Today, tuesday 25th of August 2026, marks 150 years since Eglantyne Jebb was born. She's not a household name, not yet, but she should be. Without her, there would be no Save the Children, and quite possibly no international framework for children's rights at all.
An unlikely activist
Jebb wasn't a natural campaigner. She trained as a teacher, decided it wasn't for her, and spent over a decade in Cambridge quietly researching poverty rather than protesting it. But when she saw what an Allied naval blockade was doing to children in Germany and Austria after the First World War, quiet research wasn't going to cut it. She printed flyers, stood in Trafalgar Square, and got herself arrested. Read her full story to find out how that arrest led to the very first donation to Save the Children.
From one protest to a worldwide movement
What Jebb built from that moment in Trafalgar Square is hard to overstate. Within two years, she and her sister Dorothy had founded an international movement. Within five, Jebb had drafted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, a document so ahead of its time that it still underpins the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child today, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world.
She wrote something we still hold onto:
It's impossible only if we refuse to attempt it.
That's the spirit we're marking this anniversary in.
Why her fight still matters
A century on, children are still starving because of conflict. Still going without healthcare. Still missing school. Jebb's declaration didn't end child suffering, but it gave the world a shared standard to hold itself to, and a reason to keep trying. That's the legacy we're carrying forward, in the UK and around the world, every day.
You might have already spotted us imagining what Eglantyne would make of the world today over on our social channels. It's a lighter way into a serious story, and it's one we think she'd have appreciated. She never took herself too seriously, just the cause.
Mark the anniversary with us
Want the full story, including the survey that changed her life, the ship that saved thousands, and the declaration that changed international law? Read Eglantyne Jebb's story in full.
And if her story moves you the way it moves us, there's a simple way to carry it forward: donate today and help make sure no child's rights go unprotected on our watch.
