The History of Rachel Keeling Nursery School 

Who was Rachel Keeling?

Rachel Keeling School was named in the honour of one of the suffragettes; Rachel Susanna Keeling. Rachel Susanna Keeling (née Townsend) (1885 - 26 September 1969) was a suffragette and Labour Party politician.

She was the daughter of the Reverend Chambre Corker Townshend, an architect, and his wife Emily Caroline née Gibson. Emily Townshend was an early feminist and Fabian socialist.

Rachel became a member of the women's suffrage movement, which led to her imprisonment in 1908.  She moved to London and was subsequently elected to the London County Council as a Labour Party councillor for Bethnal Green North East in 1934. She was re-elected in 1937 and resigned in 1941.
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Rachel died in September 1969 aged 84. 

Within England there has been a history of nursery education since the 1920’s.  Indeed there was an emphasis of providing high quality nursery education particularly in areas of deprivation, as a means of raising standards for all children, including those who may be potentially disadvantaged.

As part of this process Rachel Keeling Nursery school was opened in 1962 by  Mrs. B H Tate and the then mayor of Bethnal Green Mrs  Bentwich; as shown in pictures provided by London Metropolitan Archives Culture, Heritage and Libraries Department