A Quaker, and a recognized minister in that body, Elizabeth Fry is still famed for her crusade against the then-prevailing inhumane treatment of female prisoners. She started welfare work among women inmates of Newgate Prison in 1813, and in 1817 began her campaign for the separation of the sexes in prison, classification of criminals, women warders to supervise women prisoners, and provision for secular and religious instruction. Later, in 1839, she formed a society for the care and rehabilitation of discharged prisoners. Throughout her life she was concerned to communicate the gospel of Jesus alongside her reforming work, in keeping with her maxim, ‘Charity to the soul is the soul of charity’.