This documentary offers a brief look into the extraordinary life of Emily Hobhouse (9 April 1860 - 8 June 1926) - a British welfare campaigner - whom singlehandedly took on the British establishment during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) over its treatment of Boer woman and children in British concentration camps. After her early successes in improving the lot of Boer woman and children Emily would go onto humanitarian work in Austria and Germany after World War One. Through her efforts thousands of woman and children were fed there on a daily basis for well over a year, a cause her former Boer wards in South Africa were happy to contribute towards liberally. Emily’s death in 1926 would go unreported, even in her native Cornwall. Yet in South Africa her legacy lives on, with her ashes ensconced in the National Women's Monument at Bloemfontein. As Field Marshal Jan Smuts stated during her interment at the memorial, “We [Boers] stood alone in the world, friendless among the people. The smallest nations ranged against the mightiest empire in the world. Then one small hand - the hand of a woman - was stretched out to us. At that darkest hour when our entire race almost seemed doomed to extinction, she appeared as an angel and a messenger from heaven. And strangest of all, she was an Englishwoman.”
Hierdie dokumentêr bied 'n kort oorsig van die buitengewone lewe van Emily Hobhouse (9 April 1860 - 8 Junie 1926), wie eiehandig teen die Britse owerhede tydens die Anglo-Boereoorlog (1899-1902) oor die behandeling van Boere vroue en kinders in Britse konsentrasiekampe geveg het. Na haar vroeë suksesse in die verbetering van die Boere-vroue en kinders se lot het Emily ook humanitêre werk in Oostenryk en Duitsland na die Eerste Wêreldoorlog onderneem. Deur haar pogings is duisende vroue en kinders daar daagliks gevoed vir meer as 'n jaar, 'n saak wat haar vriende in Suid-Afrika meer as gelukkig was om ook voor by te dra. In 1926 het Emily se dood ongerapporteerd in Engeland gegaan, selfs in haar geboortedorp, Cornwall. Tog leef haar nalatenskap in Suid-Afrika voort, met haar as verskans in die Nasionale Vrouemonument te Bloemfontein. Tydens haar gedenkdiens sê veldmaarskalk Jan Smuts "Ons [Boere] het alleen in die wêreld gestaan, sonder vriende van enige volk. Die kleinste nasies teen die magtigste ryk in die wêreld. En een klein hand - die hand van 'n vrou - het na ons uitgestrek. Op daardie donkerste uur wanneer ons hele ras byna gelyk gedoem tot uitsterwing was, het sy as 'n engel en 'n boodskapper uit die hemel verskyn. En vreemdste van alles, dit was 'n Engelse vrou."