Biographical Database of persons mentioned in Envisioning Sociology
This biographical database contains notes on the various intellectual, business and political associates of Geddes and Branford, together with others with whom they were connected. Where fuller details are provided in the text, and where people are well- known national figures, only basic information is provided here.
Abercrombie, (Leslie) Patrick (1879- 1957) Urban planner. Professor of Civic Design, Liverpool University, from 1915, and University College London from 1935. Involved in formation of Council for the Preservation of Rural England. Knighted 1945.
Addams, Jane (1860- 1935) Social reformer in Chicago. Visited Toynbee Hall on a visit to London in 1885 and was inspired to set up Hull House. Geddes nicknamed her ‘the Abbess of Chicago’.
Allardyce, Lady. see Elsie Stewart.
Ashbee, Charles Robert (1863- 1942) Architect and follower of Pugin and Ruskin. Taught at Toynbee Hall. Established craft workshops in London and then at Chipping Camden as Guild and School of Handicrafts. Devised a plan for a garden city at Ruislip in Middlesex. Worked in Palestine from 1917- 23. See Crawford (1985).
Avebury, Lord. See John Lubbock
Badley, John Haden (1865- 1967). Educated at Rugby and Cambridge. Founder and head teacher of Bedales School. Strongly committed to Stanley Hall’s ideas on child development. Retired 1935.
Bailey, William Bacon (1873- 1952) Assistant Professor of Political Economy at Yale and host during Branford’s lecture tour. Author of Modern Social Conditions (1906) and later supervisor of the US Census.
Barker, Henry Lindsay (1854- 1934) School friend of Patrick Geddes. Became chemical engineer at Silloth, Cumbria. Father of Mabel Barker.
Barker, Mabel (1885- 1961) Daughter of Henry Barker. After the death of her mother in 1894 she lived in Scotland and frequently visited the Geddes family. Graduated from London University in geology, 1907. School teacher, moving to Saffron Walden Teacher Training College in 1909. Assistant for Geddes’s Town Planning Exhibition in Dublin. Close associate of Geddes’s educational work, especially through the Saffron Walden survey. Helped form Regional Association and was Secretary to Sociological Society in 1915. Returned to school teaching at Priory Gate and became active in Kibbo Kift Kindred. Involved with Scots College at Montpelier from 1925- 7, acting as housekeeper to Geddes until his marriage to Lillian Brown (Levi 2006).
Barnes, Earl (1861- 1935). Head of Education at Leland Stanford Junior University. Forced to resign from Stanford because of an extra- marital affair. Extension lecturer in Britain and Philadelphia. Married Mary Sheldon, 1885. She died in 1898 and he married Anna Kohler. Close associate in Philadelphia of Joseph Fels, in whose home he lived for many years.
Barnett, Henrietta (1851- 1936) [Henrietta Octavia Weston Rowland] Married Samuel Barnett. Worked with Octavia Hill, who introduced her to Barnett. Established various charities and organised the planning and building of Hampstead Garden Suburb. CBE 1917 and DBE 1924.
Barnett, Samuel Augustus (1844- 1913) Studied at Oxford, worked for Octavia Hill, and became Rector of St. Jude’s, Whitechapel. Associated with Arnold Toynbee, after whom he named the Toynbee Hall settlement in 1884. Canon of Bristol and then Westminster, but remaining associated with Toynbee Hall.
Beddington- Behrens, Edward. (1897- 1968). Descendent of Hamburg textile merchants based in Manchester. Studied for PhD with Harold Laski. Worked in film industry in US and UK with help from Otto Kuhn of Kuhn Loeb, a relative of his uncle Sydney Schiff. Victor Branford secured a partnership for him with Myers and Co, stockbrokers, and he became a manager of Branford’s investments. In 1938 he set up his own issuing house Ocean Trust.
Belloc, Hilaire (1870- 1953). Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc. Born in France. Liberal MP, 1906- 10. Catholic political theorist and essayist.
Benson, Frederick Jessel (1875- 1930) Born Jessel Bebro in Islington. Financier in New York who changed his name to Benson in 1897 following the imprisonment of his brother Harry Bebro in Massachusetts for grand larceny. Operated in London as F. J. Benson and Co, formed in 1896, and Prudential Discount Trust, formed 1906. Active in various Jewish charities in London.
Beveridge, Henry (1853 - 1922) Partner in Erskine, Beveridge and Co, owners of St Leonard’s linen works in Dunfermline. Cousin of William Beveridge (Lord Beveridge). Purchased Pitreavie Castle in 1884, which he renovated. In 1910 planned a garden suburb at Pitreavie. Introduced Geddes to the Carnegie Trust and financially supported many of his ventures. From 1897- 1901 sponsored school field trips led by Thomas Marr, Andrew Herbertson, and Robert Smith.
Binder, Bernhard Heymann (1876- 1966) Born Nottingham and qualified as accountant 1908. Worked with Monty Horne- Payne while qualifying and became London manager of the offices of Percival Farquhar. Founder of Binder Hamlyn partnership after the collapse of the Farquhar group. Knighted 1952.
Bottomley, William Beecraft. (1863- 1922). King’s College botanist with interests in agricultural cooperatives.
Bowlby, John (1907- 1990) Psychoanalyst. Graduated from Cambridge 1928, subsequently teaching at Bedales and Priory Gate.
Branford, Benchara Bertrand Patrick (1868- 1944) Brother of Victor Branford. Appointed as Assistant Lecturer in pure and applied mathematics in Yorkshire College, Leeds, and promoted after seven years to degree- level teaching for Victoria University. In 1901 appointed Principal of Sunderland Technical College. Later Divisional Inspector and Adviser on Mathematics for the London County Council. Married his cousin Edith Baker of Cambridge, 1892, and had one daughter, Violet (Violet Branford 1939). See Scotsman, July 1884 and 3rd May 1901.
Branford, Frederick Victor. See Frederick Powell.
Branford, John Frederick Kitchen (1869- 1946) Brother of Victor Branford. Successively Deacon at St. Andrew's, Edinburgh, Priest at St. Andrew's, Brechin, Curate of Callander for the Railway Mission, Crianlarich, and Chaplain of St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth. Married Annie More (d. 1936) at Edinburgh, St. George’s in 1893 and immediately took up appointment as Curate of Bulwell, Nottinghamshire. Returned to Scotland in 1898 as Rector of All Saint's Mission, Jordanhill, Glasgow, succeeding his brother Lionel. Rector of All Saint's Challoch, Newton Stewart from 1913 to 1938, though retaining a London home at 5 Hornsey Lane Gardens, Highgate. Retired to Bristol.
Branford, Lionel William Ernest Catton (1866- 1947) Brother of Victor Branford. Returned to Scotland, in 1892, to marry Dorothy Cuthbertson, the daughter of a wealthy Edinburgh lawyer and fourteen years his senior. Held missionary posts in Auchterarder and Glasgow and by 1900 was living at Lye, in Binley, St. Mary Bourne, Hampshire, as vicar of Ashmansworth. Dorothy had married Lionel ‘In a moment of unguardedness’ and the marriage was never consummated. She abandoned him in 1903- 5 to live in Ardgay with her herd of goats and her nephew Freddie (Macgregor 1951). Lionel was priest- in- charge at St. Columba’s on Islay in 1909. From 1913 to 1921 private chaplain to the Marquess of Breadalbane and then followed by a short period in the Mission to Seamen in Leith. Formally divorced in 1921 and married, three months later, Mary Mitchell. In the 1920s he adopted the additional surname Somers- Cocks and took a series of parish posts in Renfrew, Challacombe, Whissonsett, and Great Hampden. Collapsed and died in the street in High Wycombe.
Branford, Mary Ann Kitchen (1861- 1907) Sister of Victor Branford. Took up acting and made a short stage career. In 1891, immediately after the death of her father, she married another actor, J. Frederick Powell, who later achieved some fame under the stage name Joynson Powell. Mary had some West End success in 1902 at Charles Hawtrey’s Avenue Theatre, in Northumberland Avenue, playing ‘Mrs Daly’ in ‘After All’ by Freeman Wills and Frank Longbridge, and ‘Akulina’ in ‘A Cigarette Maker’s Romance’, by Charles Hannen, listed in both playbills as ‘Mrs Frederick Powell’. Mary died from lung cancer in 1907, aged 45. While the actors were travelling away from their Fulham home, their son, Freddie (Frederick Victor Powell), was looked after by Lionel Branford and his wife Dorothy.
Brock, Arthur John (1879- 1947) Edinburgh graduate in medicine, qualifying in 1901. Met Geddes in 1899 while a medical student and took up the environmental work of Le Play. Worked at Craiglockhart Hospital where he treated shell shock patients including Wilfred Owen.
Brown, John Armour. Owner of Brown and Polson, corn flour manufacturers. Father of Lilian Brown.
Brown, Lilian (1869?- 1936). Daughter of John A. Brown. Attended Geddes’s Edinburgh Summer Schools and later became his second wife and Lady Geddes.
Bryce, James (1838- 1922) [Lord Bryce] Professor of Law at Oxford, 1870- 93. President of Sociological Society and other learned associations. A radical Liberal politician. British Ambassador to Washington, 1907- 1913.
Buckton, Alice Mary (1867- 1944 ) College lecturer in Education in St Marylebone and a member with Margaret Noble of the Sesame Club. A New Age mystic, living in Glastonbury from 1907. Author of the Christian mystery play Eager Heart.
Byngham, Henry (‘Harry’) John (1893- 1990) London journalist who wrote on naturism and nudity for ‘health’ magazines. Also wrote on Greek religion and phallic worship. Active in Order of Woodcraft Chivalry from 1922, editing its journal. Known as ‘Dion’ Byngham.
Caldwell Cook, Henry (1885- 1939) Teacher at the Perse School, Cambridge. Wrote on the educational philosophy of the ‘play way’.
Carpenter, Edward (1844- 1929) Founding figure in the Fabian Society. Close associate of US poet Walt Whitman. Formed a cooperative community organised around ecological issues. Actively involved with New Age and guild socialism. Wrote on psychology of sex.
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1874- 1936). Journalist and novelist, converted to Catholicism in 1922. Distributist. Involved with the Christian Sociology group of Maurice Reckitt.
Cole, George Douglas Howard (1889- 1959). Fabian and Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford.
Collet, Clara E. (1860- 1948) Researcher for Booth’s survey of poverty and labour, and promoter of women’s education in economics. Had an unrequited relationship with journalist and writer George Gissing (McDonald 2004).
Conklin, Roland Ray (1858- 1938) Estate developer in Kansas City, working through the Lands Trust and then through Jarvis and Conklin Trust (Worley 1993). Bankrupted by collapse of real estate boom in early 1890s and moved to New York. Headed a syndicate of Caribbean sugar owners and involved in conversion of Cuban Telephone Company into Havana Telephone Company. Developer of Roland Park, Baltimore.
Cox, George Albertus (1840- 1914) President of the Canada Life Assurance Company and other companies. Involved in the formation of the Grand Trunk Railway.
Crisp, Frank (1843- 1919). Solicitor in partnership with John Morris as Ashurst, Morris and Crisp. Later Sir Frank Crisp. Father of (Sir) Frank Crisp.
Crisp, Frank (1872- 1938) Solicitor with Ashurst, Morris and Crisp. Son of (Sir) Frank Crisp. Close friend of Victor Branford. See O’Hagan (1929: Vol 2, 460- 6).
Davies, Maud Frances (1876?- 1913). Daughter of barrister Byam Martin Davies. Studied economic history at LSE in 1905 and carried out a local study of her home village of Corsley, Wiltshire. Undertook a systematic house- to- house enquiry on earnings, family budgets, religion, and leisure. Residents of Corsley were scandalized by the publication of the study, in which they could identify particular individuals and families. Davies’s father bought and destroyed as many copies of the book as he could find. Maud moved to London to take up social work but died under a train three years later.
Defries, Amelia Dorothy (1882- 1945) Born in Swiss Cottage, London, descendent of Dutch Jewish migrants. Freelance author, art critic, and playwright. Wrote on dance, The Bahamas, and Arthur Young. Closely associated with rural work of Montague Fordham. Lived at Thaxted, essex, but spent some time in New York, Paris, and Toronto. Met Patrick Geddes in 1912- 13 through the Crosby Hall dramatic events and became his popularizer and biographer. Her brother Colin made the first powered flight of a heavier- than- air machine in Australia in 1909.
DeKay, Charles (1848- 1935), prominent New York poet and journalist, working on New York Times. Founded National Arts Club in 1899. See New York Times, December 18th 1910 and May 24th 1935.
DeKay, John Wesley (1872- 1938). Descended from an old New York family of Dutch origin. Very distant cousin of Charles De Kay. Went into business in Mexico in 1899, forming Mexican National Packing Company. Involved in various criminal activities, including fraud and arms dealing. Friend of Jane Addams and wrote a book on peace. Promoter of theatrical arts, especially the work of Sarah Bernhardt, and member of National Arts Club of New York. Brother of Henry DeKay. See New York Times July 1st 1930.
De Normann, Beatrice (later Beatrice Ensor) (1885- 1974). Theosophist and headteacher at the Garden City School, Letchworth, and Secretary of the Regional Survey Association.
Douglas, Clifford Hugh (1879- 1952). Scottish engineer who worked for, amongst others, the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway. Writer on social credit.
Drummond, George Alexander (1829- 1910). Born in Edinburgh and invited to Canada in 1854 to manage the Canada and Dominion Sugar Company owned by his brother- in- law John Redpath. A member of the Canadian Senate and Vice President of the Bank of Montreal. Knighted 1904.
Dunn, James Hamet (1874- 1956). Born in New Brunswick, Canada. Lawyer and corporate underwriter involved in arbitrage. Associated with Dunn, Fischer and Co in London. Made baronet in 1921.
Edgar, Edward (‘Mike’) Mackay (1876- 1934). Born in Montreal. Financier in Canada and then in London, working with Sperling and Co. from 1908 and becoming chief partner. Known as ‘The Man with the Load of Millions’, he was an aggressive investor and gambler with other people’s money. Made a baronet in 1920 for his work in connection with British oil interests but was twice bankrupted before his death in Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire. (The Argus, Melbourne, 10 November 1934).
Ellis, (Henry) Havelock (1859- 1939) Involved in radical politics in pursuit of sexual freedom, working with H. M. Hyndman and Eleanor Marx. Closely associated with Edward Carpenter and with Olive Schreiner. Qualified as a doctor and produced numerous books on sexuality.
Eyre, [Mildred] Penelope (1878- 1936) Daughter of printer and publisher George Briscoe Eyre. Typeface designer and founder of Swan Press.
Fagg, Christopher Charles (1883- 1965). Civil servant and amateur geologist. Joined Croydon Natural History Society in 1906, forming its Sociology Section in 1912. Undertook Croydon survey (CNHSS 1936- 62). Under the influence of Arthur Tansley, who taught Fagg in extra- mural classes, the Section became more concerned with psychoanalysis. Became first Warden of Juniper Hill field centre in 1945.
Faithfull, (Robert) Glynn. (1912- 1998) Son of Theodore Faithfull. An OWC activist and a student helper at Grith Fyrd in 1932- 3 before teaching at his father’s school. Norman Glaister and Glynn Faithfull formed the Braziers School of Integrative Social Research after the Second World War. Father of singer Marion ‘Marianne’ Faithfull.
Faithfull, Theodore James (1885- 1973). Born Theodore James Faithfull Davies in Eastbourne. Took surname Faithfull- Davies and then Faithfull. Trained as a veterinary surgeon, becoming a Major in Veterinary Corps. Pioneer of psychoanalytical ideas and inventor of the ‘Frigidity Box’. Set up Priory Gate School and Hazeleigh School. Became psychotherapist in Hampstead. Died in Birmingham. Described by John Bowlby as an ‘inspired manic- depressive’ (Interview cited in Karen 1998: 32).
Faringdon, Lord See Alexander Henderson.
Farquhar, Percival (1864- 1953) Financier and railway magnate.
Farquharson, Alexander (1882- 1954) Born Alexander Farquharson Jack in Towis, Aberdeenshire. School teacher in England and then organiser for Charity Organisation Society. War- time civil servant, becoming Secretary of Civic Education League (as Moral Instruction League) in 1915. Moved CEL closer to Sociological Society and Regional Association. Active in Fabian Society and Theosophical Society until becoming full- time executive Secretary of Sociological Society (and of CEL and RA) at Le Play House in 1920. Married Dorothea Price after ending his affair with Margaret Tatton. Moved Le Play House to Worcester in 1940 and then to Ledbury in 1946.
Farquharson, Dorothea Thimbleby (1882- 1976) Née Price. Known as ‘Dodo’. Wife of Alexander Farquharson. Worked closely with her husband for the Sociological Society.
Fawcett, Charles Bungay (1883- 1952) Student of Andrew Herbertson. Worked at Southampton University and for Ordnance Survey during First World War and then taught geography at Leeds University and at University College, London.
Fels, Joseph (1853- 1914) Naphtha soap manufacturer in Philadelphia. Married Mary (‘Mollie’) Fels (1863- 1953), a distant relative. Trustee of Philadelphia Ethical Society in 1880s and promoter of the ideas of Henry George. Spent much of 1901- 13 living in England, where he formed a number of land colonies (Dodson 2005). Member of Sociological Society, through which he met Geddes and Branford.
Fels, Samuel Simeon (1860- 1950) Brother of Joseph Fels and his partner in business.
Ferguson, Charles (1863- 1944) Born in Indiana. Episcopalian priest active in Social Gospel movement, but became Unitarian in 1904. Social credit advocate and author of The Religion of Democracy (1900) and The University Militant (1911). After World War One became an advocate of scientific management. See Johnson (2006).
Fleming, Robert (1845- 1933) Leading Scottish investment trust manager who set up investment bank in London. Extensive American interest through his investment trusts. Involved with van Horne in Cuba and with Conklin in Cuban Telephone. Grandfather of author Ian Fleming.
Fleure, Herbert (1877- 1969) Born in Guernsey. Graduated from Aberystwyth in 1901 and studied zoology in Zurich. Lectured in zoology, geography, and anthropology at Aberystwyth University from 1904- 30 and at Manchester 1930- 44.
Fordham, Montague (1864- 1948) Director of the Arts and Crafts Gallery, 1899- 1908. Associate of John Hobson. Financial reformer and advocate of rural reconstruction. Founded Rural Reconstruction Association, based at The Severals, Seer Green, Beaconsfield.
Gardner, (Henry) Rolf (1902- 1971) Educated at Rugby, Bedales, and Cambridge University. Active in Kibbo Kift. Involved in dance, crafts, and organic farming in Dorset, helping to form Kinship in Husbandry in 1941. Politically active on the far Right in groups such as English Mistery and English Array.
Geddes, Alasdair C. B. (1892 - 1917) Son of Patrick Geddes. Worked with his father on town planning exhibitions. Served during World War One in RNAS Balloon Corps on reconnaissance work. Awarded Military Cross but killed in action in 1917.
Geddes, Arthur A. F. (1895- 1968 ) Son of Patrick Geddes. Studied for PhD at Montpelier. Married Jeannie Colin, niece of Elisée Reclus. Professor of Geography at Edinburgh University, specialising in the geography of South Asia where he had spent much time with his father.
Geddes, Norah See Norah Mears
Glaister, (John) Norman (1883- 1961) medical student under Wilfred Trotter. Worked in psychiatry after First World War. Became involved with the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry. Married, as his second wife, Dorothy Revel. Associated with Priory Gate School and Forest School, founding Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research in 1950.
Goodfellow, Adam Archibald George (1866- 1913). Born in Edinburgh. Manager in the Buenos Aires branch of the London and River Plate Bank. Married Elsie Elizabeth Stewart in Buenos Ayres, 1897. Retired to England and died on Windlesham golf links.
Goodman, William. (1870- 1954) Stockbroker based in Room 342 of the Johnston Building, lived at 301 W 91st Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. From 1925 he was a partner in stockbrokers Buell & Co, specialising in railroad bonds. By the 1930s he had retired to Scarsdale, White Plains.
Gould, Frederick James (1855- 1938) London school teacher. Moved to Leicester in 1899. Joined the Leicester Secular Society and formed the Leicester Positivist Society. Involved in various moral education associations.
Guedalla, Herbert. (1875- 1940) Partner in Guedalla, Jacobson and Speyer. Cousin of barrister, historian and biographer Phillip Guedalla. Involved in numerous mining ventures and the Imperial and Foreign Corporation.
Gurney, Archer Thompson (1820- 87) Father of Sybella Gurney. On return from Paris worked as curate in Westminster (1872- 4), Brighton (1874- 5), Hastings (1877- 8), Regent’s Park (1879- 80), Rhyador (1880- 1), and Brecon (1882- 3). Retired to Keble Terrace, Oxford and died on a visit to his doctor in Bath (WT 1887)
Gurney, Gerald (1860- ?) Brother of Sybella Gurney. Clergyman who became actor with the Bensonian Shakespeare Players and with the Howard and Wyndham Players. Credits include ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ (1889), ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ (1890), and ‘The Lady of the Lake’ (1890). Married Dorothy Frances Bloomfield in 1897. Resigned his living in 1919 on conversion to Roman Catholicism. Sometime actor- manager at Globe Theatre, Plymouth.
Gurney, Harold Manby (1874- 1969) Cousin of Sybella Branford (née Gurney) and excutor to the wills of Victor and Sybella Branford. On staff of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, worked for The Times and for Incandexcent Fittings Co., and a stockbroker. Involved in businesses associated with Victor Branford.
Gurney, Vivian (1865- 1935) Brother of Sybella Gurney. Suffered from congenital mental disability. Cared for by Sybella following his mother’s death but lodged with family of Harry Yeo, a professional singer, in Boldre close to Sybella’s Hampshire home. Died in Cornwall.
Hall, Granville Stanley (1844- 1924) Studied theology and philosophy and completed a PhD under William James at Harvard. Taught pedagogy at Harvard from 1880 and became a pioneer of child psychology. Professor of Psychology at Johns Hopkins and then, from 1888, President of Clark University. Wrote an autobiography (Hall 1923).
Hamlyn, Ralph Ashton (1886- 1980) Born in New Zealand, son of District auditor. Worked with Bernhard Binder in the London office of the Farquhar group and became a partner of his in Binder Hamlyn.
Hand, James Edward (1863- 1929) Son of a Staffordhsire farmer. Clergyman based in Chelsea and at St Mary’s Bryanston Square, Marylebone. Active in Christian Social Union, for which he produced a series of books on citizenship between 1899 and 1906.
Hardy, Lavinia Mary (1868- 1950) Born in Salisbury. Lecturer at St. George’s Training College in Edinburgh and attended Geddes’s Summer Schools. Studied at Oxford and awarded Diploma in Geography, 1910, for her thesis on the Ordnance Survey map of Salisbury, carried out under the supervision of Herbertson. Lecturer at City of Leeds Training College 1910- 16, Lincoln Training College 1916- 18, and Salisbury Training College from 1918. One of the first women to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1915 (Bell and McEwan 1996).
Hardy, Marcel E. (1876- 1940) Belgian botanist. Student at Montpelier. Met Patrick Geddes in Paris in 1900 and appointed assistant to him in Dundee in 1902. Planned a Scottish settlement on land bought by his brother on Oaxaca, and later at Tezonapa and Vera Cruz, Mexico. Later undertook similar schemes in Paraguay and Uruguay. A conspicuous failure in business schemes, even Geddes avoiding any personal investment in his projects. Academic work on plant ecology, publishing Geography of Plants(Hardy 1902). Tutor to the Maharajah of Indore in 1920s. His two daughters, Lucille and Miette, worked with Philip Mairet on the wall frieze with which Le Play House was decorated. Settled in Berlin in 1928.
Hargrave, John (1894- 1982) Career in scouting and the ecology movement. Founder of the Kibbo Kift Kindred and the Social Credit Party of Great Britain.
Henderson, Alexander (Lord Faringdon) (1850- 1934) Senior partner in Greenwood and Co., stockbrokers. Chief figure in River Plate House group, financing South American railways. Unionist MP from 1898- 1906 and 1913- 16. His brother Frank was manager of Buenos Ayres and Great Southern Railway, 1899- 1905, and his brother Brodie was a partner in railway engineers Livesy Sons and Henderson.
Herbertson, Andrew John (1865- 1915) Assistant to Geddes at Dundee University. Lecturer in Geography, Heriot Watt College, 1896- 9 and then lecturer at Oxford.
Herbertson, Frances (‘Fanny’) Louisa Dorothea. (?- 1915) Née Richardson. Teacher at Cheltenhanm Ladies College and met Andrew Herbertson, who she married in 1893, at a Geddes summer school. Collaborated in his geographical work. Wrote intellectual biography of Le Play, published posthumously. Died 15 days after her husband.
Heslop, John Archibald (1870- ?) Born in Edinburgh. Partner in South America merchants Heslop and Begg, 9 New Broad Street, London. The firm moved to Dashwood House in 1915. Worked with Buenos Aires partnership of Stocks and Heslop, merchants. Heslop remained a close associate of Branford and was named by Sybella Branford as one of the trustees of the proposed Sociological Trust. Emigrated to Canada, where he died.
Hobson, John Atkinson (1858- 1940) British economist and sociologist. Born in Derby. Regular lecturer for South Place Ethical Society and Extension Lecturer for London University. Founder member of Sociological Society: Chairman from 1913- 22, President from 1922- 32. Close associate in United States of Thorstein Veblen and Edward Ross.
Hobson, Samuel George Hobson (1870- 1940) British guild socialist. No relation to John Hobson.
Hollins, Dorothea. Lived in apartment at 7 More’s Gardens, Chelsea, from where she ran the Utopian Society (later the Chelsea Society) from 1904. Poet and author writing under the name Theophila North.
Holmes, Edmund (1850- 1936) Progressive educationalist and Chief Inspector of Schools. Council member of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry.
Holt, Follett (1865- 1944) General manager in Argentina of Entre Rios Railway and director of other railway companies. Polo champion. Knighted 1934.
Horne- Payne, Robert Montgomery [Monty] (?- 1929) The original British organiser for William Mackenzie’s ventures. Operated through underwriters British Empire Trust (formed 1902) and Sperlings (see Roy 1973). Sperlings were based in Bond Court House at 31 Walbrook. The other offices in the building were occupied by Henry Malcolm Hubbard.
Howard, Ebenezer (1850- 1928) Worked in the Hansard office of the UK parliament but spent his life building the Garden City movement. Planned Letchworth Garden City (with Henry Vivian) and Welwyn Garden City. His Garden Cities Association became the Town and Country Planning Association.
Hubbard, Henry Malcolm. (1863- 1946) London Solicitor at 3 London Wall Buildings who worked closely with Sperlings and represented the Canadian Northern Railway of William Mackenzie and other companies involved in copper mining and processing. Particularly involved with Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company.
Hutchings, Geoffrey Edward (1901- 64) Worked as an engineer and then a teacher in Rochester, Kent. Assisted Christine Pugh’s field courses at Stockbridge and the Stockbridge survey. Later worked as Warden at Juniper Hall field centre. Published handbook on surveys with Christopher Fagg.
Inge, William Ralph (1860- 1954) Conservative churchman and eugenist. Professor of Divinity at Cambridge and, from 1911, Dean of St Paul’s.
Jennings White, Harold Dinely (1895- ?) Philosopher and psychologist. Author of classic text on techniques of figure skating.
Jowitt, Moya. General Secretary of the International League of Youth, which was associated with the Kibbo Kift Kindred on its foundation. A Kibbo Kift activist and long- time friend of Patrick Geddes.
Kearton, [George James] Malcolm. (born 1859). London lawyer and partner in West India Merchants Malcom Kearton and Co. Shareholder and Director in West Indian Cooperative Union. Especially concerned with the financial implications of fire- setting in Caribbean plantations (Kearton 1898; Richardson 2004).
Kitson, Arthur (1861- 1937) Monetary reformer, spiritualist, and anti- Semitic participant in New Europe Group.
Kropotkin, Piotr Alexeyevich (1842- 1921) Russian Prince and anarchist. Worked as a geographer and surveyor. Arrested on political grounds and left Russia for England and Switzerland in 1876. Lived in England permanently from 1886, where he published Mutual Aid (1902). He returned to Russia in 1917.
Lanchester, Henry Vaughan (1863- 1953) Architect. Worked with Patrick Geddes in India.
Lindsay, Alexander Dunlop (1879- 1952) [Lord Lindsay of Birkenhead] Trained in idealist philosophy at Glasgow and Oxford. Fellow of Balliol College from 1906 and Master from 1924. Raised money to set up Social Studies teaching at Oxford in a building named after Canon Barnett. Secured Nuffield money to set up Nuffield College as a graduate social science center. Supported the establishment of new University at Keele, helping to secure the deposit of the Institute of Sociology papers.
Lisman, Frederick J. (1865- 1940) Set up firm of F. J. Lisman and Co., on New York stock exchange in 1895, moving to office at 30 Broad Street in 1903. Underwriter for London and Amsterdam interests investing in the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada for its acquisition of coal mining business in Pittsburgh (New York Times, December 25th 1911). Financed demonstration of battery operated train for Ogilvie’s United Railways of Havana in 1912. His company was liquidated in 1931, by which time it was based at 44 Wall Street. Lisman was bankrupted in 1937 in connection with the business of Bush Terminal Co. (New York Times May 13th 1937 and February 15th 1940). Lived at 311 W76th Street and later at 160 59th Street.
Loch, Charles Stewart (1849- 1923) Secretary to Charity Organisation Society from 1875- 1913. Influential in formation of School of Social Sciences at Liverpool University in 1904. Professor of Economic Science and Statistics, King’s College London, 1904- 8. Knighted 1915.
Loch, [Dorothy] Cecilia (1888- 1977) Niece of C. S. Loch. Secretary to Victor Branford at Le Play House. Married US anthropologist Luther Cressman in 1928. Nicknamed ‘Delilah’ by Lewis Mumford during his time at Le Play House.
Lodge, Oliver Joseph (1851- 1940) Studied at University College London. Professor of Physics in Liverpool 1881- 1900, becoming first Principal of Birmingham University in 1900. Active in Society for Psychical Research from 1880s, and in the Synthetic Society, which aimed to reconcile science and religion. Knighted 1902. See Root (1978).
Lubbock, John (1834- 1913) [Lord Avebury] Banker with Robarts Lubbock. Inherited baronetcy in 1865. Elected Liberal MP in 1870 and became Lord Avebury in 1900. Neighbour of Darwin and wrote books on geology and anthropology (Lubbock 1865; 1870; 1906). Chaired first congress of International Institute of Sociology and was second president of Sociological Society.
Lymington, Viscount. See Gerald Vernon Wallop.
Mackenzie, William (1849- 1923). Canadian financier who formed the Canadian Northern Railway.
Macmurray, John (1891- 1976). Studied at Glasgow and under A. D. Lindsay at Balliol. Later taught at Balliol and University College, London. Developed religious- based communitarian philosophy that carried forward ideas of the Oxford idealists ((Macmurray 1957; 1961).
Mairet, Philippe Auguste Mairet (1886- 1975). Born in Switzerland. An Arts and Crafts specialist in stained glass and sometime Secretary to C. R. Ashbee in the Guild of Handicraft at Chipping Campden. Met Geddes in 1908 and became his teaching assistant for King’s College conference, later joining him as secretary. Mitrinović suggested he move to Eric Gill’s artistic farm colony at Ditchling, Sussex, to evade war- time conscription. Imprisoned in 1919 for avoiding the draft, before becoming an actor. Eventually returned to stained glass and kept a shop in Bloomsbury. Editor of the New English Weekly in the 1930s, when he anglicised his name to Philip. A strong supporter of Christian sociology. Biographer of both Orage and Geddes (Mairet 1936; 1957).
Malcolmson, Vernon Austen (1872- 1948) West India merchant with sugar interests in Trinidad and later a partner in stockbrokers J and A Scrimgeour. Son of George Forbes Malcolmson, an East India merchant prominent in the City. Lived at Aston Bury, Stevenage, from 1908. Wrote on agriculture and rural housing (Malcolmson 1920) and wrote the words for the hymn ‘Aspice finem’. Son- in- law of the second Lord Belper. His brother Norman, a partner in the firm of Samuel Dobree, co- authored with John Whitehouse a report on boy’s homes for Toynbee Hall (Whitehouse et al. 1908).
Marr, Thomas Robert (1873 – 1940s) Geddes’s winter assistant in Dundee in 1894 and took over running of Outlook Tower until 1901. Worked in the Ancoats Settlement of Manchester University, for which he carried out a social survey. Became business manager at Scots College in 1930. Died in France.
Marrett, Robert Ranulph (1866- 1943) Born in Jersey and educated at Balliol. Undergraduate volunteer at Toynbee Hall. Social anthropologist influenced by Durkheim and Levy- Bruhl. Fellow and later Rector at Exeter College Oxford.
Massingham, (Harold) John (1888- 1952) Writer on rural life and scenery. Founder member of the Soil Association. An Anglo- Catholic.
Mavor, James (1854- 1925) Scottish political economist involved with William Morris in Socialist League. Friend of Geddes, who contributed to his Industries magazine. Lectured at Glasgow University but moved to Toronto in 1892, succeeding W. J. Ashley. A friend of William van Horne in Canada. Friend of John Robertson, Oliver Lodge, and James Bryce and a founding member of the Sociological Society. See Mavor (1923).
McMillan, Margaret (1860- 1931) Born in New York of Scottish emigrant parents, returning to Scotland in childhood. Became a Christian Socialist and, with her sister Rachel, worked in children’s health and nursery schooling in Bradford and London. See Mansbridge (1932) and Bradburn (1989).
Mears, Frank (1880 - 1953) Trained as architect. Worked for Geddes as Secretary at the Outlook Tower 1908- 1910 but continued association with Geddes after setting up his own practice. Married Norah Geddes in 1915. Served with Alastair Geddes in RNAS Balloon Corps in World War One. Knighted 1946. Died on a visit to New Zealand.
Mears, Norah (1888 - 1967) Daughter of Patrick Geddes. Married to Frank Mears. Worked at Outlook Tower and became a landscape gardener.
Mendl, Charles Ferdinand (1871- 1958). Son of Ferdinand Mendl and brother of Sigismund. Merchant and railway investor in Argentina and Paraguay from 1890s, managing the family business. Worked in Paris as representative of the Argentine government. A diplomat and British Secret Service agent in Paris 1920- 39, with the official title of Press Attaché. Knighted 1924 for his intelligence activities. Marriage of convenience to designer Elsie de Wolfe 1926, bringing him money and his wife a title (Smith 1982: 223). Later an actor in films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Notorious’, depicting the activities of British spies in South America.
Mendl, Sigismund Ferdinand (1866- 1945). Son of Ferdinand Mendl and brother of Charles. Barrister and partner in family firm of grain merchants. MP for Plymouth 1898- 1900. Involved as director in numerous companies.
Mill, Hugh Robert (1861- 1950) Student of chemistry at Edinburgh University, a contemporary of Branford. Extension lecturer for Geddes and polar explorer. Author of books on physical and commercial geography. Cousin of John Stuart Mill.
Mitrinović, Dimitrije (1887- 1953) Born in Herzegovina and studied at Zagreb, Vienna, and Munich before becoming a leader of the Young Bosnia movement, opposed to Austro- Hungarian expansion. Formed the English branch of Adler’s Individual Psychology Society and the New Europe Group.
Morris, George (? - ?) Teacher of science and geography at Friend’s School, Saffron Walden, from 1907- 1930. Colleague of Mabel Barker in Regional Association. Met Patrick Geddes on his visit to Saffron Walden in 1911. Involved in Saffron Walden Survey.
Morris, John (1823- 1905). Accountant with Ashurst, Morris and Crisp. Formed River Plate Trust, Loan and Agency as basis for ‘River Plate Group’ of investment companies.
Mumford, Lewis (1895- 1990). Born in New York, working as architectural journalist and writing on social reform. Influenced by Geddes, he visited England in 1920 and worked closely with Victor Branford. Produced a series of books on urbanism that developed Geddes’s ideas.
Newbigin, Marion Isabel (1869- 1934) Scottish biologist and geographer. Assistant to J. A. Thomson and teacher on Geddes’s Summer Schools. Studied at London University, gaining doctorate in 1898. Prominent teacher of geography and editor of Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1902- 34.
Nivedita, Sister. See Margaret Noble.
Noble, Margaret (1857- 1911) Born in Ireland but trained as a teacher in England. Founded Ruskin School, Wimbledon in 1892. Worked closely with Kropotkin and H. M. Hyndman in socialist politics. Joined Sesame Club to promote progressive education, becoming its Secretary. Met Swami Vivekananda who invited her to India, where she converted to Hinduism and, in 1898, adopted the name Sister Nivedita. Became strongly committed to Geddes’s ideas and was heavily involved in Indian Nationalist politics.
Ogilvie, Campbell Patrick. Travelled to Argentina in 1880s. Main involvement was with the Santa Fé Land Company. See his autobiographical account (Ogilvie 1910), also online at the Wellcome Collection.
Ogilvie, Walter Ellsworth (1864- 1956). Born in Brooklyn, New York, graduated in law from Columbia University. Connected with the United Railways of Havana and an associate of George B. Hopkins in Cuban and Pan- American Express (of 42 Broadway) became a substantial shareholder and a founding director in ITT. Lived in Cuba between 1900 and 1920. Involved with Manuel Rionda of Havana and Cesare Czarnikow of London in numerous Cuban sugar businesses (van Ness 1986). See New York Times September 2nd 1956.
Orage, Alfred Richard (1873- 1934) Yorkshire teacher involved in socialism and theosophy. Moved to London with Arthur Penty and became editor of radical modernist magazine The New Age, where he promoted guild socialism and social credit. After a period abroad he returned to England in 1930 and set up New English Weekly.
Palme Dutt, Rajani (1896- 1974). Son of Swedish and Indian parents. Educated at the Perse School, he became a member of the Communist Party in 1920 and remained a central and influential member the whole of his life.
Peake, Harold John Edward (1867- 1946) Archaeologist and Curator of Newbury Museum. Lived at Westbrook House. Involved in Civic and Moral Education League and in regional survey movement. Co- author of series of books with Herbert Fleure.
Pearson, Frederick Stark (1861- 1915). US railway financier who died in the sinking of the Lusitania. Both a rival and an associate of Percival Farquhar.
Penstone, Maria Matilda (1859- 1910) Headmistress and writer of hymns. Associated with the Moral Education Congress. Produced a handbook for local studies (Penstone 1910).
Penty, Arthur Joseph (1875- 1937). Architect and writer. Originally a Fabian socialist and follower of Ruskin and Morris. Developed a form of guild socialism. Converted to Catholicism and praised Mussolini’s corporate state as epitomising the guild system. Closely associated with the British Union of Fascists from 1936.
Phillips, John Wynford. (1860- 1938) Investment trust financier in London. Active in Argentine railway companies. Became Lord St. Davids in 1918.
Plunkett, Horace Curzon (1854- 1932) Unionist politician who became a nationalist and Home Ruler. Saw agriculture as constrained by the social organisation of credit and founded Irish Agricultural Organization Society in 1894 to promote farming cooperatives and a cooperative credit bank. Close associate of George W. Russell.
Postgate, Raymond (1896- 1971). Journalist on Daily Herald. Son- in- law of George Lansbury and brother- in- law of Douglas Cole.
Powell, Frederick Victor Rubens Branford (1892- 1941) Son of Mary Branford, nephew of Victor Branford. Known as ‘Freddie’. Brought up by his aunt Dorothy and, after her separation from Lionel Branford, they lived in Ardgay, Scotland. An RNAS Captain in the 1914- 18 war, he was shot down over the Belgian coast and swam ashore to Holland. Interned, but supported by Fred van Oss. Treated at Craiglockhart Hospital. Lived on a disability pension for the rest of his life. A war poet of repute, publishing under the name ‘Frederick Victor Branford’. He stopped writing poetry in 1923, disillusioned with the prospects for future peace. In 1937 he eloped with and married, as his second wife, his cousin Margaret Branford, playwright daughter of John Branford.
Puleston, John Henry (1830- 1908). Manager in the United States for Wells Fargo and then partner in McCulloch and Co, heading the London office. Conservative MP for Devonport, 1874- 92, knighted 1887. Set up his own business as Puleston Brown and Co. in Princes Street and 40 Coleman Street (O'Hagan 1929: Vol 2, 219- 24). His daughter married the son of John Morris.
Ratcliffe, Samuel Kerkham (1868- 1958) Editor of New Statesman from 1902- 7. Friend of Sister Nivedita and supporter of Indian nationalism. Served as Secretary to Sociological Society and was lecturer at South Place Ethical Society. Grandfather of humanist Nicholas Walter and Great Grandfather of journalist Natasha Walter.
Rawnsley, Canon Hardwicke Drummond (1851- 1920) Studied under Ruskin at Oxford. Vicar in the Lake District and mentor to and co- author with Beatrix Potter. He and his wife Edith (nee Fletcher) formed School of Industrial Art in Keswick and the associated Farm School at Penrith. Biographer of Ruskin.
Reckitt, Maurice Benington (1888- 1980). Son of a starch manufacturer. Staunch Anglo- Catholic and Christian Socialist. Founded the Christendom movement. See Peart- Binns (1988).
Reddie, Cecil (1858- 1932). Educated in Germany and at Edinburgh University (1878- 82). Founder of Abbotsholme School.
Revel, Dorothy Mary (1890- 1981) Senior mistress at the Priory Gate School. Author of text on educational methods (Revel 1928). Second wife of Norman Glaister.
Rickard, George Lewis ‘Tex’ (1870- 1929) Owner of bar in Goldfield, Nevada. Reputed to have settled in Paraguay in 1910 with Etta Place, former girlfriend of the Sundance Kid. The story has been questioned, though Rickard was in Paraguay at the time.
Robertson, John Mackinnon (1856- 1933) Born in Scotland and met Geddes at meetings of the Edinburgh Secular Society. Leader writer on Edinburgh Evening News, moving to London to work with Chares Bradlaugh on National Reformer. Became involved in South Place Ethical Society and lectured at Hall of Science. MP and prolific author.
Rodríguez, Manuel Antonio (?- ?) Business associate and fixer for Benito Villanueva. Involved in numerous deals with the Farquhar syndicate.
Ross, John (1867 – 1960). Son of Montrose brewer who trained in accountancy and formed partnership with Victor Branford.
Russell, George W. (1867- 1935) Christian Socialist and leading proponent of the ideas of Horace Plunkett, which he combined with Kropotkin’s views on mutual aid. Wrote under the name ‘AE’. Influenced by the credit ideas of Orage and Douglas.
Saleeby, Caleb Williams (1878- 1940) Obstetrician and popularizer of eugenist ideas. A progressive eugenist, supporting radical projects of social reconstruction. Author of, amongst other titles) a sociology textbook (1905) and Woman and Womanhood (1911).
Salter, Alfred (1873- 1945) Medical partner of Aubrey Westlake in Bermondsey, London. Subsequently Labour MP for Bermondsey West. Author of the Salter Report on road and rail transport in 1932. Guild socialist and political mentor of Herbert Morrison (White 2001: 373).
Salter, James Arthur Salter (1881- 1975) [Lord Salter] Civil servant and then Professor of Political Theory and Institutions at Oxford. A member of Conservative Governments from 1939- 45 and 1952. Given peerage in 1953.
Sandeman, George David Stewart (1870- 1935) Son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister in England. Graduate of Edinburgh University. Elected to the Committee of the Royal Geographical Society in 1900. Author of books on biology and community and of two novels. Associated with the Forest School.
Seton, Ernest Thompson (1860- 1946) Born Ernest Evan Thompson in England but family emigrated to Canada aged six. Moved to New York and formed Woodcraft Indians in 1902, inspiring Baden Powell to form the Boy Scouts. His daughter wrote novels under name Anya Seton.
Sidgwick, Alfred (1850- 1943) Cousin of philosopher Henry Sidgwick. Married to Cecily Ullman Sidgwick.
Slater, Gilbert (1864- 1938) Principal of Ruskin College, Oxford, from 1909 to 1915 and then Professor of economics, Madras.
Slaughter, John Willis (1878- 1964) First chairman of Eugenics Education Society. By 1913 an alcoholic in trouble over the accidental shooting of his cook in South America (National Library of Scotland MS10570: 90- 93). Returned to US, where he taught civics and philosophy at Rice Institute, Houston.
Slaughter, William Capel (1857- 1917). Began career with Ashurst, Morris and Crisp, where he worked closely with John Morris. Set up Slaughter and May in 1889 with William May, who also worked at Ashurst, Morris and Crisp. The two firms continued to work closely together on South American business, especially that of Erlangers bank.
Smith, Martyn Josiah (circa 1854- 1930). Brother of Elizabeth Branford (née Smith). Related to Sir Josiah Mason. Chairman of Perry and Co., pen manufacturers, and founding trustee of Mason’s College, later University of Birmingham.
Smith, William Robertson (1846- 1894) Scottish theologian and free thinker who wrote sociological studies of Semitic religions.
Soddy, Frederick (1877- 1953) Trained in chemistry. Taught at Aberdeen and Oxford. Applied his ideas to economics as a form of social energetics. Involved in Labour politics and from the 1920s involved in Sociological Society and movements concerned with social credit and monetary reform.
Steiner, Rudolf Joseph Lorenz (1861- 1925) Educational reformer. Studied philosophy and science and influenced by Haeckel’s evolutionism. Active in Theosophy until 1910, when he formed the Anthroposophy Society. Educational ideas established the idea of a ‘Christian Community’. Involved in reserarch on organic agriculture in 1921. Author of The Threefold Commonwealth (Steiner 1919) and influenced the social ideas of Mairet and Mitrinović.
Stewart, Elsie Elizabeth (1875- 1962). [Lady Allardyce] Daughter of Victor Branford’s first wife. Married Adam Goodfellow in 1897. Subsequently married (in 1920 as his second wife) Sir William Allardyce (d. 1930), Governor of the Falkland Islands, Tasmania, and Newfoundland.
Stilwell, Arthur E. (1859- 1928). Christian scientist and believer in fairies who sealed his business deals with hymn singing. Through Guardian Trust he brought Amsterdam bankers into the finances of the Kansas City Southern Railway and formed a Dutch agricultural colony close to the railway line. His Dutch office was managed by Jan de Geoijen. Ousted by US financial associates in 1900 he developed a railway line to Topolobampo. In the 1890s he was a supporter of the Chautauqua circuit of speakers. Stilwell later wrote on the struggle for world peace (Stilwell 1911) and was involved in Andrew Carnegie’s scheme for a Peace Palace at the Hague.
Swinny, Shapland Hugh (1857- 1923) Born in Dublin. Joined Positivist Society immediately after graduating from Cambridge. Succeeded Beesley as President of the London Positivist Society and as editor of the Positivist Review in 1901. Active in support of Irish and Indian nationalism. Chairman of the Council of the Sociological Society 1907- 9.
Tagore, Rabindranath (1861- 1941) Bengali poet and intellectual. Won Nobel Prize for Literature 1913. Knighted 1915 but renounced this in 1919 in protest against British violence in India. With Leonard Elmhirst set up, in 1921, the Institute for Rural Reconstruction.
Talbott, William M. (1870- 1935) After a career in the US army became a director of Harriman National Bank and worked in Havana as President of the Cuban Telephone Company until 1915. Retired from the bank in 1922. See Fraser (2005).
Tansley, Arthur George (1871- 1955) Lecturer in botany at Cambridge. Founder of the British Ecological Society in 1913. Resigned 1923 to study with Freud, having pioneered the ‘new psychology’ of Freud and Jung (Tansley 1920). Professor of Botany at Oxford from 1927. Chairman of Nature Conservancy Council. Knighted 1950.
Tayler, (John) Lionel (1874- 1930). Known in his family as ‘John’, but publishing under the name J. Lionel Taylor. Attended University College School and qualified as Doctor 1900. Worked as independent author and lecturer. A progressive eugenist, supporting radical projects of social reconstruction. Minister of Unitarian Chapel, Newington Green in 1909 and then Minister in Lincoln. See Tayler (1931).
Thomson, (John) Arthur (1861- 1933) Lecturer in medicine and biology at Edinburgh University, 1886- 99. Professor of Natural History at Aberdeen, 1899- 1930. Close associate of Patrick Geddes in his biological work. Knighted 1930.
Underdown, Emanuel Maguire (born 1831). Involved with a number of Cuban railways from the 1890s, especially those such as Western Railway of Havana and the United Railways of Havana that had been acquired by an English syndicate headed by (Sir) Joseph White Todd and backed by Erlangers. Worked closely with Schroders.
Unwin, Sir Stanley (1885- 1968) Family ran Unwin Brothers, printers. Began career with uncle’s publishing firm T. Fisher Unwin. In 1914 took over the business of George Allen & Co., publishers to Ruskin, and, as George Allen and Unwin, became publisher to the Fabian Society and the London School of Economics. Later took over Williams and Norgate, original publishers for the Sociological Society and Le Play House. See Unwin (1960).
Unwin, Raymond (1863- 1940) Inspired by Ruskin and Morris, and a friend of Edward Carpenter, he formed a planning partnership with his cousin, and later brother- in- law, Barry Parker in 1896. Parker and Unwin were architects for Rowntree’s New Earswick, for Letchworth, and were central to the development of Hamstead Garden Suburb. Knighted 1932. See Miller (1992) and Jackson (1985)
van Horne, Sir William Cornelius (1843- 1915) General Manager of Canadian Pacific railway, financier of the Cuba Railroad.
van Oss, Salomon Frederick (‘Fred’) (1868- 1949) Dutch financial journalist in London and USA, specializing in railways. In 1893 opened stockbroking house of Van Oss and Co., at 15 Great Winchester Street. Returned to Netherlands 1902 and founded Van Oss and Co. as bankers at The Hague in 1903- 4. Early business associate of Victor Branford.
Villanueva, Benito (?- 1933) Argentine landowner and politician.
Vivian, Henry Harvey (1869- 1930) Carpenter and trades unionist who applied cooperativist principles to housing and became a pioneer of co- partnership housing. Lib- Lab MP for Birkenhead from 1906 to 1910.
Vorhaus, Louis (1868- 1954) Born in Austria and moved to New York. Lawyer specialising in film finance, appearing as advocate for Oscar Hammerstein. Lived at 165 E 80th Street. Vorhaus’s sister was married to Yale medical doctor Louis M. Gompertz, connected by kinship with the Hague banking firm of Wertheim and Gompertz. See American Jewish Year Book, 24, 1922- 3.
Wallop, Gerald Vernon (1898- 1984) Viscount Lymington, Earl of Portsmouth. Conservative MP for Basingstoke 1929- 34, with strong right wing views and ‘back to the land’ ideas. Involved with pro- Nazi English Array organization and New Pioneer magazine. With Rolf Gardiner formed Kinship in Husbandry, which became Soil Association. Inherited Earldom of Portsmouth 1943.
Wenley, Robert Mark (1861- 1929) Taught at St. Margaret’s College, Glasgow, Secretary to Glasgow University Extension Board, and taught on Geddes’s Summer Schools. Appointed Professor of Philosophy at Michigan University 1896. Supervisor of John Slaughter’s doctoral thesis. Host on Victor Branford’s lecture tour of US. Published on anarchism and the psychology of sleep.
Westlake, Ernest (1855- 1922). Son of Quakers Thomas and Hannah Westlake. Hannah died when Ernest was just 18 months old and requested that her sister, Agnes, look after Ernest. In 1863 Thomas married Agnes. In 1891 Ernest married Lucy Ann Rutter (d. 1901). General information on the Westlakes in Jean Westlake (2000) and Edgell (1992).
Westlake, Aubrey Thomas (1893- 1985). Son of Ernest Westlake. Doctor in London, in partnership with Alfred Salter (later Labour MP for Bermondsey West). Took over the running of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry on the death of his father. In 1938 he moved from London to live full- time at Sandy Balls, developing it as a commercial camping site and pursuing organic farming and herbal and alternative medicine. Aubrey’s daughter Jean still runs the estate as a camp site.
Wharrie, Mary Woodgate (1847- 1937) of Hampstead and of Warnham, Sussex. Daughter of Sir Henry Harben (1823- 1911), Chairman of the Prudential Assurance Company. Married Thomas Wharrie, architect and director of Prudential. They lived at 10 Eton Avenue, Hampstead, and at Warnham Lodge, Horsham in Surrey. Financed the move of Crosby Hall.
White, James Martin (1858- 1928) Born in New York, the son of James Farquhar White and his wife Elizabeth. In business as a jute merchant in Dundee. Family lived initially at Castle Huntly in Perthshire, where Martin’s eight siblings were born, but moved to Balruddery, a large baronial castle, in the late 1870s. MP for Forfarshire 1895- 6. Married in 1898 to Mary MacRae, a painter of watercolour landscapes, and the couple lived at 1 Cumberland Terrace, Regent’s Park. They had a daughter Joan and a son Oliver. Joan married Edinburgh investment manager Basil Ivory in 1928; they were divorced in 1950. Martin White, a persistent womaniser, was divorced in 1912, officially on the grounds of desertion by Mary who had refused to live under the roof of any house owned by him. There appears to have been a long- term breakdown of the relationship since 1906. Mary carried on painting under the name Mary MacRae White, living in Sussex but also teaching art in Greenwich village, New York, around 1919. A year after the divorce, White married American widow Alice (aka Priscilla) Frost at Foddery near Dingwall. Alice Frost, neé Leigh, had a daughter Gertrude, later Gertrude Butler, from her previous marriage into the family associated with the tobacco firm of Lambert and Butler.
Whitehouse, John Howard (1873- 1955). Worked as an accountant and then, in 1894, joined Cadbury’s in Birmingham, being succeeded by Edward McGegan from the Outlook Tower. Secretary to the Carnegie Trust in Dunfermline. Succeeded Tom Marr at the Ancoats Settlement. Liberal MP 1910- 18. Founded Bembridge School in 1918. Author of numerous books on Ruskin.
Whyte, Alexander (1837–1921) Free Church minister and ecumenical thinker.
Whyte, Jane Elizabeth (1857–1944) Born Jane Barbour. Married to Alexander Whyte and vice- president of the Eager Heart Society.
Wilson, Mona (1872- 1954) Studied at Newnham College, Cambridge. Became Secretary to Women’s Trade Union League. Carried out the 1902 survey of West Ham and, with Mary Walker, the 1904 survey of Dundee. Appointed to National Insurance Commission in 1911, specialising in policy issues relating to women. Retired in 1919 and lived in Wiltshire with historian G. M. Young.
Wood, Joseph (1843- ?) Congregational minister at King’s Lynn and Leicester (1869- 84), and then became Unitarian minister at Old Meeting, Birmingham. Supported the activities of the Secular Societies and probable author of Wealth and Commonwealth (Wood 1895), published in a sewries to which Robert Blachford, William Morris, Albion Small, and others contributed. See Rimmington (2005) and Gould (1900).
Wyld, [William Edward] Norman (1868- 1936). Son of George Wyld MD. Lectured in biology and field geology at Geddes’s Edinburgh Summer Schools. London board member of West Indies Cooperative Union. An investment agent in Oxford, becoming University Extension Secretary at Liverpool University and later Secretary of the Industrial Institute.
Younghusband, Sir Francis (1863- 1942) Military officer and explorer who became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Transferred to Indian Political Service as British agent. Knighted 1904 and 1917. A New Age spiritualist who believed in extra- terrestrial spirits and took a great interest in ecumenical religion. Became President of the Sociological Society in 1924.
Zueblin, Charles (1866- 1924) Trained as a Minister and set up Northwestern University settlement house in Chicago in 1893. Involved in the Chautauqua movement and taught on some of Geddes’s Edinburgh Summer Schools. Became Professor of Sociology at Chicago University, teaching in the Extension School from 1892- 1908. Later worked in Boston, writing on urbanism and municipal affairs.