Hodgson Pratt (10 January 1824 – 26 February 1907) was an English pacifist who is credited with founding the
International Arbitration and Peace Association
The International Arbitration and Peace Association (IAPA) was an organisation founded in London in 1880 with the stated objective of promoting arbitration and peace in place of armed conflicts and force. It published a journal, ''Concord''.
Found ...
in 1880.
Early life
Born at
Bath, Somerset
Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...
on 10 January 1824, he was the eldest of five sons of Samuel Peace Pratt by his wife Susanna Martha Hodgson (d. 1875). After education at
Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to:
Australia
* Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
**Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia
China
* Haileybury International School, an international ...
(1844–6), he matriculated at
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
in 1844. In 1847 he joined the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
's service at
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
. He became under-secretary to the government of Bengal, and inspector of public instruction there. While in India Pratt in 1851 helped to found the Vernacular Literature Society which published Bengali translations of English literature, and acted as secretary till 1856. He also started a school of industrial art. In 1857 Pratt was at home on leave and at contributed to ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' on Indian matters. He finally left India in 1861.
Co-operator and advocate of arbitration
Settling in England, Pratt became involved in the
co-operative movement
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...
, in association with
Vansittart Neale,
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes (20 October 182222 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. ...
, and
George Jacob Holyoake
George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 – 22 January 1906) was an English secularist, co-operator and newspaper editor. He coined the terms secularism in 1851 and "jingoism" in 1878. He edited a secularist paper, the ''Reasoner'', from 1846 to J ...
. He met
Henry Solly
Henry Solly (17 November 1813 – 27 February 1903) was an English social reformer.Alan Ruston, âSolly, Henry (1813–1903)€™, '' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 18 April 2010. William Bever ...
in 1864, and became a member of the council of the
Working Men's Club and Institute Union
The Working Men's Club and Institute Union (CIU or C&IU) is a voluntary association of private members' clubs in Great Britain & Northern Ireland, with about 1,800 associate clubs. One club in the Republic of Ireland, the City of Dublin Working ...
founded by Solly in June 1862. For it he travelled up and down the country, and was its president from 1885 to 1902. With Solly he also started trade classes for workmen in
St Martin's Lane
St Martin's Lane is a street in the City of Westminster, which runs from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, after which it is named, near Trafalgar Square northwards to Long Acre. At its northern end, it becomes Monmouth Street. St Martin ...
in 1874.
That year he also chaired a conference on the ideas of
Emma Paterson
Emma Anne Paterson (''née'' Smith; 5 April 1848 – 1 December 1886) was an English feminist and trade unionist.
Life
Emma Anne Smith was born in London on 5 April 1848, the daughter of Henry Smith (died 1864), headmaster of a school in St ...
, in July.
Pratt was a champion of international arbitration. On the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870 he pleaded for the peaceful settlement of the dispute. Two years later he joined in an appeal for the release of
Élisée Reclus
Jacques Élisée Reclus (; 15 March 18304 July 1905) was a French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, ''La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes'' ("Universal Geography"), over a period of ...
who had taken part in the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
. In 1880 he joined William Phillips and others in founding the International Arbitration and Peace Association, becoming first chairman of the executive committee. Four years later (1 July 1884) he founded, and initially edited, the association's ''Journal'' (later ''Concord''). On behalf of the association he travelled in Europe, and he took part in international peace congresses at Paris and elsewhere from 1889 onwards.
Last years
Friends nominated Pratt for the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
in 1906, when it went to
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
. He had become a convinced
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
suffered from poor eyesight, and spent the last years of his life at
Le Pecq
Le Pecq () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the ÃŽle-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the center of Paris.
Geography
The commune of Le Pecq is located in a loop of the Sei ...
.
Seine et Oise
Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.
Jeremy Beadle
Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE (12 April 1948 – 30 January 2008) was an English television presenter, radio presenter, writer and producer. During the 1980s he was a regular face on British television, and in two years appeared i ...
has since been buried immediately in front of his memorial.
The Annual Hodgson Pratt Memorial Lecture and travelling scholarship for working men, as well as prizes, were established in 1911.
Works
For the International Arbitration and Peace Association, Pratt translated
Élie Ducommun
Élie Ducommun (19 February 1833, Geneva – 7 December 1906, Bern) was a Swiss peace activist. He was a Nobel laureate, awarded the 1902 Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Charles Albert Gobat.
Born in Geneva, he worked as a tutor, langua ...
's ''The Programme of the Peace Movement'' (1896) and he summarised in English as ''The Organisation of International Arbitration'' (1897) a work of
Édouard Descamps
Baron Édouard Eugène François Descamps (1847–1933) was a Belgian jurist and politician who was known as a contributor to international law.
Family
He was the son of Edouard-J. Descamps and Sylvie Van der Elst. He was married to Maria David ...
.
Family
Pratt married:
# in 1849 Sarah Caroline Wetherall, daughter of an Irish squire; and
# in 1892 Monica, daughter of the Rev. James Mangan. She survived him with one daughter.
Memorials
Hodgson's name is listed on the south side of the Reformers Memorial in
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
References
;Attribution
*
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Hodgson
1824 births
1907 deaths
British pacifists
British East India Company civil servants
Burials at Highgate Cemetery