Description:Photograph of 'Kings School, Budo' from Helen Caddick's diary, December 1912.
One of the motivations for the many journeys of Helen Caddick appears to have been her desire to rebel against the idea that women were not supposed to travel alone through ‘dangerous’ countries such as Africa. An interview with Helen Caddick in 1905 gives the following insight into her character: "I had travelled before a good deal in Mashonland, Matabeland and other parts of Africa…and I was told that I ought to see the lakes. But I was travelling alone, so my advisors told me on the boat as I was going home after my visit to Matabeland that such a trip as the one to the lakes would be quite out of the question for a lady alone to take. It was this which really set my mind upon accomplishing the journey, and so I left the steamer at Chinde, and I did accomplish it.” (Newspaper Cutting, MS908 Vol. 5 Birmingham City Archives)
Given this assertion of female independence, it is perhaps unsurprising that Caddick also had an interest in women’s education. As with Benjamin Stone, Helen Caddick also appears to have balanced an interest in foreign travel with an investment in local education and improvement societies. Her obituary in the Birmingham Post (7th June, 1927) recalls: “Miss Caddick lived for many years in Birmingham, and was one of the first governors of the University, in which she took a great interest, especially in the women undergraduates. Many a girl student…had her way smoothed by the unobtrusive help with books or fees or maintenance given by Miss Caddick” (Birmingham Post 7th July,1927) The obituary further recalls that Caddick was also the first woman member of the West Bromwich Education Committee.
Further information can be gleaned from a local publication entitled “Edgbastonia” (see Vol. 20, March 1900), which tells us that although Caddick was often away from home and found it difficult to “take up any regular philanthropic or other work in Birmingham”, nevertheless she did in fact find time to become involved in her local community: “she has worked for the Kyrle Society, the District Provident Society, and the different missions belonging to the Church of the Saviour, while she is also interested in the Institution for the Blind and the Walliker Society. It is at West Bromwich, however, her native town, that her interest is largely centred. She used to visit the Workhouse there every week, and took a class in the Sunday School at Lodge Road Chapel”
Caddick had just one autobiographical travel narrative published, entitled, ‘A White Woman In Africa’.