is often told its aims are impossible - that there has always been child suffering and there always will be. It's impossible only if we refuse to attempt it.

It's a line we still live by. As long as children's rights are under threat anywhere in the world, her work isn't finished, and neither is ours.

Carry on her work

Eglantyne Jebb started with a handful of leaflets and one small donation. Find out how you can help protect children's rights today, wherever they're under threat.