Peter Caddy (20 March 1917 – 18 February 1994) was a British caterer, hotelier, and with his wife

Eileen Caddy Eileen Caddy MBE (26 August 1917 – 13 December 2006) was a spiritual teacher and new age author, best known as one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, near the village of Findhorn, Moray Firth, in nor ...

and their friend

Dorothy Maclean Dorothy Maclean (January 7, 1920 – March 12, 2020) was a Canadian writer and educator on spiritual subjects who was one of the original three adults at what is now the Findhorn Foundation in northeast Scotland. Biography Maclean was born in Gue ...

, co-founder of the

Findhorn Foundation The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain.''The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Org ...

community.

Life and work

Educated at Harrow, Caddy was apprenticed as a director with J. Lyons and Company, and was a member of the

Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was a Rosicrucian group founded by George Alexander Sullivan in about 1924. It may have existed under the name The Order of Twelve from 1911–1914 and again from 1920. The ROCF operated first from the Live ...

. On the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was commissioned as an officer with the Catering Branch of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, where he served from 1940 until 1955. From 1957 until 1961 he was manager of the

Cluny Hill Cluny Hill is a hill on the East side of Forres, Scotland. At the top of Cluny Hill is Nelson's Tower, built in 1806 to commemorate Admiral Lord Nelson and his victory at Trafalgar. The Tower is open to the public. Writing in 1807 the antiquari ...

Hotel near

Forres Forres (; gd, Farrais) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several occasions. There ...

, Scotland, now the training college of the

. During a period of unemployment from 1962 onwards, Caddy began experimenting with

organic gardening Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preserva ...

to supplement his family's food supply. The garden near

Findhorn Findhorn ( gd, Inbhir Èir or ''Inbhir Èireann'') is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 m ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, flourished to such a remarkable extent that it eventually attracted national attention. Peter Caddy attributed its success to his spiritual practices, and a community began to form around his family and their friend

. Much more information about the establishment and growth of the Findhorn Community is contained in Peter Caddy's autobiography. In 1979 Caddy left the

Findhorn Ecovillage Findhorn Ecovillage is an experimental architectural community project based at The Park, in Moray, Scotland, near the village of Findhorn.Local relations between the Findhorn Foundation and the village of Findhorn have occasionally foundered ove ...

community he had helped to found. He died in a car crash in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1994.

References

1917 births 1994 deaths People educated at Harrow School Royal Air Force officers Road incident deaths in Germany Findhorn community New Age spiritual leaders Organic gardeners Royal Air Force personnel of World War II {{RAF-bio-stub