A NEW play about the life of the woman who founded the Save the Children charity a century ago will be performed at The Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond next month.

Eglantyne tells the story of social reformer Eglantyne Jebb, an Edwardian woman with a vision of a better world for children. In 1919, a few months after the armistice that ended the First World War, she handed out leaflets in Trafalgar Square showing a photograph of two emaciated children beneath the headline: Our Blockade caused this – millions of children are starving to death.

Arrested and tried, the 35-year-old was found guilty, but the prosecuting counsel was so impressed with her he offered to pay her £5 fine.

It was the first donation to the charity that she went on to found.

Eglantyne comes to the UK following a critically acclaimed tour in New Zealand. It was written and is performed by Anne Chamberlain, who learnt about Jebb while working in New Zealand as a communications adviser for Save the Children.

“The more I read about her, the more I was drawn to her inspiring life and unconventional ways," she said.

"She was a brave, modern thinker with a truly international view of the world. As well as her big heroic moments, the play explores her struggles, vulnerabilities, disappointments and heartbreaks which seem to draw her closer to our lives, our frailties and our humanity.”

Jebb wrote the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child which was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924. Three decades later it inspired the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, now signed by almost every country in the world.

The play will be staged on Friday, July 10, at 7.30pm. Tickets cost from £7 to £15 from the box office on 01748 825252 or online at georgiantheatreroyal.co.uk.