Etymologically, the term ‘ayah’ has many connotations and carries various meanings across different regions, for Muslims, a verse in the Quran, for Malaysians, the word is used paternally to refer to a father figure and, in this context, a nursemaid or nanny employed by Europeans in India and other former British territories.
A house in Hackney that, in the early twentieth century, sheltered hundreds of stranded and sometimes abandoned South and East Asian nannies, known as ‘ayahs’, has been commemorated by a charity, which was announced on 16 June.
The Ayahs’ Home is being commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque at 26 King Edward’s Road, in Hackney, which is in a part of London that was quite heavily bombed in World War 2.
The home was based at this address from 1900 to 1921, which housed women who served British families in India and other colonies as children’s nannies, nursemaids, and ladies’ maids.
According to English Heritage, the story of the ayahs began with the first home for ayahs starting in the early 1800s, when an employee of the East India Company, William Rogers, took a stranded ayah into his own house on Cullum Street, near Fenchurch Street.
Her kind treatment there led members of the Company to suggest sending other ayahs to his house until their return passage could be arranged.
Proposer of the Blue Plaque for the Ayahs’ Home Farhanah Mamooje said:
“At the time, the Ayahs’ Home was the only named institution of its kind in the United Kingdom. It was a safe haven for so many abandoned Asian women from all over the Empire who fell victim to colonisation and is of great importance not just for Asian History, but British history and international history.
“The stories of these women, though little known, resonate with so many of us. I hope this plaque will encourage others to take a closer look at the hidden stories within their local communities, so we can continue to diversify the histories that are told around the world.”
Asian Sunday spoke to Senior Historian on the scheme, Howard Spencer, who advised the panel on creating the Blue Plaque and commissioned some of the research.
He said, “I think it’s a very interesting story about London and the wider story of Britain and its empire and it’s important to think about the individuals themselves, the bravery they showed by making that crossing.
“It’s about the individuals that lived there and it’s about acknowledging the fact that some of them were abandoned by the families that they came over to serve, they came over on a promise of getting a passage back to India and that on occasions was reneged on, in that sense they were badly treated”.
The ayahs typically would spend a few weeks in the house in Hackney, while they were waiting for a passage back to India, with either the family they came out with or with another family, seeking another engagement to act like nannies, nursemaids, or servants.
Howard also adds “Many people that were working-class people, don’t appear in official records, you get these little snapshots, where there are 4 Ayahs in one Amma from East Asia, recorded there in the 1911 census”.
The original Ayahs’ Home was subsequently run by relatives of Rogers at various London addresses.
Detailed research was carried out by curator Rebecca Preston, who went into the history of the Ayahs home and the various places, as there have been similar establishments in the city of London.
On 1 January 1900, a notice in the Homeward Mail announced the new address of ‘Rogers’s Original Ayahs’ Home’ at 26 King Edward’s Road, Hackney, which remained there for 20 years.
The imposing, corner, three-story 19th-century building, observed twelve rooms, that housed around 100 women a year between 1900 and 1921, according to history experts.
English Heritage Chief Executive, Kate Mayor, said “We will never know the names of all the women who stayed in this Hackney refuge, but we do know they showed remarkable courage to come here, leaving their own homes and crossing an ocean on what was often a perilous trip.
“The fact that some of them were effectively abandoned by those they had served is shameful. The ayahs played an important part in the story of immigration to London and thus in British history. We are honoured to recognise them here in Hackney today.”
In August of 2020, the first South Asian female to receive a blue plaque was the British espionage agent, Noor Inayat Khan, who operated in occupied France for months during the second world war, before being captured by the Gestapo and later executed.
Today, in the whole of London, it has been calculated there are 983 plaques, with the London-wide scheme that has been going on since 1866, with only 14% of the plaques commemorating women and less than 4% of South Asians.
