Lucy Anne Evelyn Streatfeild, CBE was a civil servant, a social worker, and one of the first female factory inspectors in the United Kingdom; she was one of the first to raise concerns about the health risks arising from exposure to asbestos.
Deane first worked as a nursing sister, having been trained at the National Health Society and Chelsea Infirmary. From 1894 until 1906 she worked for the Home Office as a factory inspector. In 1901 Deane was appointed to the Fawcett Commission, the committee of inquiry into the concentration camps created following the Second Boer War, where she ensured that the committee's report included criticism of the camps system. From 1912 until 1915, Deane was a member of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service. Deane was on the executive committee of the Women's Land Army in Kent during the First World War, and was appointed as a member of both the War Office appeals committee and a special arbitration tribunal. In 1918, Deane chaired a committee of inquiry into allegations of immoral conduct by members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in France. The report of this committee dismissed as "slanderous and untrue" certain rumours about the misbehaviour of the WAAC in France and went on to explain, and make recommendations designed to alleviate, the problems then faced by women in active service abroad. In 1920 Deane Streatfeild was among the first women appointed as a Justice of the Peace. She served on the Kent County Council.
Warnings of the dangers of asbestos
In 1898, during her appointment to the inspectorate, Deane was one of the very first people in the UK to warn of the harmful effects of asbestos, writing that asbestos occupations were to be observed "on account of their easily demonstrated danger to the health of workers and because of ascertained cases of injury to bronchial tubes and lungs medically attributed to the employment of the sufferer". Deane further wrote that
"the evil effects of asbestos dust have also instigated a microscopic examination of the mineral dust by HM Medical Inspector. Clearly revealed was the sharp glass-like jagged nature of the particles, and where they are allowed to rise and to remain suspended in the air of the room in any quantity, the effects have been found to be injurious as might have been expected."
Lucy Deane's warnings in 1898 about the health risks and the later reports made by other Women Inspectors of Factories appeared in the annual reports of HM Chief Inspector of Factories, but were ignored, and it was not until 1911 that clinical evidence was gathered to indicate a connection to asbestos exposure.
