Dorothy Hardisty was born on 4 July 1881, the daughter of Francis Jones, who taught at
Manchester Grammar School, and Jessie, née Ferguson. She gained a degree at
Manchester University before becoming a civil servant, eventually becoming a senior civil servant in the
Ministry of Labour. In 1940 she was appointed General Secretary of the
Refugee Children's Movement, responsible for ensuring that the ten thousand refugee children had homes, education, training and jobs. While she set up Regional Committees to decentralize the work, she herself kept files on every child and took personal interest in their welfare. Leaving the RCM in 1948, she ran the
Violet Melchett Infant Welfare Clinic in
Chelsea for almost twenty years, retiring aged 86. ==References==