Dr. Clifford James Hemming FBPS

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(9 September 1909 – 25 December 2007) was a British

child psychologist Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult developmen ...

, educationalist and humanist.

Biography

Born in

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

, James Hemming's childhood education was patchy, and he later obtained his BA via a correspondence course run by

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal Universit ...

, London. Hemming taught at schools in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

and at Isleworth grammar school,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. On the outbreak of the second world war, Hemming taught English and PE at Isleworth. In 1945, Hemming married Kay, another teacher. She died in 1993. James Hemming died in

Kingston Hospital Kingston Hospital is an acute hospital in Kingston upon Thames, England. It is managed by the Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. It has an Accident & Emergency Unit, a popular midwife-led Maternity unit, and an sexually transmitted infecti ...

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

, leaving an estate worth £1,615,879 net. Beneficiaries from his will included

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...

National Children's Bureau The National Children’s Bureau works collaboratively across the issues affecting children to influence policy and get services working together to deliver a better childhood. Established in 1963, they have been at the forefront of campaigning f ...

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

UK,

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

Cancer Research Campaign Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

British Humanist Association Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...

, Arthritis and Rheumatism Council,

Unicef UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

, and the

Adlerian Individual psychology (german: Individualpsychologie) is a psychological method or science founded by the Viennese psychiatrist Alfred Adler. The English edition of Adler's work on the subject (1925) is a collection of papers and lectures given mai ...

Society for

Individual Psychology Individual psychology (german: Individualpsychologie) is a psychological method or science founded by the Austrian people, Viennese psychiatrist Alfred Adler. The English language, English edition of Adler's work on the subject (1925) is a collecti ...

Writing and activism

James appeared as a defence witness in the

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, w ...

'' in 1960. Hemming was a regular panel member on the 1970s BBC programme ''If You Think You've Got Problems''.

Politics

Around 1942–46 Hemming was involved with Common Wealth, a socialist political party. Later he was active in local Labour Party politics, and was a member of the

Green Alliance Green Alliance may refer to: * Green Alliance (think tank), a British think tank * Green Alliance (Colombia), a political party * Green Alliance (Ireland), former name of the Green Party in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland * Green Allian ...

Teaching and education

He was a governor of St. Georges in the East secondary modern school and Mayfield Girls' Secondary School (now closed). He launched a campaign against the use of the cane, and was an advocate for sex education. He opposed the introduction of

Section 28 Section 28 or Clause 28While going through Parliament, the amendment was constantly relabelled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added to or deleted from the Bill, but by the final version of the Bill, which received R ...

, declaring in 1987 that homosexuality was "morally acceptable as a way of life". Hemming had a particular interest in moral education, from a humanist perspective, and was active in the work of the Campaign for Moral Education and the Social Morality Council (later The Norham Foundation). He served on the Executive Committee of the Social Morality Council and was on the editorial board of its journal, ''Journal of Moral Education''. He was a member of the Television Research Committee, set up to investigate the impact of mass media on the moral development of young people. The ''Times Educational Supplement'' described Hemming as "one of the drivers behind the introduction of

personal, social and health education Personal, social, health and economic education is a school curriculum subject in England that focuses on strengthening the knowledge, skills, and connections to keep children and young people healthy and safe and prepare them for life and work. ...

. He also spent some time lecturing in Africa, and wrote widely used books for schools. He was educational adviser to the World Education Fellowship.

''Eagle'' comic

Hemming was involved in the launch of

The Eagle The eagle is a large bird of prey. Eagle or The Eagle may also refer to: Places England * Eagle, Lincolnshire, a village United States * Eagle, Alaska, a city * Eagle Village, Alaska, a census-designated place * Eagle, Colorado, a statut ...

. Hemming wrote,

I came in on Eagle originally because Johnny Metcalfe of Colman, Prentis & Varley rang me up to know if I was interested in the project. I was drawn in to taking the original dummy around to show the teacher and head teacher organisations. We met first around then. The launch complete, you asked me to stay linked as your consultant. So there we, very pleasantly, were. As for those early days, there was the sheer miracle of Eagle appearing regularly as, for months, perforce, we had no time in hand. Then there was the solid identification and teamwork that somehow got the work done week by week.

Humanism

A member since its formation in 1963, Hemming was President of the

from 1977–1980, and vice-president until his death. He served on the BHA's Education Committee for 30 years (c1966s–1998) and was a humanist representative on the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (1980s–1990s). He was also an honorary associate of the

Rationalist Association The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor ...

and a vice-president of the

Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association LGBT Humanists UK, founded in 1979, is a special interest section of Humanists UK which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality and human rights in the United Kingdom. It also organises social events for LGBT humanis ...

. He was a signatory to

Humanist Manifesto II ''Humanist Manifesto II'', written in 1973 by humanists Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, was an update to the previous ''Humanist Manifesto'' published in 1933, and the second entry in the ''Humanist Manifesto'' series. It begins with a statem ...

(1973). The ''James Hemming Essay Prize'' was established in 2009 and is administered by the British Humanist Association, ''

New Humanist ''New Humanist'' is a quarterly magazine, published by the Rationalist Association in the UK, that focuses on culture, news, philosophy, and science from a sceptical perspective. History The ''New Humanist'' has been in print for more than 13 ...

'' magazine and the

South Place Ethical Society The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United King ...

. The inaugural prizes were awarded in August 2009.

Works

Books and pamphlets

*''The Problem of Child Crime''. (1944). (Common Wealth Popular Library, no. 6). *(with Josephine Balls) ''The Child is Right – a Challenge to Parents and Other Adults''. (1945). London: Longmans, Green. *''The teaching of social studies in secondary schools''. (1949). London: Longmans. *''Mankind against the killers''. (1956). London: Longmans, Green. *''Problems of Adolescent Girls''. (1960, 2nd ed 1967). *''Adolescents and Society'. (1962). (Arthur Mellows Memorial Lecture). *''Understand yourself and other people''. (1966). Oxford: Blackwell. *''The psychology of adolescence: nine lectures''. (1966). *''Individual Morality''. (1969). *(with Howard Marratt).''Humanism and Christianity: the common ground of moral education: a consideration''. (1969). Isleworth: H. Marratt. *''The alternative society''. (1969). (Conway Memorial Lecture). *''Sex Education in Schools'' *(with Zena Maxwell(. ''Sex and Love''. (1972). London: Heinemann Educational . *''You and Your Adolescent''. (1975). *''The Betrayal of Youth: secondary education must be changed''. (1980). London: Marion Boyars. *''Instead of God: Pragmatic Reconsideration of Beliefs and Values''. (1986).

Articles

*"Agony Aunties and Their Contribution to Health Education (a) The Search for Reassurance." ''The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health'', Vol.92 (5), 1972, pp. 246–249. *"Another Prospect on Moral Education" ''Journal of Moral Education'', Vol.9 (2), 1980, pp. 75–80. *"Why I am an atheist", ''New Humanist'', Vol.100 (4), Autumn, 1985, pp. 32–33. *"Physiology of moral maturity", ''Journal of Moral Education'', Vol.20 (2), 1991, pp. 127–137. *"The Living Cosmos", ''New Humanist'', Vol.109 (2), 1993, pp. 7–8. *"Morality after myth". ''Journal of Moral Education'', Vol.25 (1), 1996, pp. 39–45.

References

Bibliography

* McLean, Ruari (1995). "Typography and parsons", ''Matrix'' (UK), no.15, Winter, pp. 56–62.

External links

The Hemming Prize''Guardian'' Obituary of James Hemming, by Ashley JonesInternational Humanist and Ethical Union obituary of James Hemming, by Andrew CopsonBHA on James HemmingGALHA mourns death of gay rights defenderWho's Who and Who Was Who
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemming, James 1909 births 2007 deaths British humanists British atheists People associated with Conway Hall Ethical Society British educational theorists