Social reformer After the establishment of the State Children's Aid Association in 1896, Rye served as its Honorary Secretary, with
Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel as chair and
Alfred Fowell Buxton as the Hon. Treasurer. At the annual Conference of the
National Council of Women of Great Britain, held at
Croydon, in October, 1897, Rye read a paper on "The Early Care and Training of Children under the Poor-law".
The Economic Review (1898) criticized it, saying that Rye naturally laboured under a strong bias arising probably alike from her convictions and her position. Her conclusions (quoted from Sir
Godfrey Lushington), that the transference of pauper schools from the Home Office to the Education Department was necessary in order "to restore the children to society, to improve the standard of teaching, and to prevent the children from feeling a class apart," could be considered untenable, as abundance of proof existed that these three objects were already fully attained under existing circumstances.
Author Rye wrote and illustrated
A White Child in 1883. A reviewer in
The Athenaeum (1883) wrote, "a wild rhapsody which borrows most of its feeble fancies from well-known sources. The spinning-girl, the poet, the princesses of the hospital, and all the other creatures ... are like the figures of a mad dream, and the illustrations are worthy of them."
Walter Rye was Francis Rye's brother. Francis and Walter's other siblings included the social reformer,
Maria Rye, and the
entomologist,
Edward Caldwell Rye. Of
The Beloved Son (1900), a reviewer in
The Speaker (1901) mentions that the best element in the book lay in the names of the chapters. ==Personal life==