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{{short description|Anglo-Indian journalist, editor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Olive Christian Malvery
| image = Olive Christian Malvery - 01.jpg
| alt =
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1871}}
| birth_place = [[Lahore]]
| death_date = {{death year and age|1914|1871}}
| other_names = Mrs Archibald Mackirdy
| education = [[The Royal College of Music]]
| occupation = Writer, journalist
| years_active = 1904–1914
| era = [[Edwardian]]
| employer = [[Pearson's Magazine]]
| spouse = Archibald Mackirdy
}}

'''Olive Christian Malvery''' was an [[Anglo-Indian]] journalist, best known for her investigations into the working conditions of women and children in London.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title = Secret Commissions: An Anthology of Victorian Investigative Journalism|last1 = Donovan|first1 = Stephen|last2 = Rubery|first2 = Matthew|publisher = Broadview Press|year = 2012|isbn = 978-1770483538|location = |pages = }}</ref>

==Early life==

Malvery was born in [[Lahore]], in the [[Punjab]], in 1871<ref>Rebecca Odell, a museum curator, gives a date of 1 October 1871, and says: {{Quote|Establishing a date of birth has been complicated by Malvery reporting herself as younger on a number of official documents. This has led to her incorrect date of 1877 being given in a number of places, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography stating 'No record of her birth has been located.' Her date of birth is given in her Baptism record from India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947, available through Ancestry.com. }} {{cite web |last1=Odell |first1=Rebecca |title=Olive C Malvery {{!}} Timeline |url=https://olivemalvery.wixsite.com/home/timeline |website=Olive Christian Malvery - pioneering undercover journalist |language=en}}</ref><ref>Ancestry.com. India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: India, Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.</ref> from parents of European and Indian ancestry. Following her parents' separation, she and her brother were raised as [[Anglican]] in India by her maternal grandparents. Both siblings were well-educated.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = Slum Travelers: Ladies and London Poverty, 1860–1920 |last = Ross|first = Ellen|publisher = University of California Press|year = 2007|isbn = 978-0520249059|location = |pages = }}</ref>

She moved to London in 1900 to train as a professional singer at [[The Royal College of Music]].<ref name=":1"/> To support herself during this time she gave [[elocution]] lessons, wrote fiction for periodicals and gave drawing-room performances about Indian legends.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2"/>

==Career==

In 1904, she was commissioned to write a seven-part series of articles for ''[[Pearson's Magazine]],'' in which she "targeted her middle-class readers with stark undercover exposés of life in the slums of London's East End".<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hackney Society |title=Women from Hackney's History |publisher=The Hackney Society and Hackney History (Friends of Hackney Archives) |year=2021 |isbn=9781800492103 |location=London |pages=98-99}}</ref> For this she explored women's work in various trades by disguising herself as a street singer, street [[peddler]], factory girl, shop girl, [[costermonger]], waitress, and barmaid. The series 'The Heart of All Things' appeared in the magazine between November 1904 and May 1905, before being published together in her first book, ''The Soul Market''.<ref name=":2"/> The success of this book led to Malvery being in great demand as a public speaker.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title = The Moving Pageant: A Literary Sourcebook on London Street Life, 1700–1914|last = Allen|first = Rick|publisher = Routledge |year = 2006|isbn = 1134742746|location = |pages = }}</ref>

Malvery donated some of the royalties from her books to Christian charities and to build two shelters for homeless women in London.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2"/> Malvery describes the success of ''The Soul Market'' as "the first book that roused the public to shame and sympathy". This would appear to have affected charitable giving, as she later went on to say, "To-day there are a great many {{sic|Mission}} which have been founded by people who were stirred by that book".<ref name=":2"/>

Her work extended to campaigns for the regulation of the sex trade in British prostitutes sent overseas. She did not call for the abolition of the trade for fear of the negative impact on the women who would still be forced to work. Her article on the topic, ''The White Slave Trade Market'', was published in 1912.<ref name=":0" />

Malvery also lectured for the [[temperance movement]] in Europe and North America.<ref name=":2"/> As part of her work within this movement, she supported youth clubs – namely the 'Girls' Guild' and the 'Lads' Club' – at [[Hoxton Hall]], a community centre in East London which was at the time home to the Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Mission.<ref name=":0" /> Her goal was to create leisure spaces for the working-class population which were not centred around alcohol consumption, as an alternative to public houses.<ref name=":0" /> Her social connections allowed her to organise fundraising events which allowed Hoxton Hall to extend its reach to social, medical, educational, and domestic care for local young people.<ref name=":0" />

==Works==

* The Alien Question (1905)
* The Soul Market. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co, 1907
* Baby Toilers. London: Hutchinson, 1907
* Thirteen Nights. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908.
* The Speculator. London: T. Werner Laurie, 1908.
* Year and a Day. London: Hutchinson, 1912.
* Mackirdy, Olive C. M, and W N. Willis. The White Slave Market. London: S. Paul & Co, 1912.
* Mackirdy's Weekly (1914)

==Personal life==

When Malvery married Archibald Mackirdy, a Scottish-born U.S. diplomat, she invited over a thousand London sex workers, flower sellers, and costermongers to her wedding reception, many of whom she had met through her undercover work.<ref name=":0" /> Her bridesmaids were East End child flower sellers from [[Hoxton]].<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":0" /> Malvery appeared in a number of London society columns in her wedding attire, a white Indian sari and veil.<ref name=":0" />

Malvery and her husband had three children before he died in 1911.<ref name=":1"/>

She died aged 37 in 1914, having been ill with cancer. The cause of death was apparently from an accidental overdose of sedatives.<ref name=":1"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://eastendwomensmuseum.org/olive-christian-malvery-journalist/ East End Women's Museum. Olive Christian Malvery: journalist, 'lecturer, reciter, and social worker'.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828184352/http://eastendwomensmuseum.org/olive-christian-malvery-journalist/ |date=28 August 2016 }}
*[https://www.olivemalvery.com/ Olive Christian Malvery: Creating a biography of Edwardian Britain's pioneering undercover journalist.]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malvery, Olive Christian}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1914 deaths]]
[[Category:Journalists from Lahore]]
[[Category:Indian women journalists]]
[[Category:Undercover journalists]]
[[Category:Anglo-Indian people]]
[[Category:Indian temperance activists]]
[[Category:Indian women's rights activists]]
[[Category:Journalists from British India]]
[[Category:Mass media people from Lahore]]

Olive Christian Malvery - Revision history

MarlonBernhardt: added initial details basic info!