Hugh Quigley (6 August 1895 – 30 January 1979) was a Scottish economist, statistician, farmer, and author. His diary of his service with the 12th Royal Scots Regiment of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

at Passchendaele and the

Somme __NOTOC__ Somme or The Somme may refer to: Places *Somme (department), a department of France *Somme, Queensland, Australia *Canal de la Somme, a canal in France *Somme (river), a river in France Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Somme'' (book), a ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

was published in 1928. A scholar of Italian literature and Carnegie research fellow at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, he later entered the electricity industry where he became a senior economist and statistician and advocated the greater use of Scottish hydro-electric power distributed through the newly constructed National Grid. He wrote on German history, the electricity industry, the advantages of central planning in housing and industry, and on topographical subjects such as the two books he produced on his native Scotland. He was closely associated with the British Labour Party and a member of the influential

XYZ Club The XYZ Club was a club established in 1932 by Nicholas Davenport and H. V. Berry to provide financial intelligence to the British Labour Party. The secretary was Hugh Gaitskell.Stirling, Scotland, on 6 August 1895, the eldest son of James and Catherine Quigley. He was educated at

Lanark Grammar School Lanark Grammar School is a secondary school in Lanark, Scotland. It was founded in 1183, and celebrated its octocentenary in 1983, including a visit by The Princess Anne. The school draws its pupils from the town of Lanark and many villages in t ...

and then the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. He also studied in Naples and Munich. He served in the 12th Royal Scots Regiment of the British Army during the

and was at Passchendaele and the

where he was injured. His "unvarnished" diary of his service was published "without modification" by Methuen in 1928. He received his MA from the University of Glasgow in 1919 and was a

Carnegie research fellow The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

in modern languages from 1919 to 1921.Quigley, Hugh.
''Who's Who'' and ''Who Was Who''. Oxford University Press. Online edition. Retrieved 7 August 2019. He married Marion Sommerville (died 1974) and they had two sons and one daughter. Tragically losing Hugh at the age of 5, the middle of the three children and buried in Esher close to the Claremont Estate where the family lived.

Career

Quigley worked as an economist in the research department of the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company from 1922 to 1924 and was head of the economic and statistical department of the

British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers' Association British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

from 1924 to 1930. He was chief statistical officer of the

Central Electricity Board The United Kingdom Central Electricity Board (CEB) was established by the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926. It had the duty to supply electricity to authorised electricity undertakers, to determine which power stations would be 'selected' stations ...

from 1931 to 1943,"'The Shell of a Prosperous Age': History, Landscape and the Modern in Paul Rotha's ''The Face of Britain'' (1935)"
by Timothy Boon in and later, chief economist of the Central Electricity Authority. He was involved in the production of Paul Rotha's documentary film '' The Face of Britain'' (1935) which was sponsored (uncredited) by the Central Electricity Board. He saw the potential for power from Scottish hydro-electrical sources, distributed by the newly built National Grid (1928–33), to play a major role in the reorganisation of British industry that was also one of the themes of Rotha's film.

Politics

Quigley was associated with the Labour Party and an advocate generally of central planning and government intervention, arguing in respect of housing for instance that the planned city was a "necessity of the modern world; it takes the place of an economic scheme based on ''laissez-faire'', which has been unequal to the task of maintaining the population, absorbing its natural increase and creating a higher standard of living". He was a member of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

, and these were put into practice in 1946 when a Labour government came to power immediately after the end of the Second World War.

Writing

In 1927 he published ''Towards Industrial Recovery'', a survey of post-First World War industrial conditions and organisation in Britain, France and Germany.

Barbara Wootton Barbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of Abinger, CH (14 April 1897 – 11 July 1988) was a British sociologist and criminologist. She was the first of four women to be appointed as a life peer, entitled to serve in the House of Lords, under the ...

, in reviewing the work, summarised Quigley's recommendations for more competitive industry as "closer horizontal combination by the formation of trusts or central selling and purchasing agencies, closer association of finance and industry and the establishment of a council like the German Reichswirtschaftsrat." In the 1920s and 1930s, he was a regular reviewer of books about Germany and Italy for the ''

Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs ''International Affairs'' is a 100-year old peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations. Since its founding in 1922 the journal has been based at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs. It has an impact factor ...

''. In 1934 he wrote, with Ismay Goldie, on ''Housing and

Slum Clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

in London'', comparing the developments of the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...

and Stamford Hill, the

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's building at Kennington, the development at Somers Town by the St Pancras House Improvement Society, and others favourably with the new schemes built in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The authors concluded that piecemeal slum clearance by private developers was insufficient and that more comprehensive development should begin while "cheap money, cheap material, and idle labour are procurable." His topographical works included a study of

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

, the

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

and the

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

(1925), a book about the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

(1927), and two on his native Scotland: an anthology of

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

(1929) and a volume on the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

Batsford Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village and Batsford Arboretum is nearby, ...

's The Face of Britain series (1936). In that book, despite mainly covering the natural environment, Quigley returned regularly to the contribution that electrification could make to national prosperity, advocating, for instance, the electrification of Highland railways using hydro-electric power.

Later life

In his later years, Quigley lived and farmed at Melchet Park Farm, near

Sherfield English Sherfield English is a small village and civil parish in the Test Valley borough of Hampshire, England. It is located on the A27 road, around 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Romsey. Sherfield English appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as the manor ...

, north of Southampton. In 1947 he published ''New Forest Orchard'', a description of the creation of an orchard at Melchet Park. In 1971 he published ''Melchet''. He died on 30 January 1979.

Selected publications

Literature

''Italy and the Rise of a New School of Criticism in the 18th Century (With special reference to the work of Pietro Calepio)''
Munro & Scott, Perth, 1921.

Economics/history/politics

* ''Electrical Power and National Progress, etc.'' George Allen & Unwin, London, 1925. * ''Combines and Trusts in the Electrical Industry''. British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers' Association, London, 1927. * ''Towards Industrial Recovery''. Methuen, London, 1927. *
Republican Germany. A political and economic study &c.
' Methuen, London, 1928. Reprinted 1968. (With R. T. Clark) * ''The Electrical Industry of Great Britain''. British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers' Association, London, 1929. * ''Power Resources of the World (Potential and Developed).'' World Power Conference, London, 1929. * "German History from 1900 to 1931" in Bithell, Jethro. (Ed.) (1932) ''Germany. A companion to German studies''. Methuen, London, 1932. * ''Housing and Slum Clearance in London''. Methuen, London, 1934. (With Ismay Goldie) * ''A Plan for the Highlands. Proposals for a Highland Development Board, etc.'' Methuen, London, 1936. * ''End Monopoly Exploitation. A policy for industry.'' Kegan Paul & Co., London, 1941.

Diary

* ''Passchendaele and the Somme: A diary of 1917''. Methuen, London, 1928. Revised edition 1965.

Topographical

* ''Lombardy Tyrol and the Trentino''. Methuen, London, 1925. * ''The Land of the Rhone: Lyons and Provence''. Methuen, London, 1927."Shorter Notices", ''The Times'', 29 April 1927, p. 8. * ''Lanarkshire in Prose and Verse: An Anthology''. E. Mathews & Marrot, London, 1929. *
The Highlands of Scotland
'. The Face of Britain series. B. T. Batsford, London, 1936. Photographs by Robert M. Adam."''The Highlands of Scotland'' by Hugh Quigley, R. M. Adam"
review by P. B., '' Journal of the Royal Society of Arts'', Vol. 84, No. 4370 (21 August 1936), pp. 1042-1043. * ''New Forest Orchard''. Methuen, London, 1947. * ''A Small Community''. 1970. * ''Melchet''. Melchet Park, Romsey, 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quigley, Hugh 1895 births 1979 deaths Scottish economists Royal Scots officers British Army personnel of World War I People from Stirling Scottish diarists Scottish statisticians Alumni of the University of Glasgow Economics writers People educated at Lanark Grammar School 20th-century diarists Military personnel from Stirling Slum clearance