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Gildas

2025-10-28T15:19:22Z

158.41.78.58: /* Birthplace */ wikilink

{{Short description|British monk, writer and saint (c. 500 – c. 570)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific-prefix = Saint
|name=Gildas
|birth_date={{Circa|450–500}}
|death_date=570 (traditional)
|feast_day=29 January
|venerated_in= [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<ref>February 11 / January 29. https://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/htc/orthodox-calendar/</ref> [[Roman Catholic Church]] [[Anglicanism|Anglican Communion]]
|image= Statue St-Gildas 07082.jpg
|imagesize= 250px
|caption= Statue of Saint Gildas near the village of [[Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys]] (France).
|birth_place=[[Kingdom of Strathclyde]]
|death_place=[[Rhuys]], Brittany
|titles=[[Abbot]]
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=Monk holding a [[Celts|Celtic]] bell or writing in a book
|patronage=[[Welsh people|Welsh]] historians; [[Bell (instrument)|bell]] founders
|major_shrine=[[Glastonbury Abbey]] (destroyed) [[Rhuys]] Church
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}

'''Gildas''' (English pronunciation: {{IPAc-en|'|g|I|l|d|ə|s}}, [[Breton language|Breton]]: ''Gweltaz''; {{Circa|450/500|570}}){{efn|name=dates|The composition of De excidio has been dated to between 479 and 484 by [[Nick Higham (historian)|Nick Higham]],<ref name=highami>Higham. English Conquest: Gildas and Britain in the fifth century. p. i and p. 141</ref> and between 515 and 530 by Thomas D. Sullivan.<ref name=sullivan171>Sullivan. De excidio of Gildas: its authenticity and date. p. 171</ref> This gives a birth date for Gildas around the middle of the fifth century.<ref name=ondb>Kerlouégan, Gildas</ref> However, [[David Dumville]] places it later at c. 500.<ref name=dumville1>Dumville. The chronology of De Excidio Britanniae pp. 61–84</ref>}}{{efn|name=date2|The date of Gildas death is taken from the ''[[Annales Cambriae]]'', this is regarded by François Kerlouégan "as, at best, traditional".<ref name=ondb/>}} — also known as '''Gildas Badonicus''', '''Gildas fab Caw''' (in [[Middle Welsh]] texts and antiquarian works) and '''''Gildas Sapiens''''' (Gildas the Wise) — was a 6th-century [[Britons (historic)|British]] monk best known for his religious [[polemic]] {{Lang|la|[[De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae]]}}, which recounts the history of the Britons before and during [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|the coming of the Saxons]]. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the [[British Isles]] during the [[Sub-Roman Britain|sub-Roman period]], and was renowned for his Biblical knowledge and literary style. In his later life, he emigrated to [[Brittany]], where he founded a monastery known as [[Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys]].

==Hagiography==

===Birthplace===
Differing versions of the ''Life of Saint Gildas'' exist, but both agree that he was born at a place called ''Arecluta'' which is described by the author as taking its name from a "certain river called the Clut, by which that district is, for the most part, watered."<ref name="Breeze">{{cite journal |last1=Breeze |first1=Andrew |title=Where was Gildas born? |journal=Northern History |date=2008 |volume=XLV |issue=2 |pages=347–349 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/174587008X322599 |access-date=28 December 2024}}</ref> This was long taken by historians to mean that Gildas was born in what is now [[Scotland]] on the banks of the [[River Clyde]].<ref name="Breeze" />

He is now thought by some historians to have his origins farther south.<ref>Kerlouégan, "Gildas"; Williams, "Gildas"</ref> Their belief is that his writing suggests a lack of familiarity with the geography of [[Kingdom of Strathclyde|Strathclyde]], but is more accurate with regards to southern Britain.<ref name="Breeze" /> Furthermore, Gildas shows a familiarity with classical Latin texts that historians such as [[Nick Higham (historian)|Nick Higham]] and [[E. A. Thompson|E.A. Thompson]] view as more likely to have been acquired further south, within the bounds of former [[Roman Britain]].<ref name="Breeze" /> Thompson suggested [[Chester]] as a possible birthplace, while the linguist [[Andrew Breeze]] suggests [[Arclid]], near [[Sandbach]] in [[Cheshire]], based on its plausible derivation from ''Arecluta''.<ref name="Breeze" />

===Life===
In his own work, he claims to have been born the same year as the [[Battle of Mount Badon]]. He was educated at a monastic centre, the College of St. Illtud, where he chose to forsake his royal heritage and embrace monasticism. He became a renowned teacher, converting many to Christianity and founding numerous churches and monasteries throughout Britain and Ireland. He is thought to have made a pilgrimage to Rome before emigrating to Brittany, where he took on the life of a [[hermit]]. However, his life of solitude was short-lived, and pupils soon sought him out and begged him to teach them. He eventually founded a monastery for these students at [[Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys]] in [[Brittany]], where he wrote ''De Excidio Britanniae,'' criticising British rulers and exhorting them to put off their sins and embrace true Christian faith. He is thought to have died at Rhuys and was buried there.

[[Image:St Gildas Fontaine 0708E.jpg|thumb|The spring of St Gildas in [[Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys]], Morbihan]]

===Biographies===
The First ''Life'' of Gildas was written in the 9th century by an unnamed monk at the monastery which Gildas founded in [[Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys|Rhuys]], Brittany.<ref name="The Life of Gildas by the Monk of Ruys">{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Hugh|title=The Life of Gildas by the Monk of Ruys|url=http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/gildas07.html|work=Two Lives of Gildas by a monk of Ruys and Caradoc of Llancarfan|access-date=18 February 2014}}</ref> According to this tradition, Gildas is the son of [[Caw of Strathclyde|Caunus]], king of [[Alt Clud]] in the ''[[Hen Ogledd]]'', the [[Brythonic languages|Brythonic]]-speaking region of northern Britain. He had four brothers; his brother Cuillum ascended to the throne on the death of his father, and the rest became monks. Gildas was sent as a child to the College of St. [[Illtud]] in [[Glamorgan]], under the care of St [[Illtud]], and was a companion of St [[Samson of Dol]] and St [[Paul Aurelian]]. His master Illtud loved him tenderly and taught him with special zeal. He was supposed to be educated in liberal arts and divine scripture, but elected to study only holy doctrine, and to forsake his noble birth in favour of a religious life.

After completing his studies under Illtud, Gildas went to Ireland where he was ordained as a priest. He returned to his native lands in northern Britain where he acted as a missionary, preaching to the pagan people and converting many of them to [[Christianity]]. He was then asked by Ainmericus, high king of Ireland ([[Ainmuire mac Sétnai]], 566–569), to restore order to the church in Ireland, which had altogether lost the Christian faith. Gildas obeyed the king's summons and travelled all over the island, converting the inhabitants, building churches, and establishing monasteries. He then travelled to Rome and Ravenna where he performed many miracles, including slaying a dragon while in Rome. Intending to return to Britain, he instead settled on the Isle of [[Houat]] off [[Brittany]] where he led a solitary, austere life. At around this time, he also preached to [[Saint Non|Nonnita (Non)]], the mother of [[Saint David]], while she was pregnant with the saint.<ref name=cna>{{Cite web |url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=131 |title="Gildas the Wise", Catholic News Agency |access-date=27 January 2013 |archive-date=23 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223040759/http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=131 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was eventually sought out by those who wished to study under him, and was entreated to establish a monastery in Brittany, which he did at a place now known as [[Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys]].

The second "Life" of Gildas was written by [[Caradoc of Llancarfan]], a friend of [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] and his [[Anglo-Normans|Norman]] patrons.<ref name="The Life of Gildas by Caradoc of Llancarfan ca. 1130-1150">{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Hugh|title=The Life of Gildas by Caradoc of Llancarfan ca. 1130–1150|url=http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/gildas06.html|work=Two Lives of Gildas by a monk of Ruys and Caradoc of Llancarfan|access-date=18 February 2014}}</ref> This is an entirely fictional account intended to associate Gildas with Glastonbury Abbey.<ref name=ondb/> It also associates him with [[King Arthur]]. Arthur kills Gildas's brother [[Hueil mab Caw|Hueil]], which causes enmity between them for a time. Hueil's enmity with Arthur is also mentioned in the Welsh prose tale ''[[Culhwch and Olwen]]'', written around 1100. A tradition in north Wales places Hueil's execution at [[Ruthin]], and the supposed execution stone, [[Maen Huail]], is preserved in the town square.<ref name=coflein>{{Watprn|coflein|306840|title=Maen Huail, St Peter's Square, Ruthin}}</ref> The Llancarfan life also contains the earliest surviving appearance of the abduction of the Guinevere episode, common in later Arthurian literature. Gildas secures the release of Guinevere after she had been abducted by Melvas, king of the "Summer Country", preventing war between him and Arthur.<ref name=Lambdin>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6LBFCZY-ml8C&dq=Gildas&pg=PA1 Lambdin, Laura C. and Lambdin, Robert T., ''Arthurian Writers: A Biographical Encyclopedia'', ABC-CLIO, 2008, p. 2]{{ISBN|9780313346828}}</ref>

==''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae''==
{{Main|De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae}}
Gildas is best known for his [[polemic]] {{Lang|la|[[De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae]]}}, which recounts the sub-Roman history of Britain, and which is the only substantial source for history of this period written by a near-contemporary, although it is not intended to be an objective chronicle.<ref name="Lambdin" />

The work is a sermon in three parts condemning the acts of his contemporaries, both secular and religious.<ref name=butler>[http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/GILDAS.HTM Butler, Rev. Alban, "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints", Vol. I, D. & J. Sadlier, & Company, 1864]</ref> The first part consists of Gildas' explanation for his work and a brief narrative of [[Roman Britain]] from its conquest under the [[Roman Empire|Principate]] to Gildas' time. He describes the doings of the Romans and the [[Groans of the Britons]], in which the Britons make one last request for military aid from the departed Roman military. He excoriates his fellow Britons for their sins, while at the same time lauding heroes such as [[Ambrosius Aurelianus]], whom he is the first to describe as a leader of the resistance to the [[Saxons#Saxons in Britain|Saxons]]. He mentions the victory at the [[Battle of Mons Badonicus]], a feat attributed to [[King Arthur]] in later texts, though Gildas does not mention who led the battle.

Part two consists of a condemnation of five British kings, [[Constantine (Briton)|Constantine]], [[Aurelius Conanus]], [[Vortiporius]], [[Cuneglasus]], and [[Maelgwn Gwynedd|Maelgwn]]. As it is the only contemporary information about them, it is of particular interest to scholars of British history. Part three is a similar attack on the clergy of the time.

[[David Dumville]] has severely criticised Mommsen's critical edition of 1894, but it is still preferred by the scholar [[Michael Winterbottom]] as the basis for his translation pending a new analysis.<ref>{{cite book|first =Theodor|last=Mommsen|title=Gildae sapietis de excidio et conquestu Britanniae ac flebili castigatione in reges principes et sacerdotes|year=1894|location=Berlin|publisher=publisher not shown|oclc=1119888349}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=History|first=David|last=Dumville|title=Sub-Roman Britain:History and Legend|year=1977|volume=62|number=205|pages=183-184}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-link=Michael Winterbottom (academic)|editor-last=Winterbottom|editor-first= Michael|year=1978|title=Gildas: The Ruin of Britain and Other Documents|page=12|publisher= Phillimore & Co |location= Chichester}}</ref>

''De Excidio'' was usually dated to the 540s, but the historian [[Guy Halsall]] inclines to an "early Gildas" c. 490.<ref>{{cite book|first=Guy|last=Halsall|author-link=Guy Halsall|title=Worlds of Arthur: Facts & Fictions of the Dark Ages|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|year=2013|page=54|isbn=978-0-19-870084-5}}</ref> Cambridge historian Karen George offered a date range of c. 510–530 AD.<ref>George, Karen, Gildas's De excidio Britonum and the early British church, Studies in Celtic History 26, Boydell Press, 2009, p. 125.</ref> Gildas states that he was 44 when he wrote the work.<ref>Dark, p. 36</ref>

==Veneration==
Gildas' [[relics]] were venerated in the abbey which he founded in Rhuys, until the 10th century, when they were removed to [[Berry, France|Berry]]. In the 18th century, they were said to be moved to the cathedral at [[Vannes]] and then hidden during the [[French Revolution]]. The various relics survived the revolution and have all since been returned to [[Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys]] where they are visible at various times of the year at a dedicated "treasury" in the village. The body of Saint Gildas (minus the pieces incorporated into various reliquaries) is buried behind the altar in the church of Saint Gildas de Rhuys.<ref name="pourmenadenn-e-ruiz.fr tresor">{{Cite web | url=http://pourmenadenn-e-ruiz.fr/tresor.php | title=Pourmenadenn-e-ruiz - Promenade a Rhuys - Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys - l'Eglise - le Trésor}}</ref>

The gold and silver covered relics of Saint Gildas include:

* A reliquary head containing parts of the saint's skull<ref name="pourmenadenn-e-ruiz.fr tresor"/>
* An arm reliquary containing bone pieces, topped with a blessing hand<ref name="pourmenadenn-e-ruiz.fr tresor"/>
* A reliquary femur and knee<ref name="pourmenadenn-e-ruiz.fr tresor"/>

The embroidered [[mitre]] supposedly worn by Gildas is also kept with these relics.<ref name="pourmenadenn-e-ruiz.fr tresor"/> Gildas is the patron saint of several churches and monasteries in Brittany, and his feast day is celebrated on 29 January.

===Further traditions===
Gildas is credited with a [[hymn]] called the ''Lorica'', or ''Breastplate'', a prayer for deliverance from [[evil]], which contains specimens of [[Hiberno-Latin]]. A proverb is also attributed to ''Gildas mab y Gaw'' in the ''Englynion y Clyweid'' in Llanstephan MS. 27.

In ''[[Bonedd y Saint]]'', Gildas is recorded as having three sons and a daughter. Gwynnog ap Gildas and Noethon ap Gildas are named in the earliest tracts, together with their sister Dolgar. Another son, Tydech, is named in a later document. [[Iolo Morganwg]] adds Saint [[Cenydd]] to the list.

The scholar [[David Dumville]] suggests that Gildas was the teacher of [[Finnian of Moville]], who in turn was the teacher of St [[Columba]] of [[Iona]].

== See also ==
* [[Gildas the Albanian]]
* [[Procopius]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite book|last=Dark |first=Ken |title= Britain and the End of the Roman Empire|publisher=Tempus Publishing |location=Stroud, UK|year=2000|isbn=978 0 7524 2532 0}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Dumville |first=David N. |author-link= David Dumville|editor1-last=Dumville |editor1-first= David|editor2-last=Lapidge|editor2-first=Michael|encyclopedia= Gildas: New Approaches|title= The Chronology of De Excidio Britanniae, Book 1 |year=1984 |publisher=Boydell Press |location=Martlesham|isbn=978-0-85115-403-9 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Higham |first=N. J. | author-link=N. J. Higham|year=1994 |title=English Conquest: Gildas and Britain in the fifth century |publisher=Manchester United Press |isbn=978-0-7190-4080-1 |location=Manchester}}
*{{cite encyclopedia |first=François|last = Kerlouégan| publisher = Oxford University Press | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | title= Gildas [St Gildas] (fl. 5th–6th cent.)| year = 2007 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10718?docPos=1| access-date= 14 March 2015|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/10718 | url-access= subscription}} {{ODNBsub}}
* {{Cite book|first=Thomas D. | last=Sullivan|title=De excidio of Gildas: its authenticity and date|year=1978|publisher=Brill|location=New York|isbn=978-90-04-05793-7}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|author-link=Ann Williams (historian)|last=Williams|first= Ann|title=Gildas author fl. mid-sixth century|year=1991|editor-first=Ann|editor-last= Williams|editor2-first= Alfred P. |editor2-last=Smyth|editor3-first= D. P.|editor3-last= Kirby |encyclopedia=A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain|publisher= Seaby|isbn=978-1-85264-047-7}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
* Luca Larpi, ''Prolegomena to a New Edition of Gildas Sapiens «De Excidio Britanniae»'', Firenze, Sismel – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2012 ([[:it:Società internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo latino]])
* Miller, Molly. "Bede's use of Gildas." ''English Historical Review'' (1975): 241–261. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/566923in JSTOR]

==External links==
{{commons category|Saint Gildas}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{PASE|93350|Gildas 1}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=759}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* {{OL author|1628262A}}
* {{Librivox author |id=16833}}
*[http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/gildas07.html ''The Life of Gildas''] by A Monk of Rhuys.
*[http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/gildas06.html ''The Life of Gildas''] by [[Caradoc of Llancarfan]].
*[http://www.bartleby.com/211/0501.html Gildas and ''The History of the Britons''] commentary from ''[[The Cambridge History of English and American Literature]]'', Volume 1, 1907–21.
*[http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/arthist/vortigernquotesgil.htm Vortigernstudies: Gildas (sources)]
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Gildas}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gildas}}
[[Category:400s births]]
[[Category:500s births]]
[[Category:570 deaths]]
[[Category:6th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:6th-century historians]]
[[Category:Arthurian characters]]
[[Category:Arthurian legend]]
[[Category:Medieval Welsh literature]]
[[Category:Northern Brythonic saints]]
[[Category:Southwestern Brythonic saints]]
[[Category:Sub-Roman writers]]
[[Category:Medieval Welsh saints]]
[[Category:Medieval Breton saints]]
[[Category:6th-century Welsh people]]
[[Category:Last of the Romans]]
[[Category:6th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:6th-century Breton people]]

Labour Representation League

2025-10-13T14:58:15Z

158.41.78.58: en-dashes, template ref

{{about|the British labour group|the Canadian political party|Alberta Labor Representation League}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

The '''Labour Representation League''' ('''LRL'''), organised in November 1869, was a forerunner of the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. Its original purpose was to [[voter registration|register]] the [[working class]] to vote, and get workers into [[Parliament (UK)|Parliament]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Owen |first1=James |title=Labour and the Caucus: Working-class Radicalism and Organised Liberalism in England, 1868–88 |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9781846319440 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QT5nDAAAQBAJ |accessdate=31 August 2018 |language=en}}</ref> It had limited power, described by [[Eugenio Biagini]] as being "very weak and quite ineffective",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Biagini |first1=Eugenio F. |title=Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform: Popular Liberalism in the Age of Gladstone, 1860–1880 |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521548861 |page=340 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XG7YIj_97gkC |accessdate=31 August 2018 |language=en}}</ref> and was never intended to become a full [[political party]]. However, it played a role in supporting the election of [[Lib-Lab]] MPs. The first secretary was [[Cooperative]] Society activist and trade unionist, [[Lloyd Jones (socialist)|Lloyd Jones]].<ref>[[Zygmunt Bauman|Bauman, Zygmunt]], Between Class and Elite: The Evolution British Labour Movement, [[Manchester University Press]], 1972, p.108</ref>

In 1874, the League won two parliamentary seats.<ref name="bbc-2000"/>

In 1886, the [[Trades Union Congress|TUC]] created the [[Labour Electoral Association]] to replace the League; in turn, this led to the creation of the Labour Party.<ref name="bbc-2000"/>

==Secretaries==
* 1869: [[Lloyd Jones (socialist)|Lloyd Jones]]
* 1873: [[Henry Broadhurst]]
* 1880: [[John Hales (trade unionist)|John Hales]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="bbc-2000">{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2000/labour_centenary/646447.stm |title=Labour's conflict of interest |first=Norman |last=Tebbit |author-link=Norman Tebbit |work=BBC News |date=22 February 2000 |access-date=13 October 2025 }}</ref>
}}

==External links==
*[http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/?page_id=187 "Formation of the Labour Party"] by Jim Mortimer.

[[Category:History of the Labour Party (UK)]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1869]]
[[Category:1869 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Political organisations based in the United Kingdom]]

{{UK-org-stub}}
{{UK-poli-stub}}

Tell England

2025-09-22T18:37:37Z

158.41.78.58: /* Religion */ wikilinks

{{Short description|1922 novel by Ernest Raymond}}
{{For|the film adaptation|Tell England (film)}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
[[File:TellEngland.jpg|thumb|Early edition]]
'''''Tell England: A Study in a Generation''''' is a novel written by [[Ernest Raymond]] and published in February 1922 in the United Kingdom. Its themes are the [[First World War]] and the young men sent to fight in it.

The book became a bestseller, some 300,000 copies being sold by the end of 1939.{{sfn|Raymond|1969|p=69}} Forty editions were printed by [[Cassell (publisher)|Cassell]] between 1922 and 1969, prior to the first impression printed by [[Corgi (publisher)|Corgi]] in 1973.{{sfn|Raymond|1973}} A [[Tell England (film)|film adaptation]] of the same title was released in 1931.

==Plot summary==
Following a short prologue, the body of the novel is divided into two halves (or "books"), both narrated by Rupert Ray. The first book tells the story of his and his friends' progress through school; while the second deals with the experiences of (specifically) Ray and his friend Edgar Doe during the war.

===Prologue===
The prologue is written in the voice of Padre Monty, an [[army chaplain]] who is a character from Book II. He writes affectionately and retrospectively of the three boys Rupert Ray, Edgar Doe and Archibald Pennybet as they were in childhood. The inference is that he has acquired this information from the boys' mothers, given that he first meets Ray and Doe in the Great War.

===Book I: "Five gay years of school"===
The first book contains many of the elements of the classic [[school story]], describing the lives of Rupert Ray and his friends as they progress through their [[public school (United Kingdom)|public school]], Kensingstowe, and the pranks they play on the masters. Raymond spends much of the novel setting up the characters and their relationships in this way.

Rupert himself is a shy boy, lacking in courage and in need of moral guidance in the absence of a father figure. Edgar Doe, nicknamed the "Grey Doe", is equally shy, but is more sensitive and inclined to fall in love with older men such as their strict master Radley. Both boys are heavily influenced by the older Archibald "Penny" Pennybet, who enjoys wielding youthful power over others by stirring up acts of mischief. Rupert's school career includes an ongoing feud with his [[housemaster]] (known as "Carpet Slippers"), receiving beatings and punishments, learning to do what is right, and – his greatest hour – winning the school relay swimming race, only to be disqualified, but then made a prefect on account of his maturity in dealing with the disappointment. Radley is a heavy influence in all this, offering Rupert advice and encouragement to make the right choices. In one episode, the entire class has been cheating in Carpet Slippers' history lessons, only for Rupert to admit his guilt by recording a mark of zero after Radley's prompting. The book repeatedly makes dark suggestions as to the boys' future after school. For example, at the end of a triumphant [[cricket]] match the masters at Kensingstowe consider what England will do with the young men they are moulding. Radley himself is a weary, beaten figure when he learns that his favourite pupils, Ray and Doe, are off to war.

===Book II: "And the rest – war"===
When the war breaks out it is treated with much excitement, and the boys leave school to join the army as officers. Raymond's enthusiastic portrayal represents an attitude widespread at the time. It is encapsulated in a speech by the boys' new commanding officer, the Colonel:

{{blockquote|Eighteen by Jove! You've timed your lives wonderfully, my boys. To be eighteen in 1914 is to be the best thing in England. England's wealth used to consist in other things. Nowadays you boys are the richest thing she's got. She's solvent with you, and bankrupt without you. Eighteen confound it! It's a virtue to be your age, just as it's a crime to be mine.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=167–8}}}}

Ray and Doe are posted to [[Battle of Gallipoli|Gallipoli]], and despite Ray's pain at leaving his mother, and his clear worry that he will never see her again, they are still optimistic and eager to join the fight. The news that Pennybet has been killed at [[Battle of Neuve Chapelle|Neuve Chapelle]] on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]], and that three of their schoolmates (their house captain, their school's most promising cricketer, and Rupert's relay-team captain) have all died in April in Gallipoli dampens their spirits.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=174–7}} There is a bitter irony in this passage, for all three possessed promising lives that were snuffed out the moment they landed on the beaches.

In the East, the boys spend months in a camp on the island of [[Lemnos]] waiting for any action, but are finally sent to [[Cape Helles]] on the Gallipoli peninsula, where they find themselves up against "Asiatic Annie", a 7-mile ranging Turkish gun, and another well-placed gun that kills many of their friends. Doe accepts a promotion to Bombing Officer with characteristic enthusiasm. Ray is promoted to Captain. They are both junior subalterns, the rank that suffered the greatest losses in the Great War, owing to their courage and visibility as leaders of the front line. As the Germans break through Serbia, and British and French troops at Gallipoli begin to withdraw, Doe and Ray's unit is ordered to launch an attack as a diversion. Doe breaks over the top of the line and is shot in the shoulder. He falls, but manages to get up and blow up the offending Turkish gun. He is then shot four more times in the waist. Padre Monty rushes out to bring him out of [[no man's land]].{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=290–2}} Doe subsequently dies, but not before Ray has a tearful final farewell with his best friend.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=295–7}}

When leaving Gallipoli, Ray is charged by Padre Monty to tell England about what has happened. "You must write a book and tell 'em, Rupert, about the dead schoolboys of your generation."{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=314}}

The end of the novel is written from a trench on the Western Front in 1918, just as the Allies are about to defeat Germany and end the Great War. Rupert intimates that he has finished his story in time, but it is not revealed whether he survives this final passage of war. We are asked to believe that he is happy because he has lived, experienced beauty, known the purest of friendships and had twenty glorious years.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=319–20}} The book ends on that note.

==Title==
The novel's title is taken from an epitaph by [[Fydell Edmund Garrett|Edmund Garrett]] that is inscribed on the grave of one of Doe and Ray's friends,{{efn|name="Edmund Garrett"}} and is presumably also inscribed on Doe's, given that he had asked Ray to do so.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=273}} It reads:
{{quote|<poem>
Tell England, ye who pass this monument,
We died for her, and here we rest content.</poem>}}

==Dedication==
[[File:Corbet-wyrdlight-838846.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Commonwealth War Graves Commission|CWGC]] headstone for G. F. F. Corbet at the foot of the Corbet family plot in [[Brookwood Cemetery]]]]
The novel is dedicated "to the memory of REGINALD VINCENT CAMPBELL CORBET who fell, while a boy, in the East and GEORGE FREDERICK FRANCIS CORBET who passed, while a boy, in the West".{{sfn|Raymond|1973}} The author, Ernest Raymond, named his narrator Rupert Ray in a thinly disguised reference to himself. It has been speculated, therefore, that the character Edgar Doe, who dies in Gallipoli (the East), is based on Reginald Corbet, while the character Archibald Pennybet, who dies on the Western Front, is based on George Corbet.{{cn|date=November 2021}}

==Themes==
===Religion===
A major theme of the novel is religious redemption, and in the second half of the book Padre Monty becomes to Ray and Doe what Radley was at Kensingtowe. He teaches them about the communion and about confession, and achieves the unlikely feat of drawing confessions from both boys. Padre Monty views the pair as his greatest triumph, and is happy to be sending them out to battle "white" and pure.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=213, 284–5}} Still, both boys have their doubts about the approaching war as their ship draws nearer to Gallipoli. Doe is the enthusiast, with high aspirations but a sensitive heart. Ray is slightly heavier of spirits, but Padre Monty encourages him to seek beauty in everything.

When first informed that their battalion is being posted to the Gallipoli front, the Colonel explicitly paints the campaign in terms of a [[Crusades|crusade]]:

{{blockquote|Now boys, follow me through this. You're not over-religious, I expect, but you're Christians before you're Moslems, and your hands should fly to your swords when I say the Gallipoli campaign is a New Crusade. You're going out to force a passage through the [[Dardanelles]] to [[Constantinople]]. And Constantinople is a sacred city. It's the only ancient city purely Christian in its origin, having been built by the first Christian Emperor in honour of the Blessed Virgin. Which brings us to the noblest idea of all. In their fight to wrest this city from the Turk, the three great divisions of the Church are united once more. The great Roman branch is represented by the soldiers and ships of France: the great Eastern Orthodox branch by the Russians, who are behind the fight: the great Anglican branch by the British, who can be proud to have started the movement, and to be leading it. Thus Christendom United fights for Constantinople, under the leadership of the British, whose flag is made up of the crosses of the saints. The army opposing the Christians fights under the crescent of Islam. 
It's the Cross against the Crescent again, my lads. By Jove, it's splendid, perfectly splendid! And an English cross, too!{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=180}}}}

===Male friendship and homoeroticism===
There is an underlying homoerotic flavour to much of the novel – especially Book I – with vivid descriptions of boys as magnificent creatures, God's highest form of creation and Britain's greatest accomplishment. Ray writes of the master, Radley:

{{blockquote|I know now that his feeling for all the boys, as he gazed down upon them from his splendid height, was love – a strong, active love. We were young, human things, of soft features gradually becoming firmer as of shallow characters gradually deepening. And he longed to be in it all – at work in the deepening. We were his hobby. I have met many such lovers of youth. Indeed, I think this is a book about them.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=92}}}}

A great part of the novel is a romantic ode to the friendship between Ray and Doe. Rupert's love for Edgar is painted in classical hues as equivalent to that of [[Orestes]] who loved [[Pylades]].{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=107}} The reader never feels that Ray's feelings for Doe are sexual; but there are intimations in Doe's unwillingness to confess to Padre Monty, and his admission that he has done "everything", that he may himself be homosexual.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=117, 211–13}} At one point, the 13-year-old Doe admits: "Do you know, I really think I like Radley better than anyone else in the world. I simply loved being whacked by him."{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=37}} Three years later, he enters into an enigmatically close friendship with another boy, Freedham. Pennybet attempts to explain this relationship to Ray: "When you're my age, Rupert, ... you'll know that there are such things as degenerates and decadents. Freedham is one. And very soon Doe will be another."{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=106}} Later, Doe confesses to having got drunk and taken drugs with Freedham, adding: "There are not many things we haven't done together."{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=116–7}} The adult Doe is described by Ray as being "as graceful as a girl and as sinuous as a serpent".{{sfn|Raymond|1922|p=228}}

One of the final messages in the book is given by Padre Monty to Rupert Ray as a means of consoling him to Edgar's death. He says that Rupert and Edgar's friendship is more perfect ''because'' of Edgar's death. Had they simply been school friends who went their separate ways, they would eventually have lost trace of one another. Instead, Edgar will forever be inscribed upon Ray's memory as the war held them in deepening intimacy until the end.{{sfn|Raymond|1922|pp=299–300}}

Raymond later said that when he re-read the novel in the late 1960s, he was "astonished by its latent homosexuality".{{sfn|Parker|1987|p=114}}

==Publication history==
The book was originally published by [[Cassell (publisher)|Cassell and Company]]. Forty editions were printed by Cassell between 1922 and 1969, prior to the first impression printed by [[Corgi (publisher)|Corgi]] in 1973.{{sfn|Raymond|1973}} It was most recently reprinted in 2005, when it was republished by IndyPublish.com ({{ISBN|1-4219-4612-2}}). Raymond returned to the theme of Gallipoli and male friendship in his 1958 novel ''[[The Quiet Shore]]''.

==Reception==
The novel received mixed reviews when first published. [[Hannen Swaffer]], writing in the ''[[The Graphic|Daily Graphic]]'', considered it "a book of penetrating analysis, a volume that illumines the souls of thousands ... a book that will be read proudly wherever English people live ... a book which will live as long as our spoken tongue".{{sfn|Raymond|1968|p=184}} In contrast, the ''[[London Evening Standard|Evening Standard]]'' found it "laughable – when it is not revolting by reason of the sentimentality with which the autobiography of Rupert Ray is sticky from cover to cover".{{sfn|Raymond|1968|p=183}} [[Rose Macaulay]], writing in the ''[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]'', thought it "apparently by a rather illiterate and commonplace sentimentalist", and considered that the book had "no beauty, and its silliness and bad taste are not the work of a writer".{{sfn|Raymond|1968|pp=182–3}}{{sfn|Madigan|2011|p=19}} [[S. P. B. Mais]] thought it "[a] quite unreadable novel about public school life and the war";{{sfn|Raymond|1968|p=183}} while [[Francis Birrell]] judged it "the most nauseating book to have come out of the war".{{sfn|Raymond|1968|p=184}}

The book proved extremely popular with readers, and some 300,000 copies had been sold by the end of 1939.{{sfn|Raymond|1969|p=69}}{{sfn|Macleod|2004|p=159}} A [[Tell England (film)|film adaptation]] (of the same title) was released in 1931.

Among more recent commentators, Samuel Hynes in 1990 found the novel imbued with a "spirit of [[Rupert Brooke|Brookeish]], schoolboy patriotism".{{sfn|Hynes|2011|p=481}} Hugh Cecil in 1995 considered that Raymond's account "of golden youth going through what he innocently, but appropriately, called 'Five Gay Years at School' before meeting their ends in a state of moral purity at Gallipoli, seems now absurd".{{sfn|Cecil|1995|p=5}} Jenny Macleod in 2004 thought that the book "now seems chauvinistic and bombastic".{{sfn|Macleod|2004|p=159}} Edward Madigan in 2011 found it "extremely sentimental", adding that it was "difficult to take the deliriously impressionable protagonists seriously".{{sfn|Madigan|2011|p=19}}

==Notes==
{{notelist|refs=
{{efn|name="Edmund Garrett"|[[Fydell Edmund Garrett|Edmund Garrett]] (1865–1907) wrote an epitaph inspired by the famous [[Battle of Thermopylae#Epitaph of Simonides|epitaph of Simonides]] at Thermopylae:{{sfn|Vandiver|2010|p=lxii}}
{{quote|<poem>
Tell England, ye who pass this monument,
We, who died serving her, rest here content.{{sfn|Jebb|1907|p=423}}</poem>}}
It is to be found engraved on all the obelisks at [[Wagon Hill Cemetery Monument|Wagon Hill Cemetery]] and at other battlefield monuments, surmounting the graves of officers and troopers in the [[Imperial Light Horse]] who fell during the [[Second Boer War]]. It also appears on some other Boer War graves.{{sfn|Vandiver|2010|p=lxii}}{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=186}}{{sfn|Gibson|1937|p=203}} In the immediate decades after the Boer War it was well known and it was the inspiration for the title of Raymond's book and the slightly differently worded epitaph contained within its covers.{{sfn|Vandiver|2010|p=lxiii}}{{sfn|Hynes|2011|pp=481–482}}}}
}}

===References===
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |first=Hugh |last=Cecil |title=The Flower of Battle: British fiction writers of the First World War |publisher=Secker & Warburg |place=London |year=1995 |isbn=0-436-202905 }}
*{{citation |last=Cook |first=Edward Tyas |authorlink=Edward Tyas Cook |year=2013 |orig-date=1909 |title=Edmund Garrett: A Memoir |location=London |publisher=Forgotten Books |page=[http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Edmund_Garrett_1000522691/195 186]}}
*{{citation|last=Gibson |first=George Fleming |year=1937 |title=The Story of the Imperial Light Horse in the South African War, 1899–1902 |publisher=G. D. & Co. |place=Johannesburg |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cZ4NAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Imperial+light+horse%22+famous+epitaph 203]}}
*{{citation |last=Hynes |first=Samuel |authorlink=Samuel Hynes |year=2011 |orig-date=1990 |title=A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture |edition=illustrated |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781446467923 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8ckmmHjt6h4C&pg=PT498 481]–482}}
*{{citation |last=Jebb |first=Caroline |authorlink=Caroline Jebb |year=1907 |title=Life and Letters of Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb O.M., Litt.D. by his wife |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3iE9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA423 423]}}
*{{citation |first=Jenny |last=Macleod |title=Reconsidering Gallipoli |place=Manchester |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-7190-6742-1 |pages=158–61 }}
*{{cite book |first=Edward |last=Madigan |title=Faith under Fire: Anglican Army chaplains and the Great War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |place=Basingstoke |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-230-23745-2 }}
*{{citation |last=Parker |first=Peter |title=The Old Lie: the Great War and the Public-School Ethos |publisher=Constable |place=London |year=1987 |isbn=0-09-466980-5 }}
*{{citation |last=Raymond |first=Ernest |authorlink=Ernest Raymond |title=Tell England: a study in a generation |year=1922 |publisher=Cassell and Company |place=London }}
*{{citation |last=Raymond |first=Ernest |authorlink=Ernest Raymond |title=Tell England |year=1973 |publisher=Corgi |isbn=0-552-09243-6}}
*{{citation |last=Raymond |first=Ernest |authorlink=Ernest Raymond |title=The Story of My Days: An Autobiography 1888–1922 |publisher=Cassell |place=London |year=1968 }}
*{{citation |last=Raymond |first=Ernest |authorlink=Ernest Raymond |title=Please You, Draw Near: Autobiography 1922–1968 |publisher=Cassell |place=London |year=1969 }}
*{{citation |last=Vandiver |first=Elizabeth |authorlink=Elizabeth Vandiver |year=2010 |title=Stand in the Trench, Achilles: Classical Receptions in British Poetry of the Great War Classical Presences |isbn=9780191609213 |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=c35asb9J96kC&pg=PR62 lxii]–lxiii}}

==External links==
{{Gutenberg|no=15033|name=Tell England}}
*{{OL work}}
* [http://www.greatwardustjackets.co.uk/index-26.html Original dust jacket of the book]

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1922 British novels]]
[[Category:British war novels]]
[[Category:English novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in Turkey]]
[[Category:Novels set during World War I]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:War novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Novels by Ernest Raymond]]
[[Category:Cassell (publisher) books]]

George Peabody

2025-09-20T14:50:35Z

158.41.78.58: /* Biography */ space

{{short description|American-British entrepreneur and philanthropist (1795–1869)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox person
|name=George Peabody
|image=George Peabody.jpg
|caption= Peabody in {{circa|1850}}
|birth_date={{birth date|1795|2|18|mf=y}}
|birth_place=[[Peabody, Massachusetts#History|Danvers]], Massachusetts, U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|1869|11|4|1795|2|18|mf=y}}
|death_place=[[Eaton Square|No. 80 Eaton Square]], London, England
|resting_place={{plainlist|
* [[Westminster Abbey]], London (1869–1870)
* [[Harmony Grove Cemetery]], [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], Massachusetts (since 1870)
}}
|occupation={{flatlist|
*[[Financier]]
*[[banker]]
*[[entrepreneur]]}}
|children=
|parents=Thomas Peabody and Judith Dodge
|spouse=
|signature= Signature of George Peabody (1795–1869).png
}}

'''George Peabody''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|iː|b|ɒ|d|i}}; February 18, 1795 – November 4, 1869) was an American [[financier]] and philanthropist. He is often considered the father of modern [[philanthropy]].

Born into a poor family in [[Massachusetts]], Peabody went into business in [[dry goods]] and later into banking. In 1837 he moved to London (which was then the capital of world finance) where he became the most noted American banker and helped to establish the young country's international credit. Having no son of his own to whom he could pass on his business, Peabody took on [[Junius Spencer Morgan]] as a partner in 1854 and their joint business would go on to become the global financial services firm [[J.P. Morgan & Co.]] after Peabody's 1864 retirement.

In his old age, Peabody won worldwide acclaim for his philanthropy. He founded the [[Peabody Trust]] in Britain and the [[Peabody Institute]] and [[George Peabody Library]] in [[Baltimore]], and was responsible for many other charitable initiatives. For his generosity, he was awarded the [[Congressional Gold Medal]] and made a [[Freedom of the City|Freeman]] of the [[City of London]], among many other honors.

==Biography==
[[File:George Peabody House.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Peabody's birthplace, now the [[George Peabody House Museum]], in Peabody, Massachusetts]]
Peabody was born in 1795 in what was then Danvers (now [[Peabody, Massachusetts|Peabody]]), Massachusetts. His family had [[Puritan]] ancestors in the state. As one of seven children in a poor family, George suffered some deprivations during his childhood, and was able to attend school for only a few years. When he was a teenager, his father died, and he worked in his brother's shop to support his widowed mother and six siblings. He later expressed "I have never forgotten and never can forget the great privations of my early years".<ref name="Chernow 4">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|page=4|language=en}}</ref> These factors influenced his later devotion to both thrift and [[philanthropy]].

In 1816, he moved to [[Baltimore]], where he made his career and would live for the next 20 years. He established his residence and office in the old [[Henry Fite House]], and became a businessman and financier.

At that time London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Frankfurt were at the center of international banking and finance. As all international transactions were settled in gold or gold certificates, a developing nation like the United States had to rely upon agents and [[merchant bank]]s to raise capital through relationships with merchant banking houses in Europe. Only they held the quantity of reserves of capital necessary to extend long-term credit to a developing economy like that of the US.

Peabody first visited England in 1827, seeking to use his firm and his agency to sell American states' [[Bond (finance)|bond]] issues, to raise capital for those states' various programs of "internal improvements" (principally the transportation infrastructure, such as roads, railroads, docks and canals). Over the next decade Peabody made four more trans-Atlantic trips, starting in 1835<ref name="Chernow 4" /> and establishing a branch office in Liverpool. Later he established the banking firm of [[George Peabody & Co.|George Peabody & Company]] (later stylised as [[J. S. Morgan & Co.]]<ref name="Chernow 4" />) in London. In 1837, he took up permanent residence in London, where he lived for the rest of his life.

In the 1840s, the state of Maryland defaulted on its debt and Peabody, having marketed about half of Maryland's securities to individual investors in Europe, became ''[[persona non grata]]'' around London. ''[[The Times]]'' of London noted that while Peabody was an "American gentleman of the most unblemished character", the [[Reform Club]] had blackballed him for being a citizen of a country that reneged on its debts. At first, Peabody sent letters to scold Baltimore friends about the need for the state to resume interest payment and rewarded reporters with small gratuities for favourable articles about the state.<ref name="Chernow 4" />

At last, in 1845 he conspired with [[Barings Bank|Barings]] to push Maryland into resuming payment by setting up a political slush fund to spread propaganda for debt resumption and elect legislators who would placate their investors. By means of a secret account, the two firms transferred a thousand [[pounds sterling]] to Baltimore and even bribed Daniel Webster, the orator and statesman, to make speeches for debt repayment. Their attempts were successful: pro-resumption [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] were elected and London bankers started to receive payments. Barings duplicated the same tactics in Pennsylvania. Florida and Mississippi were the most persistent debtors and as such were excluded from Peabody's later philanthropies.<ref name="Chernow 4" />

Although Peabody was briefly engaged in 1838 (and later allegedly had a mistress in [[Brighton]], England, who bore him a daughter), he never married.<ref>Parker 1995, pp. 29–33.</ref> [[Ron Chernow]] describes him as "homely", with "a rumpled face ... knobby chin, bulbous nose, side whiskers, and heavy-lidded eyes."<ref name="Chernow 4"/>

Peabody frequently entertained and provided letters of introduction for American businessmen visiting London, and became known for the Anglo-American dinners he hosted in honor of American diplomats and other worthies, and in celebration of the [[Independence Day (United States)|Fourth of July]]. In 1851, when the [[United States Congress|US Congress]] refused to support the American section at [[the Great Exhibition]] at the [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]], Peabody advanced [[Pound sterling|£]]3000 (then worth [[United States dollar|$]]15,000; equivalent to about ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|15000|1851|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}} dollars) to improve the exhibit and uphold the reputation of the United States. In 1854, he offended many of his American guests at a Fourth of July dinner when he chose to toast [[Queen Victoria]] before US President [[Franklin Pierce]]; Pierce's future successor, [[James Buchanan]], then Ambassador to London, left in a huff.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|page=7|language=en}}</ref> At around this time, Peabody began to suffer from [[rheumatoid arthritis]] and [[gout]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|page=8|language=en}}</ref>

In February 1867, on one of several return visits to the United States, and at the height of his financial success, Peabody was suggested by [[Francis Preston Blair]], an old crony of President [[Andrew Jackson]] and an active power in the smoldering [[History of the United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]], as a possible [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] in the cabinet of President [[Andrew Johnson]]. At about the same time, Peabody was also mentioned in newspapers as a future presidential candidate. Peabody described the presidential suggestion as a "kind and complimentary reference", but considered that, at age 72, he was too old for either office.<ref>Parker 1995, pp. 164–5, 203, 214.</ref>
[[File:Coat of Arms of George Peabody.svg|thumb|right|upright|Coat of arms of George Peabody]]

==Business==
While serving as a volunteer in the [[War of 1812]], Peabody met [[Elisha Riggs]], who, in 1814, provided financial backing for what became the wholesale [[dry goods]] firm of Riggs, Peabody & Co. The firm specialized in importing dry goods from Britain. Branches were opened in [[New York City|New York]] and [[Philadelphia]] in 1822. Riggs retired in 1829, and the firm became Peabody, Riggs & Co., with the names reversed as Peabody became the senior partner.

Peabody first visited England in 1827 to purchase wares, and to negotiate the sale of American cotton in [[Lancashire, England|Lancashire]]. He subsequently opened a branch office in [[Liverpool]], and British business began to play an increasingly important role in his affairs. He appears to have had some help in establishing himself from [[Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet, of Richmond Hill]] and James Brown, sons of another highly-successful Baltimore businessman, the Irishman [[Alexander Brown (banker)|Alexander Brown]] (founder of the investment and banking firm of [[Alex. Brown & Sons]] in 1801), who managed their father's Liverpool office, which opened in 1810.

In 1837, Peabody took up residence in London, and the following year, he started a [[banking]] business trading on his own account.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|page=5|language=en}}</ref> The banking firm of [[George Peabody and Company]] was not, however, established until 1851.<ref>Burk (1989), p. 1</ref> It was founded to meet the increasing demand for [[securities]] issued by the [[Timeline of United States railway history|American railroads]], and, although Peabody continued to deal in dry goods and other commodities, he increasingly focused his attentions on [[merchant bank]]ing, specializing in financing governments and large companies.<ref name=":0" /> The bank rose to become the premier American house in London.<ref name=":0" />

In Peabody's early years in London, American state governments were notorious for defaulting on their debts to British lenders, and as a prominent American financier in London, Peabody often faced scorn for America's poor credit. (On one occasion, he was blackballed from membership in a [[gentlemen's club]].) Peabody joined forces with [[Barings Bank]] to lobby American states for debt repayment, particularly his home state of Maryland. The campaign included printing propaganda and bribing clergy and politicians, most notably Senator [[Daniel Webster]]. Peabody made a significant profit when Maryland, Pennsylvania and other states resumed payments, having previously bought up state bonds at a low cost.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|pages=5–7|language=en}}</ref> ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' cites him as having "helped establish U.S. credit abroad."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Peabody|title=George Peabody {{!}} American merchant, financier, and philanthropist|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2016-05-18}}</ref>

Peabody took [[Junius Spencer Morgan]] (father of [[J. P. Morgan]]) into partnership in 1854 to form [[Peabody, Morgan & Co.]], and the two financiers worked together until Peabody's retirement in 1864; Morgan had effective control of the business from 1859 on.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|pages=9–13|language=en}}</ref> During the run on the banks of 1857, Peabody had to ask the [[Bank of England]] for a loan of £800,000; although rivals tried to force the bank out of business, it managed to emerge with its credit intact.

Following this crisis, Peabody began to retire from active business, and in 1864, retired fully (taking much of his capital, amounting to over $10,000,000, or £2,000,000). Peabody, Morgan & Co. then took the name [[J.S. Morgan & Co.]] The former UK [[merchant bank]] [[Morgan Grenfell]] (now part of [[Deutsche Bank]]), international [[universal bank]] [[JPMorgan Chase]] and [[investment bank]] [[Morgan Stanley]] can all trace their roots to Peabody's bank.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chernow |first=Ron |title=The House of Morgan: an American banking dynasty and the rise of modern finance |url=https://archive.org/details/houseofmorganame00cher_0 |url-access=registration |place=New York |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |year=1990 |isbn=0871133385 }}</ref>

==Philanthropy==
[[File:Peabody Trust estate Horseferry Road.jpg|thumb|The Peabody Trust continues to provide cheap housing in central London. This sign marks the Horseferry Road Estate in Westminster.]]
Though thrifty, even miserly with his employees and relatives, Peabody gave generously to public causes.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|page=9|language=en}}</ref> He became the acknowledged father of modern [[philanthropy]],<ref>{{cite book |title=All the Money in the World |first=Peter |last=Bernstein |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-307-26612-5 |quote=Even before the Carnegies and Rockefellers became philanthropic legends, there was George Peabody, considered to be the father of modern philanthropy. |page=[https://archive.org/details/allmoneyinworldh00bern/page/280 280] |url=https://archive.org/details/allmoneyinworldh00bern/page/280 }}</ref><ref>The Philanthropy Hall of Fame, [http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/george_peabody George Peabody]</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=One Thousand Buildings of London |publisher=Black Dog Publishing |isbn=1-57912-587-5 |last=Davies |first=Gill |year=2006 |page=179 |quote=George Peabody (1795–1869)—banker, dry goods merchant, and father of modern philanthropy...}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://coehp.uark.edu/colleague/7657.php |quote=George Peabody is considered by some to be the father of modern philanthropy. |publisher=University of Arkansas |title=Peabody Hall Stands as Symbol of University's History |date=December 2009 |access-date=2010-03-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100219115954/http://coehp.uark.edu/colleague/7657.php |archive-date=2010-02-19 }}</ref> having established the practice later followed by [[Johns Hopkins]], [[Andrew Carnegie]], [[John D. Rockefeller]] and [[Bill Gates]]. In the United States, his philanthropy largely took the form of educational initiatives. In Britain, it took the form of providing housing for the poor.

In America, Peabody founded and supported numerous institutions in New England, the South, and elsewhere. In 1867–68, he established the [[Peabody Education Fund]] with $3.5 million to "encourage the intellectual, moral, and industrial education of the destitute children of the Southern States."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.peabodyevents.library.jhu.edu/history.html |publisher=Johns Hopkins University |title=George Peabody Library History |access-date=2010-03-12 |quote=After the Civil War he funded the Peabody Education Fund which established public education in the South. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100604172628/http://www.peabodyevents.library.jhu.edu/history.html |archive-date=2010-06-04 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Negro Year Book: An Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro ....|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ysEyAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA180|year=1913|page=180}}</ref> His grandest beneficence, however, was to Baltimore, the city in which he achieved his earliest success.

[[File:The "Peabody" dwellings for the industrious poor. Wellcome L0004875.jpg|thumb|left|The first block of Peabody dwellings in [[Commercial Street (London)|Commercial Street]], [[Spitalfields]], London. A wood-engraving published in ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' in 1863, shortly before the building opened.]]
In April 1862, Peabody established the Peabody Donation Fund, which continues to this day as the [[Peabody Trust]], to provide housing of decent quality for the "artisans and labouring poor of London". The trust's first dwellings, designed by [[Henry Darbishire|H. A. Darbishire]] in a [[Jacobethan]] style, were opened in [[Commercial Street (London)|Commercial Street]], [[Spitalfields]] in February 1864.

[[File:GeorgePeabody.jpg|thumb|upright|George Peabody]]
George Peabody provided benefactions of well over $8 million ($240,000,000 in 2023 dollars<ref name="measuringworth">{{cite web|url=https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/result.php?year_source=1877&amount=8000000&year_result=2023|title=Measuring Worth - Result in Table|website=measuringworth.com|access-date=2024-11-23}}</ref>), most of them in his lifetime.

Some of the organizations which have been confirmed as recipients of Peabody's funds include:
* 1852, The Peabody Institute (now the [[Peabody Institute Library (Peabody, Massachusetts)|Peabody Institute Library]]),<ref name="peabodylibrary">{{cite web|url=http://www.peabodylibrary.org/history/library.html|website=peabodylibrary.org|title=Peabody Institute Library|access-date=2018-03-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070816015620/http://www.peabodylibrary.org/history/library.html|archive-date=2007-08-16|url-status=dead}}</ref> Peabody, Mass: $217,000
* 1856, The Peabody Institute, Danvers, Mass (now the [[Peabody Institute (Danvers, Massachusetts)|Peabody Institute Library of Danvers]]):<ref name="danverslibrary">{{cite web|url=http://www.danverslibrary.org/administration/pilhistlong2.html|website=danverslibrary.org|title=administration/pilhistlong2|access-date=2018-03-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106105803/http://www.danverslibrary.org/administration/pilhistlong2.html|archive-date=2008-01-06|url-status=dead}}</ref> $100,000
* 1857, The [[Peabody Institute]] (now the [[Peabody Institute|Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University]]), Baltimore: $1,400,000. By including a complex involving a library, an academy of music, and an art gallery, his goal was to promote the moral, intellectual, and artistic opportunities for the people of Baltimore.<ref>Ray E. Robinson, "The Peabody Institute: Ideas Implicit in Its Founding". ''Journal of Research in Music Education'' 19.2 (1971): 216-221.</ref>
* 1862, The [[Peabody Donation Fund]], London: $2,500,000
* 1866, The [[Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology]], [[Harvard University]]: $150,000
* 1866, The [[Peabody Museum of Natural History]], [[Yale University]]: $150,000 (at the suggestion of his nephew [[Othniel Charles Marsh]], son of his younger sister Mary Peabody,<ref name="king-of-the-dino-hunters">{{cite book |last1=Dingus |first1=Lowell |title=King of the Dinosaur Hunters : the life of John Bell Hatcher and the discoveries that shaped paleontology. |date=2018 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=9781681778655}}</ref>{{rp|12}} and America's first professor of paleontology)
* 1866, The Georgetown Peabody Library, the public library of [[Georgetown, Massachusetts]]
* 1866, The [[Peabody Library (Thetford, Vermont)|Thetford Public Library]] in [[Thetford, Vermont]]: $5,000
* 1867, The [[Peabody Academy of Science]], [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], Mass: $140,000 (now the [[Peabody Essex Museum]])
* 1867, The Peabody Institute, Georgetown, District of Columbia: $15,000 (today the Peabody Room, [[Georgetown Neighborhood Library|Georgetown Branch]], DC Public Library)
* 1867, [[Peabody Education Fund]]: $2,000,000
* 1875, [[Peabody College|George Peabody College for Teachers, now the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University]], Nashville, Tennessee. The funding came from the Peabody Education Fund
* 1877, [[Peabody High School (Tennessee)|Peabody High School]], [[Trenton, Tennessee]], established with funds provided by Peabody
* 1901, The Peabody Memorial Library, [[Sam Houston State University]], Texas
* 1913, George Peabody Building, [[University of Mississippi]]<ref name="olemiss">{{cite web|url=http://catalog.olemiss.edu/university/buildings|title=About UM – History – University Buildings | Spring 2017-18 | UM Catalog|website=catalog.olemiss.edu|access-date=2018-03-17}}</ref>
* 1913, Peabody Hall, housing the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, [[University of Arkansas]]:<ref>[[University of Arkansas]]</ref> $40,000
* 1913, Peabody Hall, housing the School of Education (now Philosophy and Religion), [[University of Georgia]]:<ref name="uga">{{cite web|url=https://www.uga.edu/a-z/location/peabody-hall/|title=Peabody Hall | Buildings & Locations | A–Z | University of Georgia|website=uga.edu|access-date=2018-03-17}}</ref> $40,000
* 1913, Peabody Hall, housing the College for Teachers (now part of Criser Student Services Center), [[University of Florida]]:<ref name="ufl">{{cite web|url=https://historic.facilities.ufl.edu/hcpeabody.htm|title=Historic Campus - Peabody Hall|website=historic.facilities.ufl.edu|access-date=2018-03-17|archive-date=March 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317035555/https://historic.facilities.ufl.edu/hcpeabody.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> $40,000
* Peabody Hall, housing the college of Human Science and Education, [[Louisiana State University]]
* 1914, Peabody Hall, housing the Curry Memorial School of Education (now Office of the Dean of Students and the Office of Admission), University of Virginia

==Death==
[[File:Funeral of George Peabody at Westminster Abbey, 1869 ILN.jpg|thumb|Peabody's funeral in [[Westminster Abbey]]]]
Peabody died in London on November 4, 1869, aged 74, at the house of his friend Sir [[Curtis Lampson]]. At the request of the [[Dean of Westminster]], and with the approval of [[Queen Victoria]], he was given a funeral and temporary grave<ref>[[Arthur Penrhyn Stanley|Stanley, A.P.]], ''Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey'' ([[London]]; [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]]; [[1882]]), p. 249.</ref> in [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref name="nyt-obit">{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9804E0D7123BE63BBC4B52DFB7678382679FDE |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1869-11-13 |page=3 |title=Funeral of George Peabody at Westminster Abbey |quote="As soon as the ceremony within the church was over the procession formed again, and advanced to a spot near the western entrance, where a temporary grave had been prepared... Here the body was deposited, and will remain until it is transported to America."}}</ref>

His will provided that he be buried in the town of his birth, [[Peabody, Massachusetts|South Danvers, Massachusetts]] (now Peabody). Prime Minister [[William Ewart Gladstone]] arranged for Peabody's remains to be returned to America on [[HMS Monarch (1868)|HMS ''Monarch'']], the newest and largest ship in the [[Royal Navy]], arriving at [[Portland, Maine]], where they were received by US Admiral [[David Farragut]]. He was laid to rest in [[Harmony Grove Cemetery]], in [[Salem, Massachusetts]], on February 8, 1870. Peabody's death and the pair of funerals were international news, through the newly completed [[Transatlantic telegraph cable|trans-Atlantic underwater telegraph cable]]. Hundreds of people participated in the ceremonies and thousands more attended or observed.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Franklin |last=Parker |title=The Funeral of George Peabody |publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (Taylor & Francis Group)|jstor=1491421 |journal=Peabody Journal of Education |volume=44 |issue=1 |date=July 1966 |pages=21–36|doi=10.1080/01619566609537382}}</ref>

==Impact on American philanthropy==
Historian [[Roderick Nash]] argues that Peabody made his millions quietly in groceries and real estate, while contemporary millionaires were building more visible empires in oil, iron, land, and especially railroads. As a disciple of [[Benjamin Franklin]], Peabody combined hard work with frugality, punctuality, and a strong public spirit. Peabody was a pioneer, whose success in philanthropy set a new standard for American millionaires. By contrast, philanthropy in Europe was more typically dispensed by aristocratic families with inherited landed wealth, which built palaces and museums that were eventually opened to the public. The American way was for the self-made millionaires to become self-made philanthropists, a model perfected in the next generation by [[Andrew Carnegie]] (1835–1919) and [[John D. Rockefeller]] (1839–1937). They agreed with Peabody that riches produced a duty to give most of it back to the community through specialized permanent foundations.<ref name="nash">Roderick Nash, "Peabody, George, " in John A. Garraty, ''Encyclopedia of American Biography'' (1974), p. 841.</ref>

Peabody was especially imaginative, and relied on his own memories of poverty and self-education to introduce new ways to educate and culturally enrich the next generation of poor youth, and thereby promote greater equality in American society. [[Jacksonian Democracy]] promoted equality in politics; he promoted equality and culture through libraries, schools, museums, and colleges. He rejected doling out cash to the poor as a waste of money in comparison to building permanent institutions that produced a steady stream of benefits. His last great benefaction was the [[Peabody Education Fund]], which had a dramatic impact in improving Southern public schools. It was the first major philanthropic institution that gave large sums to poor blacks on the same terms as whites, albeit within the limits of racial segregation. Even more important was the institutional framework that Peabody devised, of a permanent professional foundation run by experts in philanthropy, who were guided by and indeed invented the best practices of the day.<ref name="nash"/><ref>{{cite journal |first=Franklin |last=Parker |title=George Peabody's Influence on Southern Educational Philanthropy |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=20 |issue=1 |year=1961 |pages=65–74 |jstor=42621516 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=George A. |last=Dillingham |title=The Foundation of the Peabody Tradition |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham |year=1989 |isbn=0819172499 }}</ref>

==Recognition and commemoration==
Peabody's philanthropy won him many admirers in his old age. He was praised by European contemporaries such as Prime Minister [[William Ewart Gladstone]] and author [[Victor Hugo]], and Queen Victoria offered him a [[baronet]]cy, which he declined.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXwPW8np0oEC|title=The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance|last=Chernow|first=Ron|date=2010-01-19|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|isbn=9780802198136|page=14|language=en}}</ref>

In 1854, the Arctic explorer [[Elisha Kane]] named the waterway off the north-west coast of [[Greenland]] Peabody Bay, in honor of Peabody, who had funded his expedition. The waterway was later renamed the [[Kane Basin]], but [[Peabody Bay]] survives as the name of a smaller bay at the eastern side of the basin.<ref>{{Cite DCB |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/kane_elisha_kent_8E.html |title=KANE, ELISHA KENT |volume=VIII |first=Robert E. |last=Johnson |access-date=2016-05-18}}</ref>

On July 10, 1862, he was made a [[Freedom of the City#Freedom of the City of London|Freeman]] of the [[City of London]], the motion being proposed by [[Charles Reed (British politician)|Charles Reed]] in recognition of his financial contribution to London's poor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.london-footprints.co.uk/peopeabody.htm|title=London People: George Peabody|quote=By 1867 Peabody had received honours from America and Britain, including being made a Freeman of the City of London, the first American to receive this honour.|access-date=2010-03-12}}</ref> He became the first of only two Americans (the other being [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]) to receive the award. On March 16, 1867, he was awarded the United States [[Congressional Gold Medal]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.house.gov/Institution/Gold-Medal/Gold-Medal-Recipients/ |publisher=United States House of Representatives |title=Congressional Gold Medal Recipients |access-date=2016-05-10 }}</ref> an honorary doctorate of laws by [[Harvard University]], and an honorary doctorate in civil law by [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]].<ref>Parker 1995, p. 203.</ref> On March 24, 1867, Peabody was elected a member of the [[American Antiquarian Society]]<ref name="americanantiquarian">{{cite web|url=http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistp|title=MemberListP|website=American Antiquarian Society|access-date=2018-03-17}}</ref>

Peabody's birthplace, South Danvers, Massachusetts, changed its name in 1868 to the town (now city) of [[Peabody, Massachusetts|Peabody]], in his honor. In 1869, the [[Peabody Hotel]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], was named in his memory. A number of [[Peabody Elementary School (disambiguation)|elementary]] and [[Peabody High School (disambiguation)|high school]]s in the United States are named after Peabody.

[[File:Statue of George Peabody in the City of London (02).jpg|thumb|right|Statue by the [[Royal Exchange (London)|Royal Exchange]], London]]
A statue sculpted by [[William Wetmore Story]] stands next to the [[Royal Exchange (London)|Royal Exchange]] in the City of London, unveiled by the [[Edward VII|Prince of Wales]] in July 1869: Peabody himself was too unwell to attend the ceremony, and died less than four months later.<ref>A detailed account of the commissioning, erection and reception of the statue appears in Ward-Jackson 2003, pp. 338–41.</ref> A [[George Peabody (sculpture)|replica of the same statue]], erected in 1890, stands next to the [[Peabody Institute]], in Mount Vernon Park, part of the [[Mount Vernon, Baltimore|Mount Vernon]] neighborhood of [[Baltimore, Maryland]].

In 1900, Peabody was one of the first 29 honorees to be elected to the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]], located on what was then the campus of [[New York University]] (and is now that of [[Bronx Community College]]), at [[University Heights, Bronx|University Heights]], New York.

His birthplace at 205 Washington Street in the City of Peabody is now operated and preserved as the [[George Peabody House Museum]], a museum dedicated to interpreting his life and legacy. There is a [[blue plaque]] on the house where he died in London, No. 80 [[Eaton Square]], [[Belgravia]], erected in 1976.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/646|title=George Peabody Blue Plaque|publisher=openplaques.org|access-date=2013-11-23}}</ref>

On March 16, 2018, Google honored Peabody with a [[Google Doodle]] on the 151st anniversary of Peabody being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.<ref>{{cite web|title=Google doodle honors philanthropist George Peabody|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/google-doodle-honors-philanthropist-george-peabody/|website=CNET|date=March 15, 2018 |access-date=2018-03-16|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Google Doodle Just Honored George Peabody, Financier-Turned-'Father of Modern Philanthropy'|url=http://fortune.com/2018/03/16/google-doodle-george-peabody/|website=Fortune|access-date=2018-03-16|language=en}}</ref> The mural reproduced in the Google Doodle is physically located within the lunchroom of the George Peabody Elementary School in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://george-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/ |title=George Peabody Elementary School |access-date=March 17, 2018 |archive-date=March 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318054115/https://george-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Georgetown Neighborhood Library]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], houses the Peabody Room, named after the original neighborhood Peabody Library founded by Peabody. The Peabody Room contains historical information about the [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] neighborhood.

==See also==
* [[Philanthropy in the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* "George Peabody." in ''Dictionary of American Biography'' (1936) [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2310005981/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=29c2e386 Online]
* Adam, Thomas. ''Buying respectability: Philanthropy and urban society in transnational perspective, 1840s to 1930s'' (Indiana University Press, 2009).
*{{cite news |last1=Bridge |first1=Mark |title=London squalor turned banker George Peabody to charity |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/35097cce-fcc5-11e9-837f-79f312a00fbd?jl |access-date=2 November 2019 |work=[[The Times]] |date=2 November 2019}}
*{{cite book | last=Burk| first=Kathleen|author-link = Kathleen Burk |title= Morgan Grenfell 1838–1988: the biography of a merchant bank |year=1989 |publisher=Clarendon Press |place=Oxford | isbn=0-19-828306-7 }}
*{{Cite encyclopedia|first=Kathleen |last=Burk |title=Peabody, George (1795–1869) |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |edition=online |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/21664 }}
* Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe. ''A Brief Sketch of George Peabody: And a History of the Peabody Education Fund Through Thirty Years'' (Negro Universities Press, 1969).
* Dillingham, George A. ''The Foundation of the Peabody Tradition'' (University Press of America, 1989).
*{{cite book|last1=Hanaford|first1=Phebe Ann|title=The Life of George Peabody: Containing a Record of Those Princely Acts of Benevolence Which Entitle Him to the Esteem and Gratitude of All Friends of Education and the Destitute, Both in America, the Land of His Birth, and in England, the Place of His Death|date=1870|publisher=B.B. Russell|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofgeorgepeab00hanauoft|access-date=2015-11-10}}
* Harmon, Elizabeth. "The Transformation of American Philanthropy: From Public Trust to Private Foundation, 1785-1917". (PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2017) [https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/137152/harmone_1.pdf?sequence=1 Online].
* Hellman, Geoffrey T. "The First Great Cheerful Giver" ''American Heritage'' (June 1966) 17#4 pp 28+
* Hidy, Muriel E. ''George Peabody, merchant and financier: 1829–1854'' (Ayer, 1978).
* Hidy, Ralph W., and Muriel E. Hidy. "Anglo-American Merchant Bankers and the Railroads of the Old Northwest, 1848-1860." ''Business History Review'' 34.2 (1960): 150–169.
* Kiger, Joseph. "Peabody, Sage, Carnegie, and Rockefeller." in ''Philanthropists and Foundation Globalization'' (Routledge, 2017) pp. 29–54.
*{{cite book | last=Parker | first=Franklin | year=1995 | title=George Peabody: A Biography | edition=2nd |location=Nashville |publisher=Vanderbilt UP|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OPIbk-ZPnF4C&q=Franklin+Parker,+George+Peabody,+a+Biography&pg=PP1 | isbn= 0-8265-1256-9 }}, a major scholarly biography
*{{cite journal |last=Schaaf |first=Elizabeth |title=George Peabody: his life and legacy, 1795–1869 |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |volume=90 |issue=3 |date=Fall 1995 |pages=268–285 }}
* Tarn, John Nelson. "The Peabody Donation Fund: the role of a housing society in the nineteenth century." ''Victorian Studies'' 10.1 (1966): 7-38. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3825018 online]
*{{cite book |first1=Christine |last1=Wagg |first2=James |last2=McHugh |title=Homes for London: the Peabody story |location=London |publisher=Peabody |year=2017 |isbn=9781527205475 }}
*{{cite book | last=Ward-Jackson |first=Philip |title=Public Sculpture of the City of London |series=Public Sculpture of Britain |volume=7 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |place=Liverpool |year=2003 |isbn=0853239673 |pages=338–41 }}

==External links==
{{EB1911 poster|Peabody, George|George Peabody}}
*{{Commons-inline}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170719004217/http://pem.org/library/collections/featured Phillips Library], Peabody Essex Museum. Repository of 145 linear feet of Peabody's business and personal papers.

{{JPMorgan Chase}}
{{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peabody, George}}
[[Category:1795 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey]]
[[Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients]]
[[Category:House of Morgan]]
[[Category:JPMorgan Chase people]]
[[Category:Museum founders]]
[[Category:Philanthropists from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees]]
[[Category:Burials at Harmony Grove Cemetery]]
[[Category:American founders]]
[[Category:19th-century American philanthropists]]
[[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:American emigrants to England]]

Colin Dexter

2025-09-13T15:54:54Z

158.41.78.58: /* Writing career */ MOS:CURLY

{{Short description|English writer (1930–2017)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox writer 
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nom|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}}
| image = Colin Dexter.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Norman Colin Dexter
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1930|9|29}}
| birth_place = [[Stamford, Lincolnshire]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2017|3|21|1930|9|29}}
| death_place = [[Oxford]], England
| occupation = Novelist
| alma_mater = [[Christ's College, Cambridge]]
| genre = [[Crime fiction]]
| movement =
| spouse ={{marriage|Dorothy Cooper|1956}}
| children = 2
| notableworks = ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' series (1975–1999)
| module = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Colin Dexter BBC Radio4 Bookclub 5 Aug 2007 b007vd4k.flac|title={{center|Colin Dexter's voice}}|type=speech|description={{center|[[:File:Colin Dexter BBC Radio4 Bookclub 5 Aug 2007 b007vd4k.flac|Recorded August 2007]] from the BBC Radio 4 programme ''[[Bookclub (radio programme)|Bookclub]]''}}}}
}}
'''Norman Colin Dexter''' (29 September 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English crime writer known for his ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' series of novels, which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as an [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] television series, ''[[Inspector Morse (TV series)|Inspector Morse]]'', from 1987 to 2000. His characters have spawned a sequel series, ''[[Lewis (TV series)|Lewis]]'', from 2006 to 2015, and a prequel series, ''[[Endeavour (TV series)|Endeavour]]'', from 2012 to 2023. He also set crosswords for ''[[The Oxford Times]]''.

==Early life and career==
Dexter was born in [[Stamford, Lincolnshire]], to Alfred and Dorothy Dexter.<ref name="B&MC 165">{{cite journal|last1=Howard|first1=David|title=The ''Inspector Morse'' Books of Colin Dexter|journal=The Book and Magazine Collector|date=December 1997|issue=165|page=13}}</ref> He had an elder brother, John,<ref name="Guardian Obituary">{{cite news|last1=Barker|first1=Dennis|title=Colin Dexter obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/21/colin-dexter-obituary|access-date=22 March 2017|work=The Guardian|date=21 March 2017}}</ref> a fellow classicist, who taught [[Classics]] at [[The King's (The Cathedral) School|The King's School, Peterborough]], and a sister, Avril.<ref name="Memorial Address">{{cite web|last=Percy|first=Martyn|author-link=Martyn Percy|title=Memorial Address for Colin Dexter|url=https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Memorial%20Service%20for%20Colin%20Dexter%20Address.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Memorial%20Service%20for%20Colin%20Dexter%20Address.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live|page=2|access-date=1 April 2020|work=[[Christ Church, Oxford]]|date=26 April 2018}}</ref> Alfred ran a small garage and taxi company from premises in Scotgate, Stamford.<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituary: John Boon|url=http://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/obituary-john-boon-1-3811082|access-date=22 March 2017|date=4 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322015336/http://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/obituary-john-boon-1-3811082|archive-date=22 March 2017|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Dexter was educated at St John's Infants School and Bluecoat Junior School, from which he gained a scholarship to [[Stamford School]], a boys' [[grammar school]], where a younger contemporary was England cricket captain and England rugby player, [[M. J. K. Smith]].<ref name="Guardian Obituary" /><ref name="B&MC 187">{{cite journal|last1=Howard|first1=David|title=The ''Inspector Morse'' Books of Colin Dexter|journal=The Book and Magazine Collector|date=October 1999|issue=187|page=5}}</ref>

After leaving school, Dexter completed his [[national service]] with the [[Royal Corps of Signals]] and then read classics at [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], graduating in 1953 and receiving a [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|master's degree]] in 1958.<ref name="B&MC 187" />

In 1954, Dexter began his teaching career as assistant Classics master at [[Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys]] in [[Leicester]]. There he helped the school's [[Christian unions (student groups)|Christian Union]].<ref>{{cite magazine |author=
|title=Mr. N. C. Dexter
|magazine=The Wyggestonian |volume=57 |issue=3 |page=80 |location=Leicester |publisher=Wyggeston Boys' School
|date=July 1957}}</ref> However, in 2000 he stated that he shared the same views on politics and religion as Inspector Morse,<ref>{{cite news |title=You ask the questions |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/you-ask-the-questions-709477.html |work=[[The Independent]]
|location=London |date=18 July 2000 |access-date=26 March 2017}}</ref> who was portrayed in the final Morse novel, ''[[The Remorseful Day]]'', as an atheist. A post at [[Loughborough Grammar School]] followed in 1957, then he took up the position of senior Classics teacher at [[Tresham College of Further and Higher Education|Corby Grammar School]], [[Northamptonshire]], in 1959.

In 1966, he was forced by the onset of deafness to retire from teaching and took up the post of senior assistant secretary at the [[University of Oxford]] Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE) in [[Oxford]], a job he held until his retirement in 1988.<ref name="strandmag.com">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.strandmag.com/htm/colin_dexter.htm |title=Interview with Colin Dexter, excerpts |magazine=Strand Magazine |year=2009 |author=AFG |access-date=21 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511135856/http://www.strandmag.com/htm/colin_dexter.htm|archive-date=11 May 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In November 2008, Dexter featured prominently in the [[BBC Four]] programme "How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword", as part of the [[Timeshift (TV series)|''Timeshift'' series]], in which he recounted some of the crossword clues solved by Morse.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fh2bh|title=How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword, Series 8, Timeshift - BBC Four|publisher=BBC|access-date=21 September 2016}}</ref>

==Writing career==
The initial books written by Dexter were [[general studies]] textbooks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sandrafraser.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/character-interview-colin-dexter/|title=Character interview – Colin Dexter's Guilty Secret |work=Sandra Fraser |access-date=21 May 2015 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> He began writing mysteries in 1972 during a family holiday. ''[[Last Bus to Woodstock]]'' was published in 1975 and introduced the character of [[Inspector Morse]], the irascible detective whose penchants for [[cryptic crossword]]s, [[English literature]], [[cask ale|real ale]], and [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] operas reflected Dexter's own enthusiasms. Dexter's plots used [[red herring]]s,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordwine.co.uk/features/summer_07/dexter.html |work=The Oxford Wine Company |title=Stars in their bars: Colin Dexter |first=Theo |last=Sloot |date=Summer 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611124231/http://www.oxfordwine.co.uk/features/summer_07/dexter.html |archive-date=11 June 2010 }}</ref> "presenting Morse, and his readers, with fiendishly difficult puzzles to solve".<ref name=Grimes2017 />

The success of the 33 two-hour episodes of the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] television series ''[[Inspector Morse (TV series)|Inspector Morse]]'', produced between 1987 and 2000, brought further attention to Dexter's writings. The show featured Morse, played by [[John Thaw]], and his assistant [[Inspector Lewis|Robert Lewis]], a sergeant played by [[Kevin Whately]]. In the manner of [[Alfred Hitchcock]], Dexter made a [[cameo appearance]] in almost all episodes.

From 2006 to 2015, Lewis was featured in a 33-episode ITV series titled ''[[Lewis (TV series)|Lewis]]'' (''Inspector Lewis'' in the United States).<ref>{{cite news |title=ITV drama Lewis to end after 10 years |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34709048 |access-date=22 March 2017 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref> He is assisted by James Hathaway, a detective sergeant played by [[Laurence Fox]]. A prequel series, ''[[Endeavour (TV series)|Endeavour]]'', features a young Morse and stars [[Shaun Evans]] and [[Roger Allam]]. ''Endeavour'' was first broadcast on the ITV network in 2012, ending with the ninth series in 2023, taking young Morse's career into 1972.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newsweek.com/endeavour-season-8-final-last-pbs-masterpiece-itv-1527124 |magazine=Newsweek |title='Endeavour': Why the PBS Show May End After Season 8 |first=Samuel |last=Spencer |date=24 August 2020 |access-date=3 November 2020}}</ref> Dexter was a consultant for ''Lewis'' and the first few years of ''Endeavour''. As with ''Morse'', Dexter occasionally made appearances in both series.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://metro.co.uk/2012/03/12/itv-commissions-full-series-of-morse-drama-endeavour-349890/|title=ITV commissions full series of Morse drama Endeavour |last=Hooton |first=Christopher |newspaper=[[Metro (British newspaper)|Metro]] |date=12 March 2012 |access-date=22 March 2017}}</ref>

Dexter set crosswords for ''[[The Oxford Times]]'' as "Codex" (COlin DEXter). Some of these were published in 2006 as ''Morse Crosswords'' (Chambers). He took the names for some of his characters, including Morse and Lewis, from other [[cruciverbalist]]s. All the characters in ''[[Last Bus to Woodstock]]'', the first Morse novel, were named after crossword compilers or entrants in ''[[The Observer]]''{{'}}s puzzles, "except the murderer".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-10-14 |title=Still setting the puzzles |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8446331.still-setting-puzzles/ |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=Oxford Mail |language=en}}</ref> For example, although Dexter's military service was as a [[Morse code]] operator, the character was named after his friend Sir [[Jeremy Morse]], a crossword devotee like Dexter.<ref name=Grimes2017 /> [[Alec Robins]] – "Zander" in the BBC magazine [[The Listener (magazine)|''The Listener'']] and "Custos" in ''[[The Guardian]]'' – introduced Dexter to Jeremy Morse (who later became chairman of Lloyds Bank) at a crossword dinner. At the same dinner was Robins' Everyman crossword colleague on ''The Observer'', Dorothy Taylor. She had used the alias Mrs B Lewis so she could carry on entering ''Observer'' prize crossword competitions after she became a compiler there. Dexter took inspiration from the two names.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Quinn |first=Anthony |date=23 July 1998 |title='Morse code', Letters |work=The Guardian |pages=17}}</ref>

The music for the television series, written by [[Barrington Pheloung]], used a [[Motif (music)|motif]] based on the Morse code for Morse's name.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crime4u.com/morendsixpseven.html |title=Cracking The Code –The Composer Behind Morse |first=Kim |last=Smith |work=Essex Life & Countryside |date=October 2001 |access-date=22 April 2022 |archive-date=7 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007121135/http://www.crime4u.com/morendsixpseven.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Awards and honours==
Dexter received several [[Crime Writers' Association]] awards: two [[Silver Dagger (award)|Silver Daggers]] for ''[[Service of All the Dead]]'' in 1979 and ''[[The Dead of Jericho]]'' in 1981; two [[Gold Dagger]]s for ''[[The Wench is Dead]]'' in 1989 and ''[[The Way Through the Woods]]'' in 1992; and a [[Cartier Diamond Dagger]] for lifetime achievement in 1997.<ref name="strandmag.com"/> In 1996, Dexter received a [[Macavity Awards|Macavity Award]] for his short story "Evans Tries an O-Level". In 1980, he was elected a member of the by-invitation-only [[Detection Club]].<ref name="Independent">{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/colin-dexter-obituary-inspector-morse-oxford-whodunit-crime-writer-a7642411.html |title=Colin Dexter obituary: Inspector Morse creator and one of the great whodunnit men |first=Peter |last=Guttridge |newspaper=The Independent|location=London |date=21 March 2017 |access-date=3 November 2020}}</ref> In 2005 Dexter became a Fellow by Special Election of [[St Cross College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Colin Dexter OBE |url=http://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/about-st-cross/news/colin-dexter-obe|publisher=St Cross College |access-date=22 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322111929/http://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/about-st-cross/news/colin-dexter-obe|archive-date=22 March 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the [[2000 Birthday Honours]] Dexter was appointed an [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] for services to literature. In 2001 he was awarded the [[Freedom of the City]] of Oxford. In September 2011, the [[University of Lincoln]] awarded Dexter an honorary [[Doctor of Letters]] degree.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/news/2011/08/405.asp |title=Inspector Morse creator among leading lights to be honoured at Lincoln graduation |publisher=University of Lincoln |first=Thirzah |last=Wildman |access-date=3 November 2020 |date=31 August 2011 |archive-date=15 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715104203/https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/news/2011/08/405.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Colin Dexter | publisher=Stamford Civic Society| url=https://www.stamfordcivicsociety.org.uk/colin-dexter.html#:~:text=In%20September%202011%2C%20the%20University,self%2Deffacing%20man%20had%20achieved. | access-date=23 March 2024}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1956, he married Dorothy Cooper. They had a daughter, Sally, and a son, Jeremy.<ref name="Guardian Obituary" /><ref name=Grimes2017/>

==Death==
On 21 March 2017 Dexter's publisher, [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]], said in a statement "With immense sadness, Macmillan announces the death of Colin Dexter who died peacefully at his home in Oxford this morning."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39342698|publisher=[[BBC News]]|access-date=21 March 2017|title=Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse, dies aged 86}}</ref>

==Bibliography==

===Inspector Morse novels===
# ''[[Last Bus to Woodstock]]'' (1975)
# ''[[Last Seen Wearing (Dexter novel)|Last Seen Wearing]]'' (1976)
# ''[[The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn]]'' (1977)
# ''[[Service of All the Dead]]'' (1979)
# ''[[The Dead of Jericho]]'' (1981)
# ''[[The Riddle of the Third Mile]]'' (1983)
# ''[[The Secret of Annexe 3]]'' (1986)
# ''[[The Wench is Dead]]'' (1989)
# ''[[The Jewel That Was Ours]]'' (1991)
# ''[[The Way Through the Woods]]'' (1992)
# ''[[The Daughters of Cain]]'' (1994)
# ''[[Death Is Now My Neighbour]]'' (1996)
# ''[[The Remorseful Day]]'' (1999)<ref name="B&MC 187" /><ref name=WorldCat>{{cite web|title=Colin Dexter|url=http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AColin+dexter&fq=x0%3Abook+%3E+ln%3Aeng&qt=advanced&dblist=638|website=WorldCat|access-date=22 March 2017}}</ref>

===Novellas and short story collections===
* ''The Inside Story'' (1993)
* ''Neighbourhood Watch'' (1993)
* ''[[Morse's Greatest Mystery]]'' (1993); also published as ''As Good as Gold''
*# "As Good as Gold" (Morse)
*# "Morse's Greatest Mystery" (Morse)
*# "Evans Tries an O-Level"
*# "Dead as a Dodo" (Morse)
*# "At the Lulu-Bar Motel"
*# "Neighbourhood Watch" (Morse)
*# "A Case of Mis-Identity" (a [[Sherlock Holmes pastiche]])
*# "The Inside Story" (Morse)
*# "Monty's Revolver"
*# "The Carpet-Bagger"
*# "Last Call" (Morse)<ref name="B&MC 187" /><ref name=WorldCat />

===Uncollected short stories===
* "The Burglar" in ''You, [[The Mail on Sunday]]'' (1994)
* "The Double Crossing" in ''Mysterious Pleasures'' (2003)
* "Between the Lines" in ''The Detection Collection'' (2005)
* "The Case of the Curious Quorum" (featuring Inspector Lewis) in ''The Verdict of Us All'' (2006)
* "The Other Half" in ''[[Strand Magazine|The Strand Magazine]]'' (February–May 2007)
* "Morse and the Mystery of the Drunken Driver" in ''[[Daily Mail]]'' (December 2008)
* "Clued Up" (a 4-page story featuring Lewis and Morse solving a crossword) in ''Cracking Cryptic Crosswords'' (2009)

===Other===
* Foreword to ''Chambers Crossword Manual'' by Don Manley (5th edition, 2014)<ref name=WorldCat />
* ''Chambers Book of Morse Crosswords'' (2006)<ref name=WorldCat />
* Foreword to ''Oxford: A Cultural and Literary Companion'' by David Horan (1999; new edition 2007)<ref name=WorldCat />
* ''Cracking Cryptic Crosswords: A Guide to Solving Cryptic Crosswords'' (2010)<ref name=Grimes2017>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/books/colin-dexter-dead-creator-of-inspector-morse.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/books/colin-dexter-dead-creator-of-inspector-morse.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |title=Colin Dexter, 86, Dies; Creator of Inspector Morse, a Sleuth on Page and Screen |date=21 March 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=3 November 2020 |first=William |last=Grimes }}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* Foreword to ''Oxford Through the Lens'' by Douglas Vernimmen (2016)<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3LyjwEACAAJ |contribution=Foreword |contributor-first=Colin |contributor-last=Dexter |title=Oxford through the Lens |first=Douglas |last=Vernimmen |isbn=978-1-85149-838-3 |year=2016 |publisher=Antique Collectors' Club }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Diogenes Small]]
* ''[[Inspector Morse (TV series)|Inspector Morse]]'' (1987-2000)
* ''[[Lewis (TV series)|Lewis]]'' (2006-2015)
* ''[[Endeavour (TV series)|Endeavour]]'' (2012-2023)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|id=0223294|name=Colin Dexter}}
* {{NPG name}}
* {{OL author}}

{{InspectorMorse}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dexter, Colin}}
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:2017 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Lincolnshire]]
[[Category:People from Stamford, Lincolnshire]]
[[Category:People educated at Stamford School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Cartier Diamond Dagger winners]]
[[Category:English crime fiction writers]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English mystery writers]]
[[Category:English detective fiction writers]]
[[Category:Fellows of St Cross College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Writers from Oxford]]
[[Category:Writers of Sherlock Holmes pastiches]]
[[Category:Inspector Morse]]
[[Category:Macavity Award winners]]
[[Category:Members of the Detection Club]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Crossword creators]]
[[Category:Royal Corps of Signals soldiers]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]

Flanders and Swann

2025-09-13T13:20:11Z

158.41.78.58: en-dashes, British spelling

{{Short description|British comedy duo, active 1956–1967}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2011}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Flanders and Swann
| image = Michael Flanders and Donald Swann (1966 publicity photo).jpg
| caption = Flanders (left) and Swann in 1966
| background = group_or_band
| origin = [[Westminster School]]
| instrument =
| years_active = 1956–1967
| genre = Comedic songs
| label = [[Parlophone]], [[Angel Records|Angel]]
| associated_acts =
| current_members = [[Michael Flanders]] [[Donald Swann]]
}}

'''Flanders and Swann''' were a British [[comedy duo]] and musicians. [[Michael Flanders]] (1922–1975) was a lyricist, actor, and singer. He collaborated with [[Donald Swann]] (1923–1994), a composer and pianist, in writing and performing [[comedy music|comic songs]]. They first worked together in a school revue in 1939 and eventually wrote more than 100 comic songs together.<ref name="Music">{{cite book| first= Paul| last= Du Noyer| year= 2003| title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music| edition= 1st | publisher= Flame Tree Publishing | location= Fulham, London| isbn= 1-904041-96-5| page= 421}}</ref>

Flanders and Swann performed their songs, interspersed with comic monologues, in their long-running two-man [[revue]]s ''[[At the Drop of a Hat]]'' (1956–1959) and ''[[At the Drop of Another Hat]]'' (1963–1967), which they toured in Britain and abroad. Both revues were recorded in concert (by [[George Martin]]). The duo also made several studio recordings.

==Musical partnership==
Flanders and Swann both attended [[Westminster School]] (where in July and August 1940 they staged a revue called ''Go To It'')<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.donaldswann.co.uk/hatshow.html|title=Hat Shows|website=Donaldswann.co.uk|access-date=3 September 2019}}</ref> and [[Christ Church, Oxford]], two institutions linked by ancient tradition. The pair went their separate ways during [[World War II]], but a chance meeting in 1948 led to their forming a musical partnership writing songs and [[light opera]]. Flanders provided the words and Swann composed the music.<ref name="Larkin50s">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=2002|edition=Third|isbn=1-85227-937-0|pages=141/2}}</ref> Their songs have been sung by performers such as [[Ian Wallace (singer)|Ian Wallace]] and [[Joyce Grenfell]].

In December 1956, Flanders and Swann hired the New Lindsey Theatre, [[Notting Hill]], to perform their two-man revue ''At the Drop of a Hat'', which opened on New Year's Eve.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=470}}</ref> Flanders sang a selection of the songs that they had written, interspersed with comic monologues, accompanied by Swann on the piano. An unusual feature of their act was that both men remained seated for their shows: Swann behind his piano and Flanders in a wheelchair (having contracted [[poliomyelitis]] in 1943).<ref name="Larkin"/> The show was successful and transferred the next month to the [[Fortune Theatre]], where it ran for over two years, before touring in the UK, the United States, Canada and Switzerland.<ref name="Larkin"/>

In 1963, Flanders and Swann opened in a second revue, ''At the Drop of Another Hat'', at the [[Haymarket Theatre]].<ref name="Larkin"/> Over the next four years they toured a combination of the two shows in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, [[Hong Kong]], the United States and Canada, before finishing at the [[Booth Theatre]] on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in New York City. On 9 April 1967, they performed their last live show together.<ref name="Larkin"/> Ten days later, they moved into a studio theatre and recorded the show for television.

Over the course of 11 years, Flanders and Swann gave nearly 2,000 live performances. Although their performing partnership ended in 1967, they remained friends afterwards and collaborated on occasional projects.

===Timeline and venues of the revues===
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="text-align:center; background:#b8268f;"
! Date<ref name=sleeve>Sleeve notes to the CD box set "The Complete Flanders & Swann"</ref> || Venue<ref name=sleeve/>
|-
| 1953 || Royal Court Theatre, "Airs on a Shoestring"
|- <ref name="Program">Program</ref>
| 1954 || Saville Theatre, "Pay the Piper"
|- <ref name="Program"/>
| 1956 || Comedy Theatre, "Fresh Airs"
|- <ref name="Program"/>
| 1956 || New Lindsey Theatre, Notting Hill
|-
| 1957–59 || [[Fortune Theatre]] (suspended one month because of Flanders' pneumonia)
|-
| 1959 || [[Edinburgh Festival]] "At the Drop of a Kilt"
|-
| 1959–60 || [[John Golden Theatre|Golden Theatre]], [[New York City|New York]]
|-
| 1960–61 || 12-city tour of United States, plus [[Toronto]], Canada
|-
| 1961 || Switzerland
|-
| 1962 || 9-city tour of UK, plus Toronto, Canada
|-
| 1963 || 9-city tour of UK
|-
| 1963 || [[Haymarket Theatre]]
|-
| 1964 || 4-city tour of Australia, 5 New Zealand plus Hong Kong
|-
| 1965 || 3-city tour of UK
|-
| 1965 || Globe Theatre (now the Gielgud)
|-
| 1966 || 9-city tour of USA, plus Toronto
|-
| 1966–67 || New York
|}

==Discography==
Their records were originally released on the [[Parlophone Records|Parlophone]] label; CD reissues are on [[EMI Records|EMI]].

===45s===
* 1957 – "[[The Gnu|A Gnu]]" b/w "Misalliance"

===EPs===
* 1957 – ''More out of the Hat!'' (EP)
* 1959 – ''Excerpts from at the Drop of a Hat'' ([[Extended play|EP]])
* 1959 – ''More Excerpts from at the Drop of a Hat'' (EP)
* 1962 – ''The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann'' (EP)
* 1964 – ''Favourites from at the Drop of Another Hat'' (EP)
* 1964 – ''More out of the New Hat'' (EP)

===LPs===
* 1957 – ''[[At the Drop of a Hat]]'' (Parlophone PMC 1033 mono) (Recorded live at the Fortune Theatre, London, 21 February 1957.
* 1960 – ''[[At The Drop Of A Hat]]'' (1959 Stereo re-recording) (Parlophone PCS 3001) (Recorded during the final performance at the Fortune Theatre, London, on 2 May 1959. Parlophone's first stereo LP release.)
* 1961 – ''[[The Bestiary Of Flanders & Swann]]'' Parlophone PMC 1164 (mono)/ PCS 3026 (stereo)
* 1964 – ''[[At the Drop of Another Hat]]'' (produced by George Martin) Parlophone PMC 1126 (mono) / PCS 3052 (stereo)
* 1975 – ''And Then We Wrote...''
* 1977 – ''Tried by the Centre Court''<ref name="Larkin"/>

===Cassettes===
* 1996 – ''EMI Comedy Classics'' (''Hat'' and ''Another Hat'' on two cassettes)
* 1997 – ''More out of the Drop of a Hat – Again!'' (double cassette)

===CDs===
* 1991 – ''The Complete Flanders & Swann'' (first three albums, in stereo in a boxed set)<ref name="Larkin"/>
* 1994 – ''A Transport of Delight: The Best of Flanders & Swann''
* 1999 – ''The Flanders and Swann Collection''
* 2000 – ''A Drop of Hilarity from Flanders & Swann''
* 2007 – ''Hat Trick: Flanders & Swann Collector's Edition''

==Bibliography==
* 1977 – ''Songs of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann'' (Michael Flanders & Donald Swann, scores)
* 1991 – ''The Hippopotamus Song: A Muddy Love Story'' (Michael Flanders & Donald Swann, children's book)

==Videography==
* 1992 – ''The Only Flanders & Swann Video'' (recorded in New York, 19 April 1967, 10 days after the close of ''At The Drop of Another Hat)''
* 1994 – ''Flanders & Swann - Documentary by [[John Amis]]'' (for [[BBC Two|BBC2]], utilising footage from ''At The Drop of a Hat'' recorded at the Haymarket Theatre in 1962, and footage from the above New York performance in 1967)

==Songs==
Flanders and Swann's songs are characterised by wit, gentle satire, complex rhyming schemes, and memorable choruses. Flanders commented during the recorded performance of ''At the Drop of Another Hat'',
{{quote|The purpose of satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip off the veneer of comforting illusion and cosy half-truth. And our job, as I see it, is to put it back again.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iankitching.me.uk/humour/hippo/|title=Michael Flanders and Donald Swann|website=Iankitching.me.uk|access-date=17 April 2009|date=13 August 1995}}</ref>}}

They wrote over a hundred comic songs together. The following selection gives an indication of their range.
{{unordered list
| "All Gall"—a political satire based on the long career of [[Charles de Gaulle]]. At the time of writing, de Gaulle had recently vetoed the UK's first application to join the [[European Economic Community]]. Sung to the tune of "[[This Old Man]]".
| "Bedstead Men", a wry explanation for the rusty bedsteads dumped in ponds and lakes in the UK, including a witty reference to "A Smuggler's Song" by [[Rudyard Kipling]] in which "Bedstead Men" are substituted for "Gentlemen".
| "Design for Living"—about contemporary furnishings of houses and gardens. "One day we're taking [[Liberty's]] in, the next we're down at [[Heal's]]".
| "First and Second Law"—a jazzy setting of the first and second laws of [[thermodynamics]]. "Heat is work and work is heat..." "Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter / You can try it if you like but you far better notter / Cos the cold in the cooler will get hotter as a ruler..." "Heat is work and work's a curse / And all the heat in the universe / is gonna cool down / because it can't increase / so there'll be no more work / and there'll be perfect peace" / [Swann] "Really?" / [Flanders] "Yeah, that's entropy, man."
| "The Gasman Cometh"—a verse-and-chorus song in which a householder finds that no tradesman ever completes a job without creating another, related job for another tradesman. The melody quotes from "[[Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=Dashing Away with a Smoothing Iron by Traditional|url=http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=11509|website=Songfacts.com|access-date=13 April 2013}}</ref> The title may have been inspired by that of ''[[The Iceman Cometh]]'' (1946).
| "The Hippopotamus"—one of Flanders and Swann's best-known songs (because of its memorable chorus, "Mud, mud, glorious mud"), and one of a range of songs that they wrote about different beasts, including:{{unordered list
| "[[The Gnu]]",
| "The Rhinoceros",
| "The Warthog" (both with the message that beauty is only skin deep)
| "The Armadillo".
| "The Sloth"}}
"The Hippopotamus" is among those [[Ian Wallace (singer)|Ian Wallace]] included in his repertoire;<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ian-wallace-bass-baritone-celebrated-for-his-buffo-roles-ndash-and-for-his-rendition-of-the-hippopotamus-song-1802618.html "Ian Wallace: Bass baritone celebrated for his 'buffo' roles – and for his rendition of 'The Hippopotamus Song'"], ''The Independent'', 15 October 2009, accessed 26 December 2019</ref> "The Elephant" was written by Flanders and Swann especially for Ian Wallace,<ref>Ian Wallace's narrative during 'An Evening with Ian Wallace' on Radio 4 on 3 August 1982</ref> although they also sang it themselves.<ref>Track 9 on the LP 'The Bestiary of Flanders and Swann'</ref>
| "Ill Wind"—Flanders's words sung to a slightly cut version, with cadenza, of the ''rondo'' finale of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart's]] [[Horn Concerto No. 4 (Mozart)|Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat major]], K. 495. It has to be sung since Flanders's French horn was apparently stolen.
| "Rockall" – deriding the British annexation of the island of [[Rockall]] in 1955.
| "In The Desert" ("''Верблюды''", ''lit.'' "[[camel]]s")—a "traditional Russian" song, performed by Donald Swann. He provides an [[English language|English-language]] translation after every line. The haunting music and poignant lyrics are undercut by the dry unemotional tone in which Swann gives the translation. Some of the original words are repetitive, rendering parts of the translation redundant.
| "In the D'Oyly Cart"—a satire about the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]]. It was first performed in the revue ''Oranges and Lemons'' (1948) and revived in ''Penny Plain'' (1951). It was included as the first track on Flanders and Swann's 1974 album, ''And Then We Wrote''.<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/mdflaswa.htm "Flanders & Swann's "In the D'Oyly Cart" (1974)"], ''A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography'' (1999)</ref>
| "[[Have Some Madeira M'Dear]]"—an old [[roué]] sings to an [[Ingenue (stock character)|ingénue]] about the merits of that wine, hinting that he has seduction in mind, with complex word-play, including three oft-quoted examples of [[syllepsis]].
| "Holimakittiloukachichichi"—another (short) song of implied seduction, this time in the kingdom of Tonga, where the word means "no".
| "Misalliance"—a political allegory concerning a love affair between a [[honeysuckle]] and a [[bindweed]].
| "P** P* B**** B** D******" or "Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers"—a song comparing the use of profanity among the intelligentsia to playground swearing.
| "The Reluctant Cannibal"—an argument between father and son, on the topic of cannibalism. (Son: "Eating people is wrong", Father: "Must have been someone he ate"—"he used to be a regular anthropopha''guy''") The father says you might as well say "Don't fight people" and they agree: "Ridiculous!" (Swann had registered as a conscientious objector during World War II and served with the [[Friends' Ambulance Unit]].)<ref>{{cite news|last=Amis|first=John|title=Obituary: Donald Swann|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-donald-swann-1431432.html|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|access-date=26 April 2012|date=25 March 1994}}</ref>
| "[[Slow Train (Flanders and Swann song)|Slow Train]]"—an elegiac song about the railway stations on lines scheduled for closure by the [[Beeching Axe]] in 1963. {{anchor|A Song of Patriotic Prejudice}}
| "[[A Song of Patriotic Prejudice]]"—a parody of patriotic songs ("The English, the English, the English are best/I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest")
| "A Song of Reproduction"—about the then topical mania for do-it-yourself [[High fidelity|hi-fi]] as an end in itself. (Making much of the jargon of the hobby: "woofer", "tweeter", "wow on your top", "flutter on your bottom" and in a line added for the stereo remake: "If you raise the ceiling four feet, move the fireplace from that wall to that wall, you'll still only get the stereophonic effect if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard.") The closing verse references singers who were not necessarily in the contemporary public consciousness, [[Enrico Caruso]] having died in 1921 - "With a tone control at a single touch/ I can make a [[Enrico Caruso|Caruso]] sound like [[Leslie Hutchinson|Hutch]]".
| "A Song of the Weather"—a parody of the 1834 poem "January Brings the Snow" by [[Sara Coleridge]]
| "There's a Hole in My Budget", a parody of "[[There's a Hole in My Bucket]]" in the form of a dialogue between the then Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] and the Chancellor of the Exchequer [[James Callaghan]].
| "To Kokoraki" (''Το Κοκοράκι'', ''lit.'' "The Cockerel")—a modern-Greek children's song, something like "[[Old McDonald Had a Farm]]", in which a different animal noise is added in each verse. Flanders, feigning impatience with it as Swann sings several more verses than strictly necessary, remarks sarcastically "We must have it in full some night. Alternate it with ''[[The Ring Cycle]]''."
| "A Transport of Delight"—with an [[Cumulative song|increasing refrain]] about the "Big six-wheeler, scarlet-painted, [[London Transport Board|London Transport]], diesel-engined, ninety-seven–horse-power omnibus". (The bus was probably the [[AEC LT-type]], which served London from 1929 until the 1950s, and had six wheels instead of the more normal four).<ref>{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=Prince|title=Wheels of London; The story of London's street transport|publisher=[[The Sunday Times Magazine]]|date=1972|page=60|isbn=0-7230-0068-9}}</ref>
| "20 Tons of TNT"—a song in protest against [[thermonuclear weapon]]s.
| "The War of 14–18"—a translation of a [[French language|French]] song by [[Georges Brassens]], this song celebrates (satirically) [[World War I]].
| "The Whale (Mopy Dick)", which demonstrates Swann's expertise in [[musical parody]]: it deftly parodies the style of the English [[Fantasia on British Sea Songs|Sea-Song]] popular in the early 20th century.
| "The Wompom"—a tale about a fictitious all-purpose plant each of whose parts is an excellent raw material of a different kind.
| "Twosome: Kang & Jag" (Kangaroo and Jaguar)—two more animal songs sung as a pair. The title recalls two operas "''Cav'' and ''Pag''" (i.e. ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]'' and ''[[Pagliacci]]'') which are often performed together.}}

A very rare song, "Vendor Librorum Floreat" (Let the bookseller flourish), was released as a single in 1960. It was written for the annual [[American Booksellers Association]], the only known time Flanders & Swann accepted a private commission.

==Monologues==
Flanders' comic monologues include:
* "By Air"—about the vogue for air travel. "I agree with the old lady who said, 'If God had intended us to fly, He would never have given us the railways.{{'"}}
* "Tried by the Centre Court"—a parody of the poem "A Subaltern's Love Song" by [[John Betjeman]], about a third-round ladies singles match at [[The Championships, Wimbledon|Wimbledon]], between Miss L. Hammerfest and [[Joan Jackson|Miss J. Hunter-Dunn]], as related by the bored central umpire. "They are bashing a ball with the gut of a cat".
* "Greensleeves"—about the background to the composition of the [[Greensleeves|famous English air]]. An annotated version explains all the jokes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.beachmedia.com/gorbuduc.shtml|title="Greensleeves" monlogue explained to death|website=Beachmedia.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516192651/https://www.beachmedia.com/gorbuduc.shtml |access-date=16 May 2011|archive-date=16 May 2011 }}</ref>
* ''Los Olividados''— a satire on [[bullfighting]], about "the almost unbearable drama of a corrida d'olivas, or festival of olive-stuffing". "A cruel sport: some may think it so. But this is surely more than a sport, this is more than a vital artform. What we have experienced here today is total catharsis, in the acting out of that primeval drama, of man pitted against the olive." The title is a reference to ''[[Los Olvidados]]'', or ''The Forgotten Ones'', a 1950 movie by the director [[Luis Buñuel]].
* "Built-up Area"—a prehistoric inhabitant of [[Salisbury Plain]] complains about a new development: [[Stonehenge]].

==Homage and parody==
The British comedy [[double act]] [[Armstrong and Miller (comedians)|Armstrong & Miller]] have a recurring sketch on ''[[The Armstrong and Miller Show]]'' in which they parody Flanders and Swann, as Donald Brabbins (Armstrong as Flanders) and Teddy Fyffe (Miller as Swann). The parodies begin like a typical Flanders and Swann performance, but the songs are far more [[bawdy]], often being mock-censored for comedic effect.<ref>{{cite news |last=Davies | first=Serena | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3668664/The-Armstrong-and-Miller-Show.html | title=The Armstrong & Miller Show | newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] | date=20 October 2007 | access-date=7 November 2012}}</ref>

British singer-songwriter [[Frank Turner]] covered "The Armadillo" on his "Mittens" EP, and "Slow Train" (listed as "The Slow Train") on "The Second Three Years".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://frank-turner.com/discography/mittens-ep/ | title = Mittens EP | website=Frank-turner.com | access-date=3 July 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Second Three Years |url=https://frank-turner.com/discography/the-second-three-years/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Frank Turner |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of songwriter tandems]]
*[[List of people educated at Westminster School]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Flanders and Swann}}
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Flanders_and_Swann.ogg|date=2006-03-03}}
* [https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A417142 Flanders and Swann] at [[h2g2]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051001064249/http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fas/ Flanders & Swann Online] (archived)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090627174815/http://flandersandswann.wetpaint.com/ An Evening of Flanders and Swann] [[tribute act]] (archived)
* [https://flandersandswann.info/ Flanders and Swann: At the Drop of a Hippopotamus] tribute act

{{Flanders and Swann}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flanders and Swann}}
[[Category:English comedy duos]]
[[Category:Angel Records artists]]
[[Category:British comedy musical groups]]
[[Category:British satirical musicians]]
[[Category:English musical duos]]
[[Category:Parlophone artists]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1956]]
[[Category:1956 establishments in the United Kingdom]]

Sworn virgin

2025-08-12T18:22:57Z

158.41.78.58: correct link

'''Sworn virgin''' may refer to:
* [[Celibacy]], the state of voluntarily being unmarried and/or sexually abstinent
* [[Balkan sworn virgins]], women in certain Balkan cultures who take a vow of chastity and present as male
* [[Sworn Virgin (film)|''Sworn Virgin'' (film)]], 2015 drama directed by Laura Bispuri
* ''[[Sworn Virgins]]'', studio album by Omar Rodríguez-López

{{disambiguation}}