Alison Hingley Izzett (1912-2003) was appointed as the first female Social Welfare Officer in Lagos in 1946, part of the newly formed Colony Welfare Office (CWO) in Nigeria. Izzett’s remit at the CWO was to tackle the issue of juvenile prostitution in Lagos. Her research and observations led to changes in the law around raising the minimum age for female street trading (or ‘hawking’) and preventing girls from under the age of 16 moving to Lagos unaccompanied. She completed a B.Litt at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 1955 based on her research in Nigeria (‘The Yoruba young delinquent in Lagos, Nigeria’). After eight tours of service in Nigeria between 1945 and 1960, Izzett returned permanently to England. She was awarded an OBE in the 1960 Queen’s birthday honours. Prior to working in Nigeria, Izzett had been a probation officer in Wells between 1938 and 1945; it is unknown what she did on her return to England but she made at least two visits to post-independence Nigeria in 1964 and 1972-3. Alison Izzett died in Taunton, Somerset, in 2003.