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National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti

2025-10-31T02:05:19Z

80.42.211.225:

{{Short description|Haitian rebellion group}}
{{outdated|date=April 2024}}
The '''National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti''' ({{langx|fr|Front pour la libération et la reconstruction nationales|links=no}}) was a [[Rebellion|rebel]] group in [[Haiti]] that controlled most of the country following the [[2004 Haitian coup d'état]]. It was briefly known as the "Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front", after the country's central [[Artibonite (department)|Artibonite]] region, before being renamed on February 19, 2004, to emphasize its national scope.

The group can be considered{{According to whom|date=January 2023}} an alliance between two elements within the coup: armed anti-government gangs and former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army.{{Dubious|original research e synthesis|date=January 2023}} The most prominent of the gangs was the one based in [[Gonaïves]], formerly known as the "Cannibal Army",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/haiti/haiti-metayer.htm |title=Fugitive leader of Haiti's 'Cannibal Army' found shot to death |author= |date=September 2003 |website=latinamericanstudies.org |publisher=The Associated Press |access-date=23 May 2022}}</ref> who had once supported [[Fanmi Lavalas|Lavalasian-party]] President, [[Jean-Bertrand Aristide]] but later turned against him. The coup initiated with the Cannibal Army's capture of Gonaïves on February 5, 2004. It was led until his death in 2005 by [[Buteur Metayer]] since the murder (allegedly on Aristide's orders) of Buteur's brother, [[Amiot Metayer]], in late 2003.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

The group’s name had been used a fear-tactic to spread intimidation who aimed to “eat the spoils of the Lavalasian state”, but they were not ''actual'' cannibals.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_6p-AAAAMAAJ&q=haiti+cannibal+army+2004+eat|title=The Roots of Haitian Despotism|editor=Fatton, Robert|page=109|year=2007|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=9781588265449|accessdate=18 March 2024}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/2923602/medias-descent-into-political-advocacy/|title=Media's descent into political advocacy erases line between journalism and partisan activism|editor=Adams, Becket|date=16 March 2024|publisher=[[Washington Examiner]]|accessdate=16 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/5/haiti-crisis-is-a-gang-led-coup-next|title=Haiti crisis: Is a gang-led coup next?|editor=Press|date=5 March 2024|publisher=[[Al Jazeera]]|accessdate=16 March 2024}}</ref>

Following the capture of Gonaïves, the rebels quickly moved into several neighboring towns, expelling the police from them. Some of these, such as [[Saint-Marc]], were retaken by the police and pro-Aristide militants within days. However. On February 14, the rebels were reinforced by opponents of the government who had returned from exile in the Dominican Republic: 20 former soldiers, led by [[Louis-Jodel Chamblain]], a former militia leader who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the [[Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti]] (FRAPH), which killed and maimed at least 4,000 people, and raped and tortured thousands more in the early 1990s.<ref>Sprague, Jeb (6 November 2014). [https://monthlyreview.org/2012/09/01/paramilitaries-in-haiti/ Paramilitaries in Haiti], in: monthlyreview.org. Retrieved 19 February 2017.</ref> By February 17, the rebel forces had captured the central town of [[Hinche]], near the Dominican border. According to reports, this attack was led by Chamblain. The rebels also controlled most of the roads connecting the central Artibonite province with the north and south of the country.

It has been alleged that, from 2001 to 2004, the United States Government funded and implemented training operations for a group of 600 anti-Aristide paramilitary soldiers, with the approval of the Dominican Republic's president, [[Hipolito Mejia]]. This training was allegedly carried out by roughly 200 members of the US Special Forces. Among the soldiers trained during this operation were known human-rights violators, [[Guy Philippe]] and [[Louis-Jodel Chamblain]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2004/4/7/witnesses_u_s_special_forces_trained |title=Witnesses: U.S. Special Forces Trained and Armed Haitian Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries in D.R. |author=Goodman, Amy |date=April 2004 |website=democracynow.org |access-date=19 Dec 2022}}</ref>

On February 4, 2004, the paramilitary groups led by Buteur Metayer, Guy Philippe, and Louis-Jodel Chamblain began marching on the capital of Haiti, [[Port-au-Prince]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/international/americas/haitis-president-forced-out-marines-sent-to-keep.html |title=Haiti's President Forced Out; Marines Sent to Keep Order |newspaper=The New York Times |date=29 February 2004 |last1=Polgreen |first1=Lydia}}</ref> On February 22, the rebels captured the country's second-largest city, [[Cap-Haïtien]]. By February 25, nearly the entire north was in rebel hands, and the rebels were threatening to attack the capital, [[Port-au-Prince]]. On February 29, Aristide resigned under intense pressure from the United States Government and an impending attack from rebel groups, including the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti. Aristide was Haiti's first democratically elected president.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/international/americas/haitis-president-forced-out-marines-sent-to-keep.html |title=Haiti's President Forced Out; Marines Sent to Keep Order |newspaper=The New York Times |date=29 February 2004 |last1=Polgreen |first1=Lydia}}</ref> April 24, 2004, Louis-Jodel Chamblain surrendered to Haitian authorities after being convicted [[Trial in absentia|in absentia]] of the slaughter of dozens in Haiti in 1999.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8495340.htm |title=Herald.com | 04/22/2004 | Rebel leader surrenders to police in Haiti |website=www.miami.com |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040629012852/http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8495340.htm |archive-date=29 June 2004 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Notes==
<references/>
[[Category:Haitian rebels]]
[[Category:Paramilitary organizations based in Haiti]]
[[Category:Political organizations based in Haiti]]

Francis Cammaerts

2025-10-02T12:55:48Z

80.42.211.225:

{{short description|English espionage agent}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Francis Charles Albert Cammaerts
| other_name = 'Roger'
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = 16 June 1916
| birth_place = France
| death_date = 3 July 2006 (aged 90)
| death_place = Dio-et-Valquieres, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
| branch = Resistance
| serviceyears = 1942–1945
| rank = Lieutenant-Colonel
| commands = Special Operations Executive: SW France
| awards = [[Distinguished Service Order]], [[Legion d'honneur]], [[Croix de guerre 1939–1945|Croix de Guerre]], [[Medal of Freedom (1945)|Medal of Freedom]]
| spouse = Nancy Findlay (Nan)
| children = 4
| laterwork = various, teaching
}}

'''Francis Charles Albert Cammaerts''', [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]] (16 June 1916 – 3 July 2006), code named '''Roger,''' was an agent of the [[United Kingdom]]'s clandestine [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE) during [[World War II]]. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe and Asia against the Axis powers, especially [[Nazi Germany]]. In France, SOE agents allied themselves with [[French Resistance]] groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Cammaerts was the creator and the organiser (leader) of the [[SOE F Section networks|Jockey]] network (or circuit) in southeastern France in 1943 and 1944.

At the beginning of World War II in 1939, Cammaerts declared himself a [[conscientious objector]], but in 1942 he joined the SOE. He recruited and supplied with arms and training a large number of resistance networks and cells over an extensive area east of the [[Rhone River]] extending to the border with [[Italy]] and north from the [[Mediterranean Sea]] to the city of [[Grenoble]]. Despite being very careful in his work, Cammaerts was captured by the Germans in August 1944, but saved from execution by his courier, [[Christine Granville]].

Of the more than 450 SOE agents who worked in France during World War II, [[M.R.D. Foot]], the official historian of the SOE, named Cammaerts as one of the half-dozen best male agents. He was one of only three SOE agents to be promoted to the rank of [[Lt. Colonel]], along with [[George Reginald Starr|George Starr]] and [[Richard Henry Heslop|Richard Heslop]].<ref name="Foot">{{cite book |last1=Foot |first1=M.R.D. |title=SOE in France |date=1966 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London |pages=42, 311}}</ref>

==Early life==
Cammaerts was born in [[London]] and raised in [[Radlett]] in Hertfordshire,<ref name="Pacifist">{{cite book |last1=Jenkins |first1=Ray |title=A Pacifist At War: The Silence of Francis Cammaerts |date=2009 |publisher=Hutchinson |isbn=978-0091925574}}</ref> the son of Professor [[Emile Cammaerts]], a [[Belgian people|Belgian]] poet, and Tita Brand, a successful actress.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|9,13}} He was educated at [[Mill Hill School]],<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|24}} where he was a contemporary of [[Francis Crick]] and [[Patrick Troughton]]. He became a [[pacifist]] in the 1930s while a student at [[St Catharine's College, Cambridge]], where he read English and history and also won a hockey [[University Sporting Blue|Blue]]. After university he briefly began a teaching career. He taught in [[Belfast]]<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|33}} before moving on to [[Langley Park School for Boys|Beckenham and Penge County School for Boys]], near London, where he taught with his close friend from university, [[Harry Rée]] who also joined the SOE.

In 1940, Cammaerts was refused registration as a [[conscientious objector]] by his Local Tribunal, but it was granted by the Appellate Tribunal, conditional upon him taking up agricultural work. He joined a farm training project at [[Holton cum Beckering]], [[Lincolnshire]].<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|36–41}} During this period he met Nancy Findlay (Nan), and they married on 15 March 1941.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Foot |first1=MRD |title=Francis Cammaerts|website=The Guardian obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jul/07/guardianobituaries.secondworldwar |date=7 July 2006}}</ref> After the death of his brother Pieter while serving in the [[Royal Air Force]], Cammaerts believed he could no longer stand aside from participation in the war, and, as a French speaker, he succumbed to the urging of [[Harry Rée]] to join SOE.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|45}}

==SOE service==
[[File:SOE (F) Networks in France June 1943.jpg|thumb|right|250px|SOE networks in France, June 1943]]
===A frightening beginning===
Cammaerts began extensive training with SOE in October 1942.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|49–51}} Training included fieldwork experience in the New Forest, Scotland and Manchester. Cammaerts was considered by some of his training officers to be lacking in physical skills, and 'more intellectual than practical'. Nevertheless, he was considered to be above average in all areas. He was given the rank of captain and the code name ''Roger'', and flown into occupied northern France in March 1943. More than a dozen SOE circuits were active in France at that time. Cammaerts was assigned to the [[SOE F Section networks|Donkeyman]] network or circuit, then operating in the upper [[Rhône Valley]], but his reception party from Donkeyman and the [[The Carte Organisation|Carte network]] drove him first to [[Paris]], with a dangerous disregard for security that alerted him to the risks of such behaviour. Cammaerts concern was heightened by his appearance. He was {{convert|193|cm|ftin}} tall with feet so large his nickname in France was "Big Feet". He spoke French with a noticeable [[Belgian French|Belgian accent]]. Cammaerts' worries about security were confirmed one day after he arrived in Paris when Carte leader, [[André Marsac]], was arrested by the Germans. Cammaerts fled Paris by train to [[Annecy]]<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|3–5}}

Near Annecy in the village of [[Saint Jorioz]] he met with [[Odette Sansom]], [[Adolphe Rabinovitch|Adolphe "Alex" Rabinovitch]], and Auguste Floiras of the [[SOE F Section networks|Spindle]] network. Once again his antenna warned him of the poor security of Spindle and he departed after two or three days for [[Cannes]]. Rabinovitch declined to work with Cammaerts because his "appearance was too English" and he spoke French with an "atrocious" accent, but gave him the address of a safe house in Cannes. Floiras would soon join Cammaerts and become his best friend and wireless operator; Sansom and several other members of the Spindle network were arrested and imprisoned shortly after Cammaerts departed Saint Jorioz. He spent a month in Cannes establishing his cover story as a teacher recovering from [[jaundice]].<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|66–75}}{{sfn|Foot|1966|page=254}}

===Security===
Cammaerts worked primarily in rural areas. SOE networks were more secure in rural areas which had a much smaller presence of German soldiers and [[milice]], the pro-German French militia, than large urban areas.<ref name="Fuller">{{cite book |last1=Fuller |first1=Jean Overton |title=The German Penetration of SOE |date=1975 |publisher=William Kimber |location=London |isbn=0718300645 |page=147}}</ref>

In the words of the official historian of the SOE [[M.R.D. Foot]], impeccable security, the hallmark of the best SOE agents, characterized Cammaert's survival as an SOE agent for two tours totaling fifteen months, far longer than the average agent served or survived in France.{{sfn|Foot|1966|pages=253-256, 311, 530}} Cammaerts never stayed in the same house for more than three or four nights, he avoided hotels as their registers were checked by German and French police, and he also avoided large train stations which frequently had check points. He never told anybody his plans, nor made appointments nor visited unknown addresses without careful reconnoitering. He did not communicate in writing or by telephone, nor did he know the real names of the people he worked with, only their field names. He had a squad of seven or eight men who followed and investigated potential recruits before they were contacted and he divided his recruits and associates into cells of no more than 15 persons each and discouraged contact between cells. Cammerts told his agents to always have a credible reason for being where they were if stopped by a German patrol.<ref name="Musee">{{cite web |title=Francis Cammaerts |url=http://museedelaresistanceenligne.org/media399-Francis-Cammaerts |website=Musee de la Resistance |accessdate=26 May 2020}}</ref><ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|77–81, 92}} {{sfn|Foot|1966|pages=253-256}}

While seeking air-tight security, Cammaerts said that he always informed the families in the places he spent nights, usually rural farmhouses or in villages, that he was English and left them no doubt of the danger they were in by hosting him. He was always received, he said, with "open arms". As in the case of others who operated in enemy-held territory for prolonged periods, he gave a great deal of credit to the ordinary French citizens who had provided him and his colleagues with safety and comfort. In the BBC TV series ''Secret Agent'', broadcast in 2000, Cammaerts said, "The most important element was the French housewife who fed us, clothed us and kept us cheerful."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tillotson |first1=Michael |title=SOE and the Resistance |date=2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=9781441119711 |page=173}}</ref>

===Jockey network===
Disillusioned with what he had seen of the Carte Organization and the Spindle network, Cammaerts organised his own circuit (''Jockey''). He worked initially in the area of [[Montélimar]]. His first associate was wireless operator Auguste Fioras, a man as cautious as Cammaerts himself. The first message the pair sent to London was on 27 May 1943. Fioras would transmit 416 wireless messages to London during 1943 and 1944, a record for SOE wireless operators.{{sfn|Foot|1966|page=255}}

In the latter part of 1943, Cammaerts established several small semi-autonomous groups of resisters to the German occupation.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|77}} They were located along the left bank of the Rhône between [[Vienne, Isère|Vienne]] and [[Arles]] and eastwards through the hinterland and into the [[Alps]]. He traveled around on a motorbike visiting each group. By the end of 1943, Cammaerts had ensured that his ''Jockey'' circuit was ready to play its part in any sabotage that might be required. In November 1943 he was recalled to London for debriefing, and, while there, he raised the problems among the SOE agents working in France, often at cross-purposes, some under the command of General [[Charles de Gaulle]]'s headquarters and others, many of them French citizens, under the command of SOE's French section.

On his return to France in February 1944, Cammaerts' aircraft crashed due to icing and an engine fire, although he was unhurt after bailing out along with the crew.<ref>{{cite web |title=Halifax BII LW275 |url=https://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=LW275 |website=Royal Air Force Commands|access-date=7 February 2025}}</ref><ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|114–116}} He went on to check that his ''Jockey'' circuit was operational and later visited the 3,000+ group of [[Maquis (World War II)|Maquisards]] (young Frenchmen who had fled to the [[Vercors plateau]] to avoid being sent for forced labour in Germany). In April 1944, he informed SOE's London headquarters that the Vercors had a finely organised army, but they needed long-distance and anti-tank weapons. Cammaerts' ''Jockey'' circuit played its part following the [[Normandy Landings]]: they and the other SOE circuits cut railway lines and helped to severely hinder German troop and machinery movements. Cammaerts was appointed head of Allied missions in southeastern France. By this time he had built up an organisation of more than 10,000 people.

The situation in the area of the [[Maquis du Vercors|Vercors]] plateau did not fare so well, with London having refused Cammaerts' and others' requests to provide the Resistance with heavy weapons. Allied High Command felt, based on the Yugoslav experience, that guerrillas were not trained to stand and fight. Cammaerts understood and was even sympathetic to this view, but he had no control over the belief by French Resistance leaders that, with Allied landings taking place in the north, the war was coming to an end and the Germans were fatally weakened. In fact, Vercors was attacked by two German divisions complete with air support, and German reprisals were ruthless.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|148–180}} It was a rout and the surviving Maquisards fled to whatever hiding places they could find, with an estimated 600-plus maquisards and civilians slaughtered.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vercors Mountains - The Resistance |url=http://www.highpointholidays.co.uk/vercors/resistance.asp |website=High Point Holidays}}</ref>

===Arrest and release===
Despite his meticulous care for security, on 13 August 1944, two days before the Allied [[Operation Dragoon]] landings in southern France, Cammaerts, [[Xan Fielding]], an SOE agent who had previously operated in [[Crete]], and a French officer, Christian Sorensen, were arrested at a roadblock by the Gestapo at [[Digne-les-Bains]]. Cammaerts had received a large amount of money for operations which he divided among the three of them, an action that would prove a mistake. Entering Digne by automobile, they came upon a German checkpoint. Under questioning, Fielding denied knowing the other two, but a young German civilian examining their forged identity papers noticed that the serial numbers of the money each of them carried was in the same series, thus indicating a connection among them. The three were taken to Digne prison and roughly interrogated. They claimed they were involved in black marketing to account for the money. The Germans apparently did not know they had captured Cammaerts, the most important SOE agent in southeastern France, but decided to execute the three suspecting they were associated with the French resistance.{{sfn|Jenkins|2009|pages=193-195}}

On August 17, [[Krystyna Skarbek]], a.k.a. Christine Granville, a Polish-born SOE operative and Cammaerts' lover,<ref>Mulley, Clare (2012), ''The Spy who Loved,'' New York: St. Martin's Press, pp 212-213</ref> managed to get Cammaerts and the others released. She confronted two collaborators, Albert Schenck, a French liaison officer to the Gestapo, and Max Waem, a Belgian interpreter for the Gestapo, telling them that American troops would arrive within hours and that if they did not co-operate she would ensure the pair were handed over to an avenging mob of French citizenry. The collaborators agreed to the release of Cammaerts, Fielding and their French colleague, on condition of the payment of a two million franc ransom, which Skarbek obtained by an airdrop from London. The three SOE agents were to be executed on the evening of the day that Skarbek negotiated their release.{{sfn|Mulley|2012|pages=244-253}} The rescue of Cammaerts is fictionalized in the last episode of the British television show [[Wish Me Luck]].

===Helping the allies===
Digne was liberated by the American army two days after Cammaerts was released from prison. The maquis had cleared the way for the Americans and there was little opposition. On August 20, Cammaerts and Granville met the American commander, Brigadier General [[Frederic B. Butler]], at [[Sisteron]] who dismissed them as "bandits". Leaving the American army behind, the two proceeded to [[Gap, Hautes-Alpes|Gap]] where the maquis had captured the German garrison. Several hundred Polish soldiers, soldiers in the German army, were among the captured Germans. Granville addressed the Poles with a megaphone and secured their agreement to join the Allied forces, provided that they shed their German uniforms. The Poles stripped off their uniforms. General Butler arrived and disapproved of the proceedings, threatening Cammaerts and Granville with arrest and court martial if they didn't leave. Author Arthur Funk said, "The historian can only wonder at Butler's short-sightedness in ignoring a British officer who knew a great deal about the terrain and the people in it."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Funk |first1=Arthur |title=Hidden Ally |date=20 May 1992 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=New York |isbn=9780313279959 |pages=80–84}}</ref> Later, Cammaerts and Granville received a better reception from Butler's superior officer, General [[Alexander Patch]], who appointed them as the liaison for the Americans with the maquis. The couple continued northward to [[Lyon]] and [[Paris]].{{sfn|Mulley|2012|pages=241-258}}

Cammaerts' time in occupied France ended in September 1944. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, awarded the [[Distinguished Service Order]] and the [[Legion d'honneur]], [[Croix de guerre 1939–1945|Croix de Guerre]] and the American [[Medal of Freedom (1945)|Medal of Freedom]] for his work in south-eastern France.<ref name=dt>{{cite web | last = | first = | title = Obituaries: Francis Cammaerts | work = [[The Daily Telegraph]] | publisher = | date = 7 July 2006 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1523256/Francis-Cammaerts.html | doi = | accessdate = 10 August 2011 }}</ref>

==SAARF and immediately post-war==
In March 1945, when the Allies had crossed the Rhine, Cammaerts was asked to join the [[Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force]] (SAARF). Many of the personnel were SOE or OSS agents. Their main objective was to help in the reconstruction work in Germany after the fall of Hitler. For Cammaerts, it primarily meant dealing with the appalling aftermath of the newly liberated concentration camps. Cammaerts visited Dachau, Belsen and Ravensbruck. He was appalled and felt impotent in the face of what he found. He later said "the SAARF period was blank and grey and one of those certain areas in my life when I didn't know what I was doing." The SAARF was disbanded in July 1945.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|223–227}}

Cammaerts wanted to be transferred to work in the diplomatic world, but despite his extraordinary war record the Foreign Office considered Cammaerts to be a foreigner, as his father was Belgian, and so unable to work at the Foreign Office.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|227–233}} In 1946, he was offered work in Brussels with the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency, and he was able to move with his family to Belgium for 18 months.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|234}} In 1948, a daughter, Christine (named after Christine Granville), was born with multiple disabilities. For the remainder of her short life, Christine's circumstances played a large part in the decisions made by the Cammaertses about their own lives.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|235}}

==Education work and retirement==
In 1948, Cammaerts became the first Director of the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges, which was a UNESCO agency and enabled him to undertake international trips including to the USA.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|238}} In 1952, Cammaerts returned to teaching, with the encouragement of [[Newsom Report|John Newsom]] and [[Ronald Gould (trade unionist)|Ronald Gould]]. He later became the headmaster of [[Alleyne's Grammar School]] in [[Stevenage]] for nine years, at a time when Stevenage New Town was growing rapidly. Cammaerts was keen to implement the Labour Government's move towards comprehensive education, encouraged by Newsom. Alleynes enrolment increased from 170 to roughly 600 boys during Cammaerts' tenure, and new classroom blocks were added.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|247–251}}

Cammaerts did not forget his wartime lover, Christine Granville. Following her murder in 1952, he became part of a group of men dedicated to ensuring that her name not be "sullied and succeeded in stopping several press reports and two books" to protect her from stories of her active and diverse sex life.<ref>{{Citation |title=Krystyna Skarbek / Christine Granville |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeKH4N-YIE8 |access-date=2023-03-25 |language=en}}</ref><ref>C. Mulley, ''The Spy Who Loved'', p. 338-339, 345.</ref>

He was the subject of ''[[This Is Your Life (British TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' in 1958 when he was surprised by [[Eamonn Andrews]] at the BBC Television Theatre.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} In 1959, he appeared for the defence in the notorious trial of [[Penguin Books]] over the publication of [[D.H. Lawrence]]'s ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover]]''. The [[R v Penguin Books Ltd|trial]], at the [[Old Bailey]] was front-page news and Cammaerts' statement under cross-examination that he had let members of his 6th Form read the book and they did not appear to have been corrupted or become depraved, was widely reported. The publisher won the case.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alleyne's School |url=https://www.schoolandcollegelistings.com/GB/Stevenage/176938235702803/Alleyne%27s-School |website=School and College Listings}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=comment MisterTwister |title=Discussion of Lady Chatterley Trial |url=https://www.theguardian.com/discussion/p/2kgc7 |work=The Guardian |date=23 October 2010}}</ref>

He was Principal of the Leicester Teacher Training college in [[Scraptoft]], between 1961 and 1966, overseeing a liberalising of the training methods used.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|259–263}} He then moved to [[Kenya]] to help with the development of the country's education system in the immediate post-colonial period. Cammaerts became Professor of Education in [[Nairobi]] from 1966 to 1972.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|270–276}} He later returned to England, to become head of [[Rolle College]], a teacher training college at [[Exmouth]], which later became part of [[University of Plymouth]]. In 1981, aged 65, he came out of retirement to start a teacher training college in [[Botswana]]. He had a major impact on the development of education on all levels in the country, which had the most advanced policies on the African continent.<ref name="Pacifist" />{{rp|282–285}} Cammaerts finally retired in 1987, returning to live in the south of France until his death in 2006.

Cammaerts' nephew, children's author [[Michael Morpurgo]], in his novel, ''In the Mouth of the Wolf'', wrote about Cammaerts' time in the Resistance.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/michael-morpurgo-remembers-heroic-uncle-francis-cammaerts/|title=Michael Morpurgo remembers his heroic uncle, Francis Cammaerts|last=Morpurgo|first=Michael|date=2019-05-30|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2019-11-01|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of SOE Agents]]
*[[SOE F Section networks]]
*[[SOE F Section timeline]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*[[Ray Jenkins|Jenkins, Ray]], ''A Pacifist at War: The Life of Francis Cammaerts'', Hutchinson, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-091-92557-4}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Mulley |first1=Clare |author-link1=Clare Mulley |title=The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of One of Britain's Bravest Wartime Heroines |date=2012 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4472-0118-2}}

==External links==
*[https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,1814442,00.html Cammaerts' obituary] in [[The Guardian]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090924174720/http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/pacifist-led-army-Nazis/article-956305-detail/article.html Interview, Leicester Mercury]
* [http://www.claremulleyblog.co.uk/2018/06/historia-interviews-michael-morpurgo.html Clare Mulley interviews Michael Morpurgo about his uncle Francis Cammaerts] ''Historical Writers Association'' (20 June 2018)
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cammaerts, Francis}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Mill Hill School]]
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[[Category:British recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)]]
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[[Category:British Army General List officers]]
[[Category:People from Radlett]]
[[Category:British Special Operations Executive personnel]]
[[Category:Former pacifists]]

Jacques Raverat

2025-09-30T13:47:54Z

80.42.211.225:

{{short description|French painter}}
[[File:Ka Cox and friends.jpg|thumb|Jacques Raverat, [[Katherine Laird Cox|Ka Cox]], [[Gwen Raverat]] and [[Frances Cornford]] in a Norfolk barn]]
[[File:Jacques Raverat (1885-1925) - Mountains in the Dauphiné - PD.4-2010 - Fitzwilliam Museum.jpg|thumb|Jacques Raverat (1885-1925) - Mountains in the Dauphiné - PD.4-2010 - Fitzwilliam Museum]]

'''Jacques Pierre Paul Raverat''' (pronounced Rav-er-ah) (20 March 1885 – 6 March 1925) was a French painter; Raverat was the son of [[Georges Pierre Raverat]] and [[Helena Lorena Raverat]], née Caron; he was born in [[Paris]], [[France]], in 1885.

Raverat started at [[Bedales School]] in [[Steep, Hampshire]] in 1898.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Modernist Journals {{!}} Raverat, Jacques (1885-1925)|url=https://modjourn.org/biography/raverat-jacques-1885-1925/|access-date=2020-10-05|website=modjourn.org}}</ref> From Bedales, he went up to [[Jesus College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jacques Raverat|url=https://www.raverarts.com/jacques-raverat|access-date=2020-10-05|website=Raverarts|language=en-GB|archive-date=2019-04-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403060354/https://www.raverarts.com/jacques-raverat/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He married the English [[Painting|painter]] and wood engraver [[Gwen Darwin]], in 1911, the daughter of [[George Darwin]] and Lady Maud Darwin, née [[Maud du Puy]]; she was a granddaughter of [[Charles Darwin]].<ref>{{cite book | title=A historical dictionary of British women | first=Cathy | last=Hartley | publisher=Routledge | year=2003 | isbn=1-85743-228-2 | page=367 }}</ref> They had two daughters, Elisabeth (1916–2014), who married the [[Norwegian people|Norwegian]] politician [[Edvard Hambro]], and [[Sophie Gurney|Sophie Jane]] (1919–2011) who married the Cambridge scholar [[M. G. M. Pryor]] and later [[Henry Charles Horton Gurney|Charles Gurney]]. Raverat suffered from a form of [[multiple sclerosis]] and died on 6 March 1925, following complications of it. His funeral took place in Christ Church in [[Cannes]], France, where he may be buried.

Before moving, in 1920, to Vence in [[France]]<ref name="WilliamPryortellsyoumore">{{cite web |url=http://www.williampryor.com/ |format= |title=William Pryor's website which includes a useful essay on Gwen (Darwin) Raverat |accessdate=21 May 2011 |publisher=}}</ref> the couple were active members of an intellectual circle known as the "Neo-Pagans" and centred on [[Rupert Brooke]]. They also moved on the fringes of the [[Bloomsbury Group]], whose members included [[Virginia Woolf]], [[John Maynard Keynes]], [[Vanessa Bell]] and [[Lytton Strachey]].

In 2004, his grandson, [[William Pryor (writer)|William Pryor]] edited the complete correspondence between Raverat, his wife and [[Virginia Woolf]] which was published as ''Virginia Woolf and the Raverats''.<ref>{{cite book | title=Virginia Woolf & the Raverats: a different sort of friendship | editor=William Pryor | publisher=Clear Press | year=2003 | isbn=1-904555-02-0 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==See also==
*[[List of Bloomsbury Group people]]

{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raverat, Jacques}}
[[Category:1885 births]]
[[Category:1925 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Bedales School]]
[[Category:20th-century French painters]]
[[Category:20th-century French male artists]]
[[Category:French male painters]]
[[Category:19th-century French male artists]]
[[Category:Deaths from multiple sclerosis]]
[[Category:People with multiple sclerosis]]
[[Category:Neurological disease deaths in France]]
[[Category:Darwin–Wedgwood family]]
[[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge]]

{{France-painter-19thC-stub}}

Forrest Reid

2025-09-30T13:20:00Z

80.42.211.225:

{{Short description|Irish novelist, literary critic and translator (1875–1947)}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
'''Forrest Reid''' (24 June 1875, [[Belfast]], Ireland – 4 January 1947, [[Warrenpoint]], [[County Down]], Northern Ireland) was an Irish novelist, literary critic and translator. He was a leading pre-war novelist of boyhood and is still acclaimed as a noted [[Ulster]] novelist, being awarded the 1944 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for his novel ''Young Tom''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.forrestreid.com/ |title=Forrest Reid: homepage |publisher=forrestreid.com |accessdate=2015-04-25 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402121138/http://www.forrestreid.com/ |archivedate=2 April 2015 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Born in Belfast, he was the youngest son of a [[Protestant]] family of twelve, six of whom survived. He was educated at the [[Royal Belfast Academical Institution]]. His father, Robert Reid (1825–1881), was the manager of a felt works, having failed as a shipowner at [[Liverpool]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/TheLibrary/SpecialCollections/FileStore/Filetoupload,809270,en.pdf |title=The Correspondence of E. M. Forster and Forrest Reid: Content and Implications of a New Literary Archive |access-date=17 December 2021 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |first1=Brian G |last1=Caraher |first2=Emma |last2=Hegarty |website=[[Queen's University Belfast]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624082751/https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/TheLibrary/SpecialCollections/FileStore/Filetoupload,809270,en.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and came from a well-established upper-middle-class Ulster family; his mother, Frances Matilda, was his father's second wife. She was the daughter of Captain Robert Parr, of the [[54th Regiment of Foot]], of the landed gentry Parr family of [[Shropshire]], related to [[Catherine Parr]], last wife of [[Henry VIII of England|King Henry VIII]].<ref>''A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland Vol. II'', 4th edition, Sir Bernard Burke, 1863, p. 1153, Parr of Parr pedigree</ref><ref>''The Green Avenue: The Life and Writings of Forrest Reid, 1875-1947'', Brian Taylor, Cambridge University Press, 1980, p. 8</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35714|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/35714|title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2004}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/cddb76c9-fbe6-3b99-9f7a-7a2fe31bbabb|title=Forrest Reid Collection - Archives Hub|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=21 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121193057/https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/cddb76c9-fbe6-3b99-9f7a-7a2fe31bbabb|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="UE">{{cite web | title=Guide to Print Collections – Forrest Reid Collection | work=University of Exeter | url=http://library.exeter.ac.uk/special/guides/books/reid.html | accessdate=5 July 2009 | archive-date=8 December 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208094641/http://library.exeter.ac.uk/special/guides/books/reid.html | url-status=live }}</ref> [[File:Forrest Reid plaque, Belfast - geograph.org.uk - 1620230.jpg|right|thumb|100px|A plaque reading "Forrest Reid lived here 1924–1947" on a house at 13 Ormiston Crescent, Belfast.]] Reid entered [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], in 1905, graduating BA in medieval and modern languages in 1908. He returned to Belfast, and met [[E. M. Forster]], who remained a lifelong friend, in February 1912. After graduation Forster continued to visit Reid, who was then settled back in Belfast. In 1952, Forster traveled to Belfast to unveil a plaque commemorating Forrest Reid's life (at 13 Ormiston Crescent).

==Works and influences==
As well as his fiction, Reid also translated poems from the ''[[Greek Anthology]]'' (''Greek Authors'' (Faber, 1943)). His study of the work of [[W. B. Yeats]] (''W. B. Yeats: A Critical Study'' (1915)) has been acclaimed as one of the best critical studies of that poet. He also wrote the definitive work on the English [[Woodcut|woodcut artists]] of the 1860s (''Illustrators of the Sixties'' (1928)); his collection of original illustrations from that time is housed in the [[Ashmolean Museum]], [[Oxford]].

He was a close friend of [[Walter de la Mare]], whom he first met in 1913, and about whose fiction he published a perceptive book in 1929. Reid was also an influence on novelist [[Stephen Gilbert (novelist)|Stephen Gilbert]], and had good connections to the [[Bloomsbury Group]] of writers. Reid was a founding member of the [[Imperial Art League]] (later the [[Artists League of Great Britain]]). Reid was also a close friend of [[Arthur Greeves]], the artist known to be [[C. S. Lewis]]'s best friend. Greeves painted several portraits of Reid, now all in the possession of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.<ref>{{cite web | title=Forrest Reid | work=Dictionary of Ulster Biography | year=1993 | url=http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/1452 | accessdate=5 July 2009 | archive-date=24 November 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121124004221/http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/1452 | url-status=live }}</ref>

==Critical standing==
A "Forrest Reid Collection" is held at the [[University of Exeter]], consisting of first editions of all his works and books about Reid. Many of his original manuscripts are in the archives of the [[Belfast Central Library]]. In 2008, Queen's University Belfast catalogued a large collection of Forrest Reid documentary material it had recently acquired, including many letters from E.M. Forster.<ref>[http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/TheLibrary/FileStore/Filetoupload,139634,en.pdf Detailed listing of Forrest Reid Manuscripts held at Queen's University Belfast] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613170245/http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/TheLibrary/FileStore/Filetoupload,139634,en.pdf |date=13 June 2011 }}</ref>

==Works==
===Fiction===
{{div col}}
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100614109 ''The Kingdom of Twilight''] (1904)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001377185 ''The Garden God – A Tale of Two Boys''] (1905)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100670953 ''The Bracknels – A Family Chronicle''] (1911), revised as ''Denis Bracknel'' (1947)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007691406 ''Following Darkness''] (1912)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007691407 ''The Gentle Lover – A Comedy of Middle Age''] (1913)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100203411 ''At the Door of the Gate''] (1915)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007691827 ''The Spring Song''] (1916)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100681482 ''A Garden by the Sea''] (1918)(stories)
* ''Pirates of the Spring'' (1919)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006541374 ''Pender among the Residents''] (1922)
* ''Demophon – a Traveller's Tale'' (1927)
* ''Uncle Stephen'' (1931)
* ''Brian Westby'' (1934)
* ''The Retreat'' (1936)
* ''Peter Waring'' (1937)
* ''Young Tom'' (1944)
{{div col end}}
Out-of-copyright works (pre-1930s) may be available at https://www.gutenberg.org Search for the author and/or the title.

=== Autobiography ===

* ''Apostate'' (1926)
* ''Private Road'' (1940)

===Reissue editions===
Beginning in 2007, [[Valancourt Books]] began releasing editions of Reid's works, all containing new introductions by authors and scholars:

* ''The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys'' (2007), edited with a foreword, introduction and notes by Michael Matthew Kaylor
* ''The Tom Barber Trilogy'' (2011) hardcover two-volume set
* ''The Spring Song'' (2013)
* ''Following Darkness'' (2013)
* ''Brian Westby'' (2013)
* ''Denis Bracknel'' (2014)
* ''Pender among the Residents'' (2014)
* ''Uncle Stephen'' (2014)
* ''The Retreat'' (2015)
* ''Young Tom'' (2015)

==See also==
*[[List of Northern Irish writers]]
*[[Forrest Reid: A Portrait and a Study]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|25em}}
* Paul Goldman and [[Brian Taylor (lecturer)|Brian Taylor]], ''Retrospective Adventures: Forrest Reid, Author and Collector'' (Scholar Press, 1998)
* Colin Cruise, "Error & [[Eros (love)|Eros]]: The Fiction of Forrest Reid", ''Sex, Nation & Dissent'' ([[Cork University]] Press, 1997)
* Brian Taylor, ''The Green Avenue: The Life and Writings of Forrest Reid'', ([[Cambridge University Press]], 1980)
* Russell Burlingham, ''Forrest Reid: A Portrait & A Study'' (Faber, 1953)
* John Wilson Foster, critical readings of Forrest Reid in ''Forces and Themes in Ulster Fiction'' (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield; Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1974), pp. 139–48, 197–211
* [[Eamonn Hughes]], "Ulster of the Senses", ''Fortnight'' #306 (May 1992) – essay about Reid's autobiography

== External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=49537 |name=Forest Reid}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Reid, Forrest|name=Forrest Reid|author=yes}}
* {{Librivox author |id=13485}}
* Forrest Reid [https://web.archive.org/web/20150402121138/http://www.forrestreid.com/ website], including biography, photographs and links
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113541/http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/TheLibrary/FileStore/Filetoupload,312674,en.pdf Catalogue from the Forrest Reid/Stephen Gilbert exhibition] (Queen's University Belfast, 2008)
* [http://www.valancourtbooks.com/forrest-reid.html Forrest Reid] at Valancourt Books
* {{cite TIWW |article= Reid, Forrest|page=216 }}

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[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
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[[Category:Male writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Writers from Belfast]]

John Wodehouse, 2nd Earl of Kimberley

2025-09-21T23:34:25Z

80.42.211.225:

{{short description|British peer, landowner & politician (1848-1932)}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}

'''John Wodehouse, 2nd Earl of Kimberley''' (10 December 1848 – 7 January 1932), known as '''Lord Wodehouse''' from 1866 to 1902, was a British [[Peerage|peer]] and landowner, who was the first member of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in the [[House of Lords]].

Wodehouse was born at the family home in Montagu Square, [[Marylebone]]. His father [[John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley]] was a leading [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] statesman in the government of [[William Ewart Gladstone]] and the family were noted landowners in [[Norfolk]]. Like his father he attended [[Eton College]].

He matriculated at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] in 1867.<ref>{{acad|id=WDHS866LJ|name=Wodehouse, Lord John}}</ref> On going down from Cambridge he managed the family estates near [[Wymondham]], becoming a specialist in agriculture. He was also active in the local Liberal Party, acting as party agent; on succeeding to the peerage in 1902 he took the Liberal whip. However, Kimberley was conscious of the increasing organisation of agricultural workers in Norfolk. Small farmers had formed the [[National Farmers Union (UK)|National Farmers Union]] in 1908, and the [[National Union of Agricultural Workers]] was growing.

Unlike many other farms, Kimberley paid over the wage rate demanded by the NUAW, which made him very popular in the union but at a competitive disadvantage. He spoke up for his workers on Norfolk County Council. The agricultural workers in Norfolk were the backbone of the local Labour Party, and in [[1918 United Kingdom general election|the general election of 1918]], Kimberley sent a telegram of support to [[George Edwards (British politician)|the Labour candidate]] in South Norfolk who was opposing [[William Cozens-Hardy, 2nd Baron Cozens-Hardy|a Liberal]] who supported the [[Lloyd George Coalition]] government. He sent a further telegram in 1920 when there was [[1920 South Norfolk by-election|a by-election]] which Labour won. This activity caused the press to nickname him ''the Labour Earl''.

Kimberley was returned as a Labour candidate to [[Norfolk County Council]] in 1922, and was also Chairman of his Rural District Council and Board of Guardians. However, at this time there were no Labour members in the House of Lords and so he retained the Liberal whip. He transferred his allegiance formally in January 1924 when the first Labour government was formed. He was defeated for re-election to Norfolk County Council in 1925.

Kimberley was a distant cousin of the writer [[P. G. Wodehouse]], both being descended from [[Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet]], and the writer was the godfather of his first grandson, [[John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley|the fourth earl]].<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1395628/The-Earl-of-Kimberley.html The Earl of Kimberley] (obituary) in ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' dated 29 May 2002, accessed 23 February 2018</ref>

Two of Kimberley's sons, Philip Wodehouse<ref>{{CWGC|id=2802740|name=Wodehouse, Philip|access-date=26 November 2021|fewer-links=no}}</ref> and Edward Wodehouse,<ref>{{CWGC|id=851522|name=Wodehouse, Edward|access-date=26 November 2021|fewer-links=yes}}</ref> died on active service in the [[World War I|Great War]]. His eldest son [[John Wodehouse, 3rd Earl of Kimberley|John]], a noted [[polo]] player, inherited the earldom on his death.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
*{{cite book | last=Hesilrige | first=Arthur G. M. | year=1921 | title=Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy | url=https://archive.org/details/debrettspeeraget00unse/page/519 | location=160A, [[Fleet street]], [[London]], UK | publisher=[[Dean & Son]] | page=519 }}

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{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimberley, John Wodehouse, 2nd Earl of}}
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[[Category:1932 deaths]]
[[Category:Earls of Kimberley|12]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
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[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) hereditary peers]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers]]
[[Category:Councillors in Norfolk]]
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[[Category:Wodehouse family|John Wodehouse, 2nd Earl of Kimberley]]

Marcellin Champagnat

2025-09-21T22:16:26Z

80.42.211.225:

{{Short description|French priest and founder of Marist Brothers}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix= [[Saint]]
| name = Marcellin Champagnat
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1789|5|20|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1840|6|6|1789|5|20|df=y}}
| feast_day = 6 June
| venerated_in = [[Catholic Church]]
| image = Ravery, Portrait of Marcellin Champagnat, 1840.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Official portrait of Marcellin Champagnat
| birth_place = Le Rosey, France
| death_place = [[Saint-Chamond, Loire|Saint-Chamond]], [[France]]
| titles = Priest & Founder
| beatified_date = 29 May 1955
| beatified_place = The Vatican
| beatified_by = [[Pope Pius XII]]
| canonized_date = 18 April 1999
| canonized_place = The Vatican
| canonized_by = [[Pope John Paul II]]
| attributes =
| patronage = Education, teachers, and simplicity
| major_shrine =
| suppressed_date =
| issues =
| prayer =
| prayer_attrib =
|honorific_suffix=FMS}}
'''Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat''', FMS (20 May 1789{{spnd}}6 June 1840) was a [[Catholic Church in France|French Catholic]] priest who founded the [[Marist Brothers]], a [[religious congregation]] of [[Religious brother|brothers]] devoted to [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]] and dedicated to education. He was canonized in 1999 and his feast day is 6 June, his death anniversary.

Champagnat was born in the year of the [[storming of the Bastille]], the start of the [[French Revolution]]. The religious, political, economic, and social unrest of the times he lived influenced his priorities and life path. Champagnat was ordained as a priest on 22 July 1816 and was part of a group led by [[Jean-Claude Colin]], who founded the [[Society of Mary (Marists)|Society of Mary]], a separate religious congregation.

==Seminary and ordination==
[[File:Klarfeld Marcellin Champagnat unveiled.jpg|thumb|Life-size bronze statue of St Marcellin Champagnat outside Parramatta Marist High School by sculptor [[Linda Klarfeld]]]]

With money he earned from raising sheep, he went to the Minor Seminary at [[Verrières-en-Forez]]. He entered in October 1805.{{sfn|Furet|1989|p=12}} Older than many of his classmates, at the age of 17, he failed his first year and was sent home. He was readmitted, through the efforts of his mother, his parish priest, and the superior of the seminary.{{sfn|Sammon|2000|p=12}}

Champagnat, who by this time had developed from being timid and shy into a gregarious young man, was known to frequent the local pubs. As a consequence, he was eventually regarded as a member of a group known as the “Happy Gang,” made up of seminarians who were a familiar sight in the taverns of the town during their free time.<ref name=beaudin>{{cite web |url=http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/Beaudin03.htm |title=Beaudin F.M.S., Bernard, "Saint Marcellin Champagnat And The Little Brothers Of Mary" |publisher=Campus.udayton.edu |access-date=24 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003041757/http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/Beaudin03.htm |archive-date=3 October 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Sammon|2000|p=14}}

At the beginning of his second year, Champagnat settled down to a more sober lifestyle. He continued to apply himself to his studies throughout his second year at the seminary. Two events, occurring during the summer following the second year, also helped to moderate his exuberant behaviour. The first was the sudden death on 2 September 1807 of his friend, Denis Duplay. The second was a serious conversation with Father Linossier, who supervised the seminary, about improving Champagnat's general conduct.{{sfn|Sammon|2000|p=14}} Champagnat left Verrières for St. Irenaeus, the major seminary near Lyons.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=38}}

He then attended the major seminary at Saint Irenaeus in [[Lyon]] for his spiritual and theological formation as a priest. Among his companions were [[Jean-Marie Vianney]] and [[Jean-Claude Colin]].<ref name=va>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19990418_champagnat_en.html |title="Marcellin Joseph Benoît Champagnat (1789-1840)", Vatican News Service |access-date=6 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207101122/https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19990418_champagnat_en.html |archive-date=7 December 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was no natural scholar but through hard work and the support of his mother and aunt he was finally ordained.<ref name="bros">{{cite web|url=http://www.maristbrothers.org.nz/about-us/marcellin-champagnat/|title="St Marcellin Champagnat 1789–1840", Champagnat Marists|author=New Zealand|publisher=Maristbrothers.org.nz|access-date=24 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201155250/http://www.maristbrothers.org.nz/about-us/marcellin-champagnat/|archive-date=1 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

It was here that the idea for the Society of Mary was conceived and promoted by a group of seminarians, including Champagnat. He was ordained on 22 July 1816, at the age of twenty-seven, and the next day, travelled to the shrine of Our Lady of Fourviéres above Lyons with others interested in establishing a Society of Mary. The group of young men together dedicated themselves to Mary as "The Society of Mary".<ref name=bros/> From the start, he announced the Society should include teaching Brothers to work with children deprived of Christian education in remote rural areas because others were not going to them.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=42}}

==Founding the Marist Brothers==
[[File:Buste Catalogne.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of Champagnat]]

After his ordination, Champagnat was appointed pastor in La Valla, on the slopes of [[Mont Pilat]]. Champagnat was struck by the isolation in which people lived and the lack of education in the rural area. At the end of October 1816, after attending Jean-Baptist Montagne, a dying sixteen-year-old completely ignorant of basic Catholic teaching, Champagnat acted upon his conviction of the need for religious Brothers.<ref name=beaudin/>

After witnessing the poor treatment of a student by a teacher on his first day at school, Champagnat's thoughts on education had been shaken.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=37}} He was motivated to establish a society that would care for indigent children and display "great zeal for the poor".{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=42}} When he later instructed the Marists on how to educate their students, he ordered them, "Keep loving them as long as they are with you, since this is the only way to work with any success at reforming them. Love them all equally—no outcasts, no favourites".{{sfn|Champagnat|2010|p=475}} He stated on another occasion, "I cannot see a child without wanting to tell him how much God loves him".<ref name=va/>

On 2 January 1817, Champagnat encouraged two young men Jean-Marie Granjon and Jean-Baptiste Audras, to join him in forming the nucleus of the Marist Brothers. Others soon followed. La Valla thus became the birthplace of the Marist Brothers.<ref name=va/> In 1817 he started a small establishment for training teachers at La Valla, which became a centre for his young Brothers.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|pp=39–40}} In 1824, when the new French king, [[Charles X of France|Charles X]], transferred the oversight of elementary education to the Catholic Church, Champagnat won support to build a new and larger [[novitiate]], which became the Notre Dame Hermitage, and the brothers began to spread more widely.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|pp=42–43}}

In the early years of the new society, Champagnat personally supervised the training of the Brothers, visiting all of their schools and taking part in their teaching. By 1833, the novices of the Brothers were primarily men in their late teens and early twenties.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=50}} They were required to be literate and numerate and received instruction in doctrine and the religious life as they trained to become teachers, living by a regular timetable of prayer, study, and manual work.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=49}} Soon, the Brothers extended their services from the small country parishes in which they had begun their work to the larger towns.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=42}}

In 1818 Champagnat opened the first Marist school whose timetable he designed in such a way to fit the farming needs of his parishioners (such as allowing children off school to help in the fields at planting and harvesting time). He set fees for the school at a level he knew most rural families could meet. In fact, if he knew the family was unable to afford anything, the tuition was free.<ref name=bros/> Champagnat had a great devotion to the [[guardian angel]]s, and directed that an image of a guardian angel be placed in every classroom.{{sfn|Champagnat|2010|p=116}}

Encouraged by the success of the school in La Valla, others were founded at [[Marlhes]] in 1819, in Saint-Sauveur-Street 1820, and in [[Bourg-Argental]] in 1822. But this success endangered the small congregation, which had little more than novices. In March 1822, eight applicants came from Haute-Loire, giving a new impetus to the institution, and allows the creation of new houses in [[Vanosc]] 1823, [[Saint-Symphorien-le-Château|Saint-Symphorien-le-Chateau]] 1823, and Chavanay Charlieu 1824.{{cn|date=June 2021}}

In 1837, Champagnat printed a Rule for his Brothers.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=50}} In view of Champagnat's declining health, however, in 1839 Jean-Claude Colin advised him to have the Brothers elect a successor. This took place with the election of Brother François Rivat as Director-General and Champagnat's successor on 12 October 1839.{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=52}}{{sfn|Furet|1989|pp=217–20}}

==Final years==
[[File:Marcelinochampagnat.jpg|thumb|right|[[Statue]] of Champagnat at [[Belo Horizonte]], [[Brazil]]]]
After a long-term illness, Champagnat died of [[cancer]] on 6 June 1840,<ref name=beaudin/> aged 51, at Our Lady of the Hermitage in the [[Gier River]] valley about 30 kilometres from where he had commenced his work. He was buried on 8 June. He left this message in his Spiritual Testament of 18 May 1840: "Let there be among you just one heart and one mind. Let it always be said of the [[Marist Brothers|Little Brothers of Mary]] as it was of the early Christians: See how they love one another!"{{sfn|Furet|1989|p=236}} By that time there were 278 Brothers and 48 Marist schools in France, and the order was spreading to the South Pacific.{{sfn|Keenan|2006|p=131}}

The nascent order called themselves Les Petits Frères de Marie or Little Brothers of Mary. The Marist Brothers Institute was formally approved in 1863 by [[Pope Pius IX]],{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=53}} and were given the name {{lang|la|Institutum Fratrum Maristarum a Scholis}}. Members of the order are identified by the initials "FMS".{{sfn|Tiedemann|2015|p=21}}

==Veneration==
Champagnat's cause was formally opened on 9 August 1896, granting him the title of [[Servant of God]].<ref name="index">{{cite book |title=Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum |date=January 1953 |publisher=Typis polyglottis vaticanis |page=140 |language=Latin}}</ref> Champagnat was declared Venerable on 11 July 1920 by [[Pope Benedict XV]],<ref name="index" /> [[beatification|beatified]] by [[Pope Pius XII]] on 29 May 1955, and [[canonization|canonised]] by [[Pope John Paul II]] on 18 April 1999.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Škrobonja |first1=Ante |last2=Pavlović |first2=Eduard |last3=Zubović |first3=Šime |title=Tragic fate of the sister of charity Agostina Pietrantoni - Inspiration for announce of one more possible patronesse of nurses |journal=Acta medico-historica Adriatica |year=2003 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=196 |url=http://www.amha-journal.com/index.php/AMHA/article/view/134 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |access-date=27 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404002608/http://www.amha-journal.com/index.php/AMHA/article/view/134 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
His feast day is observed in the Catholic Church on 6 June.<ref name="society">{{cite web|url=http://www.maristsm.org/en/marcellin-champagnat.aspx|title="Marcellin Champagnat", Society of Mary|publisher=Maristsm.org|access-date=24 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201211045/http://www.maristsm.org/en/marcellin-champagnat.aspx|archive-date=1 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=CNA |title=St. Marcellin Champagnat |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-marcellin-champagnat-262 |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=Catholic News Agency |language=en}}</ref>

==Legacy==
At his death, there were 280 Marist Brothers in the south of France. The number grew to 1500 Brothers in 1856. In 2000, there are about 5000 Marist Brothers and tens of thousands of [[Laity|lay]] people who undertake the work of spreading Marist education in 74 countries around the world.{{sfn |Sammon|2000|p=97}}

Champagnat never wrote an extended exposition of his educational philosophy, but he believed that to teach children one must love them; secular subjects should be well taught as a means of attracting children to the schools, and they would learn the basic elements of their faith as well.<ref name=beaudin />{{sfn|Braniff|2005|p=46}} Influenced by the [[French school of spirituality]], Champagnat saw God at the centre of life and the Virgin Mary as a sure means of attracting people to God.<ref name=beaudin />

The endemic Italian columbine ''[[Aquilegia champagnatii]]'' is named in his honour.<ref name="Marists">{{cite web |url=https://champagnat.org/en/marist-institute/other-topics/a-plant-named-after-champagnat/ |title=A plant named after Champagnat |publisher=Marist Institute |date=2024 |website=Marists of Champagnat |access-date=October 27, 2024}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Peter Chanel]]
*[[Peter Julian Eymard]]
*[[John Vianney]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite thesis|last=Braniff|first=John|year=2005|title=The Marist Brothers' Teaching Tradition in Australia: 1872–2000|type=PhD|publisher=Sydney University|section-url=https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/691/adt-NU20050601.17280204chapter3.pdf|section=Chapter 3: Fr Champagnat and the Sources of Marist Pedagogy}}
* {{cite book|last=Champagnat|first=Marcellin|year=2010|editor-last=Villacorta|editor-first=José Diez|translator-last=Voegtle|translator-first=Leonard|title=Opinions, Conferences, Sayings and Instructions of Marcellin Champagnat|place=New York|publisher=IVE Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdDyrBUtc-0C|isbn=978-1933871226}}
* {{cite book |last=Furet|first=Br. John-Baptist|title= Life of Blessed Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat, 1789-1840, Marist Priest: Founder of the Congregation of the Little Brothers of Mary| publisher = Institute of the Marist Brothers of the Schools or Little Brothers of Mary| location = General House, 2 Piazzale Champagnat - Rome, Italy|year=1989 |edition=Bicentenary}}
* {{cite book|last=Keenan|first=William J. F.|year=2006|chapter=''Sacre Bleu:'' Faith, Fashion and Freedom: Marist Foundation Garments 1817–1862|editor-last=Arweck|editor-first=Elizabeth|editor-last2=Keenan|editor-first2=William|title=Materializing Religion: Expression, Performance and Ritual|place=Aldershot|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=978-0754650942|pages=116–137}}
* {{cite book
| last = Sammon
| first = Sean
| title = A heart that knew no bounds: The life and mission of Saint Marcellin Champagnat
| publisher = Alba House
| place = New York
| isbn = 0-8189-0834-3
| year = 2000
}}
* {{cite book|last=Tiedemann|first=R. G.|year=2015|title=Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century|place=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1315497327|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9HaTDAAAQBAJ}}

==Further reading==
* Marcellin Champagnat. A man for our times. Br. Giorgio Diamant and Mario Meuti, Elio Dotti. GRAFISTAR - Giugliano (Napoli).
* Br. Jose M. Ferre, fms. Letters to a young friend by Marcellin Champagnat.Marist Brothers of Schools. Marist Publications.
* McMahon, FMS, Brother Frederick. Strong Mind, Gentle Heart. (Drummoyne, NSW: Marist Brothers, 1988).
* Farell FMS, Brother Stephen. Achievement from the Depths. (Drummoyne, NSW: Marist Brothers, 1984).

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.champagnat.org/ Institute of the Marist Brothers of the Schools (F.M.S.- Fratres Maristae a Scholis)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071107140900/http://www.maristen-gymnasium.de/archiv/infos_maristen/champagnat/Champagnat.pdf Description of Champagnat's life (German)]
*[https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19990418_champagnat_en.html "Marcellin Joseph Benoît Champagnat (1789-1840)", Vatican News Service]
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09749c.htm Little Brothers of Mary]

{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= Saints |portal4= France}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Champagnat, Marcellin}}
[[Category:1789 births]]
[[Category:1840 deaths]]
[[Category:Founders of Catholic religious communities]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholic saints]]
[[Category:Marist Brothers]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Educational Association]]
[[Category:Beatifications by Pope Pius XII]]

James Richardson Spensley

2025-09-21T18:17:48Z

80.42.211.225: /* Death */

{{short description|English footballer and manager, scouting pioneer}}
{{British barrelled name|Richardson Spensley|Spensley}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name = James Richardson Spensley
| image = JamesRichardSpensley.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| fullname = James Richardson Spensley
| birth_date = 17 May 1867
| birth_place = [[Stoke Newington]], [[London]], UK
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1915|11|10|1867|5|17}}
| death_place = [[Mainz]], [[Rhine Province]], [[German Empire]]
| height =
| position = [[Goalkeeper (association football)|Goalkeeper]], [[Defender (association football)|Defender]]
| years1 = 1896–1906
| clubs1 = [[Genoa C.F.C.|Genoa]]
| caps1 = 22
| goals1 = 0
| manageryears1 = 1896–1907
| managerclubs1 = [[Genoa C.F.C.|Genoa]]
}}
'''James Richardson Spensley'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n16mag.com/issue31/5.htm |title=Italian Football |work=N16Mag.com |access-date=27 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928031957/http://www.n16mag.com/issue31/5.htm |archive-date=28 September 2007}}</ref> (17 May 1867 – 10 November 1915) was an English medical doctor, footballer, manager, [[scout leader]] and medic from [[Stoke Newington]], London. He is considered to be one of the "Fathers of [[Football in Italy|Italian football]]",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rsssf.org/players/eng-players-in-it.html |title=English Players in Italy |work=RSSSF.com |access-date=27 August 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921040533/http://www.rsssf.com/players/eng-players-in-it.html |archive-date=21 September 2007}}</ref> due to his association with [[Genoa C.F.C.|Genoa CFC]] and his contribution to the modern day variation of the game in Italy and of Italian scouting.

==Biography==
He was born in 1867 in the [[Stoke Newington]] district of London to William Spensley and Elizabeth Alice Richardson.<ref name=jrs>{{cite web | url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~grahamf/dat0.htm#899| title=Spensley, James Richardson | work=RootsWeb.com | access-date=27 August 2007}}</ref> Although he was born and grew up in London, the Spensley family were originally from the [[Swaledale]] area in [[Yorkshire]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~grahamf/dat0.htm#503| title=Genealogy Data – Spensley Family| work=RootsWeb.com | access-date=27 August 2007}}</ref>

Richardson Spensley had the opportunity to travel far and wide as an adult. Amongst the most keen interests which he had acquired whilst travelling were [[eastern religions]], languages (he was versed in [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Sanskrit]]), [[boxing]] and [[association football|football]].<ref name=enciclop>{{cite web| url=http://www.enciclopediadelcalcio.com/Genoa1.html| title=Storia del Genoa| work=EnciclopediaDelCalcio.com| access-date=27 August 2007| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312013216/http://www.enciclopediadelcalcio.com/Genoa1.html| archive-date=12 March 2009| df=dmy-all}}</ref> In addition to working as a doctor, he spent some time as a correspondent for the British newspaper the ''[[Daily Mail]]''.<ref name="enciclop"/>

===Football in Genoa===
Richardson Spensley arrived in [[Genoa]] in 1896, initially for the purpose of curing English sailors on the coal ships.<ref name="enciclop"/> He joined [[Genoa C.F.C.|Genoa Cricket & Athletics Club]], a [[cricket]] and [[Sports club|athletics]] club formed by British [[expatriates]]. He opened the [[association football|footballing]] section of the club on 10 April 1897<ref name="enciclop"/> and was put in place as its first ever manager.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/clubs/genoa.html| title=Genoa| work=Channel4.com | access-date=28 August 2007}}</ref> This was innovative as the modern day footballing scene in Italy was in its embryonic stages: if it had not been for [[Edoardo Bosio]] who founded four clubs in [[Turin]], there would have been no football at all in Italy at the time of Richardson Spensley's arrival.<ref name=turin>{{cite web | url=http://www.lifeinitaly.com/sport/history-italian-soccer.asp | title=Edoardo Bosio and Football in Turin | work=Life in Italy | access-date=28 August 2007 | archive-date=27 June 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627030348/http://www.lifeinitaly.com/sport/history-italian-soccer.asp | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Richardson Spensley acted as player-manager for Genoa in the first ever [[Italian Football Championship]] (which he initiated) during [[Italian Football Championship 1898|1898]] which his club won. The following season, he switched position from defender to goalkeeper, playing on until 1906.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.batsweb.org/sport/Calcio/Campionato/form1898.htm| title=Le formazioni dei campioni d'Italia dal 1898 al 1915| work=BatsWeb.com | access-date=28 August 2007}}</ref>

Including the first title, Genoa won the Italian league six times while Richardson Spensley was at the helm. After retiring from playing when he was almost 40 years old, he stayed on in the management role for one more year, before leaving entirely.

===Scouting===
While living in England he became acquainted with [[Robert Baden-Powell]] who founded the [[Scout Movement]], from whom he had received a signed copy of ''[[Scouting for Boys]]''. In 1910 genoan pedagogist [[Mario Mazza]], who had founded in 1905 a youth movement called ''Le gioiose'', decided to join scouting with his group. He approached [[Sir Francis Fletcher-Vane, 5th Baronet|Sir Francis Vane]], another Briton living in Italy and former collaborator of Baden-Powell, who had founded the first Italian [[scout troop]] in [[Bagni di Lucca]] in 1908.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mario|last=Sica|title=Storia dello scautismo in Italia|year=2006|publisher=Edizioni scout fiordaliso|location=Roma|authorlink1=Mario Sica|isbn=978-88-8054-774-7|edition=4th|language=it}}</ref> Vane came to Genoa to hold a lecture, and referred Mazza to Spensley. Spensley and Mazza together founded the first scout troops in Genoa and joined the newly born association [[Ragazzi Esploratori Italiani]] (REI), the first scout association in Italy. Mazza was Section Secretary and Spensley regional commissioner for Liguria. The Genoa section was one of the most active in the early years of scouting in Italy, and Mazza and Spensley are counted amongst the pioneers of Italian scouting.<ref name='Furia1'>{{cite book|first=Mauro|last=Furia|chapter=Come nacquero i R.E.I. Ragazzi Esploratori Italiani|publisher=Centro Studi Scout Baden-Powell|location=Bologna|title=Esperienze & Progetti n. 85, Maggio-Giugno 1991|year=1991|ref=Furia|language=it}}</ref>

=== Death ===
During [[World War I]], he worked in the medical field putting his scouting abilities to use as a lieutenant in the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]].<ref name="jrs"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.military-genealogy.com/nameShow?war=1&sid=1031173 |title=James Richardson Spensley |work=Military-Genealogy.com |access-date=28 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930150350/https://www.military-genealogy.com/nameShow?war=1&sid=1031173 |archive-date=30 September 2007}}</ref> He was injured on the battle field while tending to the wounds of an enemy out of [[compassion]]. As an officer, he was interned in the [[Fortress of Mainz]], in Germany, where he died of his wounds not long after.<ref name=burial>{{cite news|url=http://www.clandeigrifoni.it/clandeigrifoni/index.php?app=clan&clanID=1372c0a3c23f12a2a8676f3da1685f3d&mod=chapters_explorer&chapter_id=267 |publisher=Clan Dei Grifoni |title=La Storia del Grifone |date=24 June 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722030127/http://www.clandeigrifoni.it/clandeigrifoni/index.php?app=clan&clanID=1372c0a3c23f12a2a8676f3da1685f3d&mod=chapters_explorer&chapter_id=267 |archive-date=22 July 2011|language=it}}</ref><ref name=calciostoria>{{cite web|url=http://www.storiadelcalcio.info/?p=128 |title=I pionieri: James R. Spensley |work=StoriaDelCalcio.info |access-date=28 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070720235356/http://www.storiadelcalcio.info/?p=128 |archive-date=20 July 2007|language=it}}</ref>

His body was one of many moved in 1922 from smaller graveyards to larger cemeteries in Germany (no British bodies were returned to Britain). Spensley was reburied at [[Niederzwehren]] War Cemetery south of [[Kassel]]. His final burial location remained unknown until 1993, when two Italian scouts, after long research, managed to locate it again.<ref name=burial />

==Honours==
*[[Italian Football Championship 1898|1898]] [[Italian Football Championship]] (Genoa)
*[[Italian Football Championship 1899|1899]] [[Italian Football Championship]] (Genoa)
*[[Italian Football Championship 1900|1900]] [[Italian Football Championship]] (Genoa)
*[[Italian Football Championship 1902|1902]] [[Italian Football Championship]] (Genoa)
*[[Italian Football Championship 1903|1903]] [[Italian Football Championship]] (Genoa)
*[[Italian Football Championship 1904|1904]] [[Italian Football Championship]] (Genoa)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* Alberto dal Porto, ''Sir Francis Patrick Fletcher-Vane'', Padova, AGESCI Comitato Regionale Veneto - Centro Studi e Documentazione, 2010.
* {{In lang|it}} ''Cronaca rievocativa a ricordo ed onore del Prof. Carlo Colombo fondatore del C.N.G.E.I. nel cinquantenario della sua morte 1918-1968'', a cura di Antonio Viezzoli, suppl. a «Il Sentiero», 10 (1968), 3.
* {{cite book|first=Mario|last=Sica|title=Gli scout. Storia di una grande avventura iniziata con 22 ragazzi su un'isola|year=2002|publisher=Società editrice il Mulino|location=Bologna|authorlink1=Mario Sica|isbn=978-88-15-08477-4|language=it}}
* {{cite book|first=Mario|last=Sica|title=Storia dello scautismo in Italia|year=2006|publisher=Edizioni scout fiordaliso|location=Roma|authorlink1=Mario Sica|isbn=978-88-8054-774-7|edition=4th|language=it}}
* {{cite book|first=Mauro|last=Furia|chapter=Come nacquero i R.E.I. Ragazzi Esploratori Italiani|publisher=Centro Studi Scout Baden-Powell|location=Bologna|title=Esperienze & Progetti n. 85, Maggio-Giugno 1991|year=1991|ref=Furia|language=it}}
* {{cite book|last=Rota|first=Davide|title=Dizionario illustrato dei giocatori genoani|year=2008|publisher=De Ferrari|location=Genova|ISBN=978-88-6405-011-9|ref=Rota|language=it}}
* {{cite book|last=Padovano|first=Aldo|title=Accadde domani... un anno con il Genoa|year=2005|publisher=De Ferrari|location=Genova|ISBN=88-7172-689-8|ref=Padovano|language=it}}
* {{cite book|first=Franco|last=Tomati|first2=Gianni|last2=Brera|authorlink2=Gianni Brera|title=Genoa Amore mio|year=1992|publisher=Nuove Edizioni Periodiche|ref=Brera, Tomati|language=it}}
* {{cite book|title=L'età dei pionieri|year=2008|publisher=Fondazione Genoa 1893|location=Genova|ref=Fondazione|language=it}}

==External links==
*{{Sports links}}
*[https://www.soccersouls.com/james-richardson-spensley-father-of-italian-football/ James Richardson Spensley – Father Of Italian Football]

{{Serie A winning managers}}
{{Genoa C.F.C. managers}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spensley, James Richardson}}
[[Category:1867 births]]
[[Category:1915 deaths]]
[[Category:Footballers from the London Borough of Hackney]]
[[Category:People from Stoke Newington]]
[[Category:Scouting pioneers]]
[[Category:Founders of association football institutions]]
[[Category:English men's footballers]]
[[Category:Genoa CFC managers]]
[[Category:Genoa CFC players]]
[[Category:Men's association football goalkeepers]]
[[Category:Men's association football defenders]]
[[Category:English football managers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Royal Army Medical Corps officers]]
[[Category:British military personnel killed in World War I]]
[[Category:Burials at Niederzwehren War Cemetery]]
[[Category:English expatriate sportspeople in Italy]]
[[Category:Daily Mail journalists]]

Denis Johnston

2025-09-20T15:28:22Z

80.42.211.225:

{{Short description|Irish writer (1901–1984)}}
{{About|the Irish writer|the American writer|Denis Johnson|those of a similar name|Dennis Johnson (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
|image = File:Denis_Johnston_68_adjusted.jpg
|caption = Johnston in 1968
|birth_date = 18 June 1901
|death_date = {{death date and age|1984|8|8|1901|6|18|df=y}}
|genre = {{hlist|Plays|[[war correspondence]]|literary criticism}}
}}
'''(William) Denis Johnston''' (18 June 1901 – 8 August 1984) was an [[Irish people|Irish]] writer. Born in [[Dublin]], he wrote mostly plays, but also works of literary criticism, a book-length biographical essay of [[Jonathan Swift]], a memoir and an eccentric work on cosmology and philosophy. He also worked as a [[war correspondent]], and as both a radio and television producer for the [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]]. His first play, ''The Old Lady Says "No!"'', helped establish the worldwide reputation of the Dublin [[Gate Theatre]]; his second, ''The Moon in the Yellow River'', has been performed around the globe in numerous productions featuring such storied names as [[James Mason]], [[Jack Hawkins]], [[Claude Rains]], [[Barry Fitzgerald]], [[James Coco]] and [[Errol Flynn]]. Later plays dealt with the life of Swift, the [[Easter Rising]] of 1916,, the pursuit of justice, and the fear of death. He wrote two opera libretti and a pageant.

== Early life ==
Johnston was the only child of [[William John Johnston]] from [[Magherafelt]], a barrister (later an Irish Supreme Court judge), and his wife, Kathleen (née King), a teacher and singer from Belfast.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gageby |first=Patrick |date=2009 |title=Johnston, William John |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/johnston-william-john-a9811 |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |language=en}}</ref> They were [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] and liberal [[Irish Home Rule movement|home rulers]]. Johnston was to see the family home in Dublin occupied by rebels during the 1916 Easter Rising.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Maume |first=Patrick |date=2009 |title=Johnston, (William) Denis |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/johnston-william-denis-a4313 |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |language=en}}</ref>

Johnston was educated at [[St Andrew's College, Dublin]] (1908–15, 1917–19), and [[Merchiston Castle School|Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh]] (1915–16). In 1918, he attempted to join [[Sinn Féin]], offering to supply the party with weapons taken from his [[Officers' Training Corps|Officer Training Corps]]. In 1922, while reading history and law at [[Christ's College, Cambridge]] (1919–23) he tried to enlist in the [[Irish Civil War|civil-war]] [[National Army (Ireland)|Free State army]]. His time at Cambridge was a success: in addition to graduating with [[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin)|MA (Cantab.)]] and [[Master of Laws|LLM]] degrees, he was also elected President of the [[Cambridge Union]] in 1921.<ref name=":0"/> He went on to study at the [[Harvard Law School]] (1923–4) and entered [[King's Inns|King's Inns (Dublin)]] and the [[Inner Temple|Inner Temple (London)]].<ref name=":0" />

In London, developing his interest in the theatre, Johnston abandoned plans for a legal and political career.<ref name=":0" />

==Career==
Johnston was a protégé of [[Yeats]] and [[George Bernard Shaw|Shaw]], and had a stormy friendship with [[Seán O'Casey]]. He was a pioneer of television and war reporting. He worked as a lawyer in the 1920s and '30s before joining the BBC as a writer and producer, first in radio and then in the fledgling television service. His broadcast dramatic work included both original plays and adaptations of the work of many different writers.

"Passionate in his radical scepticism and loathing of what he saw as the pernicious influence of the Roman Catholic Church",<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Kelly |first=Emer |date=2002 |title=A life twice lived but only half-covered |url=https://www.independent.ie/woman/celeb-news/a-life-twice-lived-but-only-half-covered-26239289.html |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=independent |language=en}}</ref> at the end of 1933, Johnston joined the trade unionist [[John Swift (trade unionist)|John Swift]], the Dublin novelist [[Mary Manning (writer)|Mary Manning]], and fellow northerner, the socialist [[Jack White (trade unionist)|Jack White]], in forming The Secular Society of Ireland.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Donal |date=2015-11-30 |title=The Secular Society of Ireland: Divorce, Birth Control and other tricky issues in 1930s Dublin. |url=https://comeheretome.com/2015/11/30/the-secular-society-of-ireland-divorce-birth-control-and-other-tricky-issues-in-1930s-dublin/ |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=Come Here To Me! |language=en}}</ref> "Convinced that clerical domination in the community is harmful to advance", the society sought "to establish in this country complete freedom of thought, speech and publication, liberty for mind, in the widest toleration compatible with orderly progress and rational conduct". Among other things it aimed to terminate ”the clerically-dictated ban on divorce”, “the Censorship of Publications Act” and “the system of clerical management, and consequent sectarian teaching, in schools.”<ref name=":8">{{Cite news |date=17 January 1934 |title=Anti-Clerical Organise: Stated Aims of New Dublin Society |work=Irish Press |url=https://comeheretome.com/2015/11/30/the-secular-society-of-ireland-divorce-birth-control-and-other-tricky-issues-in-1930s-dublin/ |access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref>

This was at a time of heightened clerical militancy and as soon the meeting place of the Society (from which it distributed the British journal ''[[The Freethinker (journal)|The Freethinker]]'') was exposed, it had to shift to private houses outside of Dublin. In 1936 Johnson and the other members wound the society up and donated the proceeds to the government of the beleaguered [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]].<ref name=":7" /> Johnston had become a recognised man of the left: in 1930 he had joined the Irish Friends of [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]], and though never a [[Communist Party of Ireland|party member]], until as late as the 1950s he professed faith in a communist future.<ref name=":0" />

During the [[Second World War]] he served as a BBC war correspondent, reporting from [[El Alamein]], through the [[Italian campaign (World War II)|Italian campaign]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=WAR CORRESPONDENTS IN ITALY, 1944-1945 |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205259814 |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=Imperial War Museums |language=en}}</ref> to [[Buchenwald]] and Hitler's [[Berghof (residence)|Berghof]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=VE Day: Denis Johnston reports from Bavaria |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/videos/c2lele0gpljo |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=BBC Archive |language=en}}</ref> For this he was awarded an [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]], a [[Mentioned in Despatches|Mention in Despatches]], and the Yugoslav Partisans Medal. He then became Director of Programmes for the television service.

Johnston later moved to the United States and taught at [[Mount Holyoke College]], [[Smith College]] and other universities. He kept extensive diaries throughout his life, now deposited in the [[Trinity College Library, Dublin|Library]] of [[Trinity College Dublin]], and these together with his many articles and essays give a distinctive picture of his times and the people he knew. Another archive of his work is held at the library of [[Ulster University at Coleraine]]. He received honorary degrees from the [[University of Ulster]] and [[Mount Holyoke College]] and was a member of [[Aosdána]].

Denis and actress [[Shelah Richards]] were the parents of [[Jennifer Johnston (novelist)|Jennifer Johnston]], a respected novelist and playwright, and a son, Micheal.<ref>{{cite web|author= |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/a-shaper-of-sophisticated-stories-1.1266817 |title=A shaper of sophisticated stories |publisher=Irishtimes.com |date=2010-01-09 |accessdate=2016-07-16}}</ref> His second wife was the actress [[Betty Chancellor]], with whom he had two sons, Jeremy and Rory.<ref name="Clarke">{{cite book |last1=Clarke|first1=Frances|editor1-last=McGuire |editor1-first=James |editor2-last=Quinn |editor2-first=James |title=Dictionary of Irish Biography |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |chapter=Chancellor, (Lilias) Betty}}</ref>

==Critical acclaim==

[[File:Denis_Johnston_1930.jpg|thumb|right|Denis Johnston c. 1930]]
[[Hilton Edwards]], who first directed ''The Old Lady Says "No!"'', said that the script "read like a railway guide and played like ''Tristan and Isolde''."<ref>Ronsley, Joseph, ed., ''Denis Johnston: a retrospective.'' Irish Literary Studies No. 8, Colin Smythe, Barnes & Noble Books, 1981, p. 5</ref>

Reviewing ''The Moon in the Yellow River'' in ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Brooks Atkinson]] wrote "Mr Johnston does not explain; he irradiates."<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |title=The Moon in the Yellow River |date=13 March 1932 |page=sec. 8 p.1}}</ref> Set in 1927 during an attempt by the [[Irish Republican Army|IRA]] to destroy an [[Irish Free State]] government power plant, a later ''New York Times'' review of the play's 1961 revival noted an "exhilaratingly mad, comic strain.".<ref>Howard Taubman, "The Theatre: Irish Irony; Johnston's 'Moon in the Yellow River' Revived." ''New York Times.'' February 7, 1961</ref> But acclaim was not universal. Irish writer and broadcaster (and later member of the [[Seanad Éireann|Irish Senate]]) [[Denis Ireland]] remarked that the play's success in London was "natural enough" for "it fulfils the first law of [[Anglo-Irish]] literature: it makes the native Irish appear a race of congenital idiots."<ref>Denis Ireland (1936) ''From the Irish Shore: Notes on My Life and Times'' (London Rich & Cowan). p. 209</ref>

Johnston's war memoir ''Nine Rivers from Jordan'' reached The ''New York Times''<nowiki>'</nowiki> Best Seller list and was cited in the ''[[World Book Encyclopedia]]'''s 1950s article on World War II under "Books to Read", along with Churchill, Eisenhower et al.<ref>World Book Encyclopedia, Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1959, Vol. 18 p. 8927</ref> Joseph Ronsley cites an unnamed former CBS Viet Nam correspondent who called the book the "Bible", carrying it with him constantly, "reading it over and over in the field during his tour of duty."<ref>Ronsley op. cit., p. vii</ref>

In a profile in the ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' in 1938, [[Clifford Odets]] is quoted as saying that the only playwrights he admired were [[John Howard Lawson]], Sean O’Casey, and Denis Johnston.<ref>New Yorker Jan. 22 1938 p. 27</ref>

Johnston's tribute to Dublin, "Strumpet city in the sunset," from the closing speech of ''The Old Lady says "No!"'', has achieved its own fame. [[James Plunkett]] titled his epic novel of Dublin before the First World War ''[[Strumpet City]]''. A travel guide written by Harvard students in introducing Dublin made a classic misattribution: "James Joyce loved his 'Strumpet city in the sunset'".<ref>''Let’s Go Britain and Ireland''. E.P. Dutton 1978</ref>

The Denis Johnston Playwriting Prize is awarded annually by [[Smith College]] Department of Theatre for the best play, screenplay or musical written by an undergraduate at Smith, Mount Holyoke, Amherst and Hampshire Colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The prize was endowed by his former student at Smith, [[Carol Sobieski]].

==Works==

'''Stage plays'''

Synopses of the plays can be found at [https://www.irishplayography.com/search-simple.aspx?playtitle=&authorfirstnames=Denis&authorsurname=Johnston&includeirishlanguage=true Denis Johnston] on ''Irish Playography''.
*''The Old Lady Says "No!"'' (1929)
*''The Moon in the Yellow River'' (1931)
*''A Bride for the Unicorn'' (1933)
*''Storm Song'' (1934)
*''Blind Man's Buff'' (1936) (with [[Ernst Toller]])
*''The Golden Cuckoo'' (1939)
*''The Dreaming Dust'' (1940)
*''A Fourth for Bridge'' (1948)
*'' 'Strange Occurrence on Ireland's Eye' '' (1956)
*''Tain Bo Cuailgne – Pageant of Cuchulainn'' (1956)
*''The Scythe and the Sunset'' (1958)

'''Biography'''
*''In Search of Swift'' (1959)
*''John Millington Synge'' (Columbia University Press 1965)

'''Autobiography'''
*''Nine Rivers from Jordan'' (1953)
*''Orders and Desecrations'' (1992) (ed. Rory Johnston)

'''Non-fiction'''
*''The Brazen Horn'' (1976)

'''Opera libretti'''
*''[[Six Characters in Search of an Author (opera)|Six Characters in Search of an Author]]'' (1957)
[[File:Marlene Denis Johnston.jpg|thumb|300px|Denis Johnston from ''The True Story of Lili Marlene'']]
*''[[Nine Rivers from Jordan]]'' (1968)

'''Adaptations for the stage'''
*''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' (1950) (translation from [[Luigi Pirandello|Pirandello]])
*''Finnegans Wake'' (1959) (from [[James Joyce|Joyce]])

'''Films'''
*''[[Guests of the Nation]]'' (1935) (director)
*''[[Riders to the Sea]]'' (1935) (acted the part of Michael)
*''[[Ourselves Alone (film)|Ourselves Alone]]'' (1936)
*''The True Story of Lilli Marlene'' (1944)

==Bibliography==
*Adams, Bernard. ''Denis Johnston: A Life''. Lilliput Press, 2002.
*Barnett, Gene A. ''Denis Johnston''. Twayne's English Authors Series No. 230. G.K. Hall & Co., 1978.
*Ferrar, Harold. ''Denis Johnston's Irish Theatre''. Dolmen Press, 1973.
*Igoe, Vivien. ''A Literary Guide to Dublin''. Methuen, 1994.
*Johnston, Denis. ''The Dramatic Works of Denis Johnston'' (3 vols.). Colin Smythe, 1979.
*Ronsley, Joseph, ed., ''Denis Johnston: a retrospective.'' Irish Literary Studies No. 8, Colin Smythe, Barnes & Noble Books, 1981.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.tcd.ie/library/research-collections/named-collections/j.php#Johnston The Johnston Collection] at the [[Library of Trinity College Dublin]]
* [https://voyager.library.uvic.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=2018197 Denis Johnston fonds] at University of Victoria, Special Collections
* {{IMDb name|id=0426601}} Includes details on the plays broadcast on TV and production photos.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091004162946/http://www.irishwriters-online.com/denisjohnston.html Denis Johnston at Irish Writers Online]
* [https://www.irishplayography.com/search-simple.aspx?playtitle=&authorfirstnames=Denis&authorsurname=Johnston&includeirishlanguage=true Denis Johnston] on ''Irish Playography''
* [http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/j/Johnston_D/life.htm Biography] on ''Ricorso''
* Denis Johnston in ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'' [https://www.dib.ie/biography/johnston-william-denis-a4313]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Denis}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
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[[Category:20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish biographers]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish memoirists]]
[[Category:Irish male dramatists and playwrights]]
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[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Burials at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin]]
[[Category:People educated at Merchiston Castle School]]
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[[Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:American opera librettists]]
[[Category:Aosdána members]]
[[Category:People from Donnybrook, Dublin]]
[[Category:Irish war correspondents]]

J. C. Squire

2025-09-19T22:40:22Z

80.42.211.225: /* Politics */

{{for|other people named John Squire|John Squire (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
{{Infobox writer|image=File:Portrait_of_J._C._Squire.jpg|birth_date=2 April 1884|birth_place=[[Plymouth]], UK|death_date=20 December 1958|occupation=editor|notable_works=''[[London Mercury]]''|alma_mater=[[St. John's College, Cambridge]]}}
'''Sir John Collings Squire''' (2 April 1884 – 20 December 1958) was an English writer, most notable as editor of the ''[[London Mercury]]'', a major literary magazine in the [[interwar period]]. He antagonised several eminent authors, but attracted a coterie that was dubbed the Squirearchy. He was also a poet and historian, who captained a famous literary cricket-team called the Invalids.

== Biography ==
Born in [[Plymouth]], he was educated at [[Blundell's School]] and [[St. John's College, Cambridge]]. He was one of those published in the [[Georgian poetry]] collections of [[Edward Marsh (polymath)|Edward Marsh]]. His own ''Selections from Modern Poets'' anthology series, launched in 1921, became definitive of the conservative style of ''Georgian poetry''.

He began reviewing for ''[[The New Age]]'';<ref>[[Eric Homberger]], ''Ezra Pound'' (1997), p. 83.</ref> through his wife he had met [[Alfred Orage]].<ref>Adrian Smith, ''The New Statesman: Portrait of a Political Weekly, 1913–1931'' (1996), p. 23.</ref> His literary reputation was first made by a flair for [[parody]], in a column ''Imaginary Speeches'' in ''The New Age'' from 1909.

His poetry from [[World War I]] was satirical; at the time he was reviewing for the ''[[New Statesman]]'', using the name Solomon Eagle (taken from a Quaker of the seventeenth century) – one of his reviews from 1915 was of ''[[The Rainbow]]'' by [[D. H. Lawrence]]. Squire had been appointed literary editor when the ''New Statesman'' was set up in 1912;<ref>[[Edward Hyams]], ''The New Statesman: The History of the First Fifty Years 1913–1953'' (1963), p. 17.</ref> he was noted as an adept and quick journalist, at ease with contributing to all parts of the journal.<ref>Hyams, p. 158.</ref> He was acting editor of the ''New Statesman'' in 1917–18, when [[Clifford Sharp]] was in the British Army,<ref>[http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/handlists/150BCNewStatesman.pdf Leeds Library PDF]</ref> and more than competently sustained the periodical.<ref>Hyams, p. 61.</ref> When the war ended he found himself with a network of friends and backers, controlling a substantial part of London's literary press.<ref>[[Alec Waugh]], ''My Brother Evelyn and Other Profiles'' (1967), pp. 143–147.</ref>

From 1919 to 1934, Squire was the editor of the monthly periodical, the ''[[London Mercury]]''. It showcased the work of the Georgian poets and was an important outlet for new writers. [[Alec Waugh]] described the elements of Squire's 'hegemony' as acquired largely by accident, consequent on his rejection for military service for bad sight. Squire's natural persona was of a beer-drinking, cricketing West Countryman; his literary cricket XI, the Invalids (originally made up of men who had been wounded in the First World War),<ref>"Obituary", ''[[The Cricketer]]'', Spring Annual 1959, p. 95.</ref> were immortalised in [[A. G. Macdonell]]'s ''[[England, Their England]]'',<ref>Alec Waugh, ''The Early Years'' (1962), p. 172.</ref> with Squire as Mr. William Hodge, editor of the ''London Weekly''.<ref>[http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/l.j.hurst/agm_ete.htm A G Macdonell's England Their England The Characters] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514023910/http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/l.j.hurst/agm_ete.htm |date=14 May 2008 }}</ref> In July 1927 he became an early radio commentator on [[The Championships, Wimbledon|Wimbledon]].<ref>[[Asa Briggs]], ''History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom'' (1995), p. 76.</ref>

In his book ''[[If It Had Happened Otherwise]]'' (1931) he collected a series of essays, many of which could be considered [[alternate history|alternative histories]], from some of the leading historians of the period (including [[Hilaire Belloc]] and [[Winston Churchill]]<ref>[http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=674 If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg – The Churchill Centre] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105132718/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=674 |date= 5 January 2009 }}</ref>); in [[United States|America]] it was published that same year in somewhat different form under the title ''[[If It Had Happened Otherwise|If: or, History Rewritten]]''.

Squire was [[knight]]ed in 1933, and after leaving the ''London Mercury'' in 1934, he became a reader for [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillans]], the publishers; in 1937, he became a reviewer for the ''[[Illustrated London News]]''.

His eldest son was [[Raglan Squire]], an architect known for his work at Rangoon University in the 1950s, as the architect for the conversion of the houses in Eaton Sq, London into flats thus ensuring the preservation of that great London Square, and many buildings including offices and hotels in the Middle East and elsewhere. His second son was [[Anthony Squire]], a pilot film director (''[[The Sound Barrier]]''). His third son Maurice was killed in the Second War while his youngest daughter [[Julia Squire|Julia Baker]] (née Squire) was a costume designer for theatre and cinema. She married the actor [[George Baker (British actor)|George Baker]].<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000615/ai_n14303364 Obituary]</ref>

Squire was an expert on [[Stilton cheese]].<ref>The First Cuckoo: Letters to THE TIMES 1900-1975; {{ISBN|004808025X}}</ref> He also loathed Jazz music, having filed a complaint with BBC radio to demand it stop playing [[Benny Goodman|Benny Goodman's]] music, which he called "an awful series of jungle noises which can hearten no man."<ref>Firestone, Ross (1993). Swing, Swing, Swing: The Life and Times of Benny Goodman (1st ed.). New York: Norton. pp. 18–24. ISBN 0-393-03371-6.</ref>

==Politics==

Squire had joined the Marxist [[Social Democratic Federation]] as a young man. During his time at the ''New Statesman'' he wrote as a "Fabian liberal", and campaigned on behalf of [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] candidates in Essex and Cambridgeshire.<ref>Hyams, p. 159.</ref><ref>Blunden, Edmund, revised by Clare L. Taylor, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36227 "Squire, Sir John Collings (1884–1958)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; latest version, June 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2025. {{subscription required}}</ref> At the [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918 general election]] he was the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] candidate for the [[Cambridge University (UK parliament constituency)|Cambridge University]] seat. In the following years he aligned himself once again with the Liberals, standing for them in [[Brentford and Chiswick (UK Parliament constituency)|Brentford and Chiswick]] at the [[1924 United Kingdom general election|1924 general election]]. His views then moved steadily more rightwards.<ref>[[Charles Hobday]], ''Edgell Rickword: A Poet at War'' (1989), p. 156.</ref>

Squire met [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1933, and was one of the founders of the [[January Club]], set up on 1 January 1934.<ref>Claudia Baldoli, ''Exporting Fascism: Italian Fascists and Britain's Italians in the 1930s'' (2003), p. 103.</ref> He held in it the position of chairman or Secretary, and claimed that it was not a Fascist organisation.<ref>[[Martin Pugh (author)|Martin Pugh]], 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts!' (2005), p. 146.</ref> It was a dining club with invited speakers, and was closely connected to [[Oswald Mosley]]'s [[British Union of Fascists]], which nominated members.<ref>Alfred William Brian Simpson, ''In the Highest Degree Odious: Detention Without Trial in Wartime Britain'' (1992), p. 57.</ref> According to the historian Sir [[Charles Petrie (historian)|Charles Petrie]]<ref>''A Historian Looks at His World'' (1972), p. 115.</ref> (who, like Squire, wrote regularly for the ''Illustrated London News''), Squire "found the atmosphere uncongenial before long".

==Reputation==

The [[Bloomsbury group]] named the coterie of writers that surrounded Squire as the ''Squirearchy''. Alan Pryce-Jones was Squire's assistant on the ''Mercury'' and wrote<ref>''The Bonus of Laughter'' (1987) 55.</ref>

{{blockquote|Among his contemporaries ... his reputation was variable. Many of them, such as [[Virginia Woolf]], found him coarse; they thought, with reason, that he drank too much; they had little confidence in the group, known as the Squirearchy, which surrounded him.}}

In a fairly recent study, the academic Leonard Diepeveen explored the particularly strained relationship between Squire and literary Modernists:
{{blockquote|Virginia Woolf wrote that Squire was "more repulsive than words can express, and malignant into the bargain". [...] Eliot attacked Squire repeatedly, at one point describing him as a critic "whose solemn trifling fascinates multitudes". [...] Eliot also acknowledged that Squire wielded a lot of power; because of Squire's skill as a journalist, his success would be modernism's disaster. Eliot wrote: "If he succeeds, it will be impossible to get anything good published".<ref>Leonard Diepeveen, ''The Difficulties of Modernism'', Routledge (2003), p. 12</ref>}}

Squire is generally credited with the one-liner "I am not so think as you drunk I am", which appeared as the refrain of his ''[[Ballade (forme fixe)|Ballade]] of Soporific Absorption''.<ref name= "CohenCCV">J. M. Cohen (Ed.); The Penguin book of comic and curious verse”; Penguin Books (1952)</ref>

[[T. S. Eliot]] accused Squire of using the ''London Mercury'' to saturate literary London with journalistic and popular criticism. According to Robert H. Ross<ref>''The Georgian Revolt'' (1967), p. 206.</ref>

{{blockquote|By 1920 Squire was well on his way towards establishing a literary coterie of the Right just as partisan, as militant and as dedicated as the Leftist coteries.|}}

[[John Middleton Murry]] took an adversarial line towards Squire, seeing his ''London Mercury'' as in direct competition with his own ''[[Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]''.<ref>Michael H. Whitworth, ''Modernism'' (2007), p. 22.</ref> [[Roy Campbell (poet)|Roy Campbell]] sometimes mocked Squire in verse.

Since his death the reputation of Squire has declined; scholarship has absorbed the strictures of his contemporaries, such as [[F. S. Flint]], openly critical of Squire in 1920.<ref>''Presentation: Notes on the Art of Writing; on the Artfulness of Some Writers and the Artlessness of Others'', The Chapbook 2 (9), March 1920, in Tim Middleton, ''Modernism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies'' (2003) from p. 116.</ref> Squire is now considered to be on the "blimpish" wing of the reaction to modernist work.<ref>[http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=5929 poetrymagazines.org.uk – Positive Refusal]</ref>

A reappraisal of the periodical network of early twentieth-century literary London, and problems with the term ''[[modernism]]'', have encouraged scholars to cast their nets beyond the traditional venue of modernism – the [[little magazine]] – to seek to better understand the role mass-market periodicals such as the ''London Mercury'' played in promoting new and progressive writers.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

== Archives ==
* Papers of Sir John Collings Squire are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.<ref>{{Cite web|title=UoB Calmview5: Search results|url=https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XJS|access-date=2021-01-28|website=calmview.bham.ac.uk}}</ref>
* Sir John Collings Squire Collection, Harry Ransom Center Collections, University of Texas, Austin. https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=01014

==Bibliography==
* Socialism and Art (1907 - under the name Jack C. Squire)
* Poems and Baudelaire flowers (1909)
* Imaginary Speeches And Other Parodies in Prose And Verse (1912)
* William the Silent (1912)
* Steps to Parnassus: and other parodies & diversions (1913)
* The Three Hills and Other Poems (1913)
* The Survival of the Fittest: and other poems (1916)
* Twelve poems (1916)
* The Lily of Malud and Other Poems (1917)
* The Gold Tree (1917)
* Books in general (1919)
* Poems: First Series (1919)
* The Moon (1920)
* Books in general: Second Series (1920)
* The Birds and Other Poems (1920)
* Tricks of the trade (1920)
* Books in general: Third Series (1921)
* Selections From Modern Poets (1921)
* The Collected Poems of James Elroy Flecker (1921)
* A Book of Women's Verse (1921)
* Collected Parodies (1921)
* Poems: Second Series (1921)
* Life and letters: essays (1921)
* Books reviewed (1922)
* Essays at Large (1922)
* Poems about birds: from the Middle Ages to the present day (1922)
* American poems, and others (1923)
* Essays on Poetry (1923)
* The Grub Street Nights Entertainments (1924)
* Poems in One Volume (1926)
* The Cambridge Book of Lesser Poets (1927)
* Robin Hood: a farcical romantic pastoral (1928)
* Apes and Parrots: An Anthology of Parodies (1929)
* Life at the Mermaid (1930)
* If It Had Happened Otherwise (1931)
* Younger poets of to-day (1932)
* A face in candlelight: & other poems (1932)
* Flowers of speech: being lectures in words and forms in literature (1935)
* Reflections and memories (1935)
* Shakespeare as a Dramatist (1935)
* Water-Music: Or a Fortnight of Bliss (1939)
* Collected Poems (1959)

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

==Further reading==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*Patrick Howarth, ''Squire: Most Generous of Men'', Hutchinson (London 1963)

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category|John Collings Squire}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=35258}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Squire, J. C. (Sir John Collings)|name=John Collings Squire|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Collings Squire}}
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp04235 Portraits of J. C. Squire] at the [[National Portrait Gallery (London)|National Portrait Gallery]]
* {{LCAuth|n50052604|John Collings Squire|94|ue}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Squire, J.C.}}
[[Category:Writers from Plymouth, Devon]]
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Blundell's School]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:British literary editors]]
[[Category:English literary critics]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Members of the Fabian Society]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]

Brian Gibson (director)

2025-08-03T00:17:59Z

80.42.211.225: /* Early life and education */

{{short description|English film director (1944–2004)}}

{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Brian Gibson
| image = BrianGibson(director)Image.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth-date|22 September 1944}}
| birth_place = [[Southend-on-Sea]], [[Essex]], England
| death_date = {{Death-date and age|4 January 2004|22 September 1944}}
| death_place = [[London]], England
| occupation = Film director, television director
| years_active = 1960s–2002
}}
'''Brian Gibson''' (22 September 1944 – 4 January 2004) was an English film and television director.

==Early life and education==
Gibson was born 22 September 1944 in [[Southend-on-Sea]], Essex.<ref name=guardian>{{cite web|last=Bardach|first=Ann Louise|title=Brian Gibson|date=7 January 2004|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jan/07/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries|access-date=8 May 2016}}</ref> His mother, Victoria,<ref name=nyt>{{cite web|last=Lyall|first=Sarah|title=Brian Gibson, 59, a Director of Movies and TV Shows|date=9 January 2004|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/arts/brian-gibson-59-a-director-of-movies-and-tv-shows.html?_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Arts&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article|access-date=8 May 2016}}</ref> was a shop assistant and his father was a carpenter.<ref name=telegraph>{{cite web|title=Brian Gibson|date=21 January 2004|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1452168/Brian-Gibson.html|access-date=8 May 2016}}</ref> He had a sister, June.<ref name=nyt/><ref name=lat>{{cite web|last=Oliver|first=Myrna|title=Brian Gibson, 59; Filmmaker Known for Biopics of Josephine Baker, Tina Turner|date=6 January 2004|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jan-06-me-gibson6-story.html|access-date=25 July 2016}}</ref> Gibson attended [[Southend High School for Boys]] and [[St Catharine's College, Cambridge]], where he studied medicine.<ref name=guardian/><ref name=telegraph/><ref name=upi>{{cite web|title=Brian Gibson, noted director, dies|date=5 January 2004|agency=[[United Press International]]|url=http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2004/01/05/Brian-Gibson-noted-director-dies/93281073331607/|access-date=8 May 2016}}</ref> He also studied History of Science at [[Darwin College, Cambridge]].<ref name=telegraph/> He graduated from [[Cambridge University]].<ref name=nyt/>

==Career==
In the late 1960s, Gibson began working for the [[BBC]], directing scientific documentaries<ref name=guardian/> for their long-running series ''[[Horizon (BBC TV series)|Horizon]]''. One standout episode entitled "Joey," about [[Joey Deacon]], a lifelong brain-damaged man who found a way to communicate with his family through another similarly affected patient at his hospital, won him an [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|SFTA]] Award for Best Specialized Programme of 1974.

Gibson directed [[Helen Mirren]] in the 1979 BBC film ''[[Blue Remembered Hills]]'' and his work on that film won him a [[BAFTA Award]] for Best Director.<ref name=nyt/>

Gibson made his feature film directorial debut with ''[[Breaking Glass (film)|Breaking Glass]]'' (1980).<ref name=guardian/> In 1986, he directed ''[[Poltergeist II: The Other Side]]''.<ref name=guardian/> In 1989, he directed [[Ben Kingsley]] in the [[HBO]] television film ''[[Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story]]''.<ref name=guardian/> In 1990, Gibson directed the miniseries ''[[Drug Wars: The Camarena Story]]'', starring [[Steven Bauer]] and [[Benicio Del Toro]].<ref name=guardian/> Gibson won a [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special|Primetime Emmy]] and a [[Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Television Film|Directors Guild of America Award]] for directing the HBO television film ''[[The Josephine Baker Story]]'' (1991).<ref name=guardian/> In 1993, he directed the [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominated film ''[[What's Love Got to Do with It (1993 film)|What's Love Got to Do with It]]'', starring [[Angela Bassett]] and [[Laurence Fishburne]].<ref name=guardian/> This led to a first look deal with Touchstone Pictures.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Frook|first=John Evan|date=1993-11-23|title=Touchstone gets Gibson|url=https://variety.com/1993/film/news/touchstone-gets-gibson-116025/|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref> In 1996, he directed [[Demi Moore]] and [[Alec Baldwin]] in ''[[The Juror]]''.<ref name=guardian/> In 1998, he directed the British film ''[[Still Crazy]]'' starring [[Bill Nighy]] and [[Billy Connolly]].<ref name=guardian/> Gibson served as an executive producer for ''[[Frida (2002 film)|Frida]]'' (2002), starring [[Salma Hayek]] and [[Alfred Molina]].<ref name=guardian/> He was preparing to direct a film for [[20th Century Fox]], and also collaborating on a script with his wife when he was diagnosed with cancer.<ref name=guardian/>

==Personal life and death==
Gibson had homes in London and Los Angeles.<ref name=nyt/>

In 1990, Gibson married [[Lynn Whitfield]].<ref name=jet>{{cite web|title=Actress Lynn Whitfield Weds Director of Her Film 'The Josephine Baker' Story|date=27 August 1990|work=[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]]|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6K8DAAAAMBAJ&q=brian+gibson+director&pg=PA54|access-date=8 May 2016}}</ref> They have a daughter Grace.<ref name=guardian/> Their marriage ended in divorce.<ref name=nyt/> After their divorce he married the artist [[Paula Rae Gibson]], with whom he had another daughter, Raphaela.<ref name=guardian/><ref name=telegraph/>

Gibson died of [[bone cancer]] in London on 4 January 2004; he was 59.<ref name=guardian/><ref name=nyt/>

==Filmography==
* 1972 : ''Hospital, 1922'' (episode of ''[[Horizon (BBC TV series)|Horizon]]'')
* 1974 : ''Joey'' (episode of ''[[Horizon (BBC TV series)|Horizon]]'')
* 1976 : ''[[The Billion Dollar Bubble]]'' (episode of ''[[Horizon (BBC TV series)|Horizon]]'')
* 1976 : ''The Chauffeur'' (episode of ''[[BBC2 Playhouse]]'')
* 1976 : ''[[Where Adam Stood]]''
* 1978 : ''Dinner at the Sporting Club'' (episode of ''[[Play for Today]]'')
* 1979 : ''[[Gossip from the Forest]]'' (episode of ''Screenplay'')
* 1979 : ''[[Blue Remembered Hills]]'' (episode of ''[[Play for Today]]'')
* 1980 : ''[[Breaking Glass (film)|Breaking Glass]]''
* 1983 : ''[[Kilroy Was Here (1983 film)|Kilroy Was Here]]''
* 1986 : ''[[Poltergeist II: The Other Side]]''
* 1989 : ''[[Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story]]''
* 1990 : ''[[Drug Wars: The Camarena Story]]''
* 1991 : ''[[The Josephine Baker Story]]''
* 1993 : ''[[What's Love Got to Do with It (1993 film)|What's Love Got to Do with It]]''
* 1996 : ''[[The Juror]]''
* 1998 : ''[[Still Crazy]]''

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{imdb name|0001270|Brian Gibson}}

{{Brian Gibson}}
{{EmmyAward MiniseriesDirector 1976-2000}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Brian}}
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of Darwin College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Deaths from bone cancer in England]]
[[Category:English film directors]]
[[Category:English television directors]]
[[Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners]]
[[Category:People from Southend-on-Sea]]
[[Category:English expatriates in the United States]]