Oswald Toynbee Falk (1879 – 1972) was a stockbroker and economist, born in the Toxteth area of Liverpool on 25 May 1879 to Hermann John Falk and Rachel Russell Everard Toynbee. He was the nephew of social philosopher and economist

Arnold Toynbee Arnold Toynbee may refer to: * Arnold Toynbee (historian, born 1852) (d. 1883), British economic historian * Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an ...

. Falk attended Rugby School and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

where he trained as an

actuary An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset man ...

. He worked for the

National Mutual Life Assurance Society The National Mutual Life Assurance Society was formed in 1896 by the merger of the National Life Assurance Society and the Mutual Life Assurance Society. It was notable for the Chairmanship of John Maynard Keynes between 1921 and 1938 when he devel ...

and became a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries before leaving the profession in 1914. Afterwards he joined the London stock exchange and in 1917 was invited by John Maynard Keynes to work at the Treasury where he proved himself to be a gifted ‘practical economist’. Falk bought Lindesfarne Castle from Edward Hudson, the founder of

Country Life magazine ''Country Life'' is a British weekly perfect-bound glossy magazine that is published by Future plc. It was based in London at 110 Southwark Street until March 2016, when it became based in Farnborough, Hampshire. History ''Country Life'' ...

in 1922 for £22,000 but only owned it a short time before selling on to Edward de Stein, a merchant banker.

Life and career

Oswald Falk's grandfather Herman Eugene Falk (1820–1898) was a Polish immigrant from Danzig (Gdańsk), who had arrived in England around 1839 and made a modest fortune trading from Liverpool in coal, iron, grain, silk and

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

. His maternal grandfather was the otologist Joseph Toynbee. At the time of his son's birth in Liverpool, Falk's father Hermann John Falk was studying law. After Rugby, where he became known by the nickname 'Foxy', Falk studied at Balliol, the same college where his uncle, Arnold Toynbee, had tutored from 1878. He described his time at Oxford as like a 'delicious novel by Henry James'. In correspondence with

William Sydney Robinson William Sydney Robinson FAA (1876–1963), was an Australian businessman, industrialist, and diplomat. First published in ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 11, (MUP), 1988.Tripos mathematical problems in his sleep and was able to write the solution on waking in the morning. Falk was married to Florence Ethel Hengler on 29 March 1906 and was admitted a member of the London stock exchange in 1914. He spent a lot of time with John Maynard Keynes who, Robert Skidelsky has argued, owed to Falk “his superb understanding of the unruly financial mechanism of capitalism”. Falk became a partner in stockbrokers Buckmaster & Moore in 1918 before joining Keynes' team at the

Paris peace conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

in 1919. He was awarded a CBE in 1920. Little is known of his marriage to Florence but it did not last as in 1912 Falk was married to Diana Gwendolen Edith Cecil Stracey with whom he had two sons.

Politics and later life

Throughout his life Falk's politics were of the right, becoming more conservative as he grew older, which took him away from Keynes' more liberal politics. After he retired, Falk lived in Tall Trees, Boars Hill, near Oxford. He died on 12 November 1972 at the age of 93.

References

{{Reflist English economists English stockbrokers Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford People educated at Rugby School People from Toxteth 1879 births 1972 deaths