Maurice Anthony Ash (31 October 1917 – 27 January 2003) was an

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, farmer, and

planner Planner may refer to: * A personal organizer (book) for planning * Microsoft Planner * Planner programming language * Planner (PIM for Emacs) * Urban planner * Route planner * Meeting and convention planner * Japanese term for video game designer ...

. He was chairman of the

Town and Country Planning Association The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is an independent research and campaigning charity founded and based in the United Kingdom. It works to enable homes, places and communities in which everyone can thrive. Through its research, tr ...

and of the Dartington Trust.

Education and early life

Maurice Anthony Ash was born at

Hazaribagh Hazaribagh is a city and a municipal corporation in Hazaribagh district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is the divisional headquarters of North Chotanagpur division. It is considered as a health resort and is also popular for Hazaribag ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 31 October 1917. His father, Wilfrid Cracroft Ash, was a successful civil engineer in British India who also made a large engineering contribution to the 1939-1945 War. His grandfather Gilbert Ash was the founder of the construction company Gilbert-Ash; Maurice was noted for technological inventions in

pre-stressed concrete Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted i ...

. The mathematician and brewer, Michael Ash, was his brother. Ash was educated at Gresham's School,

Holt, Norfolk Holt is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town has a population of 3,550, rising and including the ward to 3 ...

, the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

(where he read economics), and at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

. At LSE, he met Michael Young, later Lord Young of Dartington, who became a lifelong friend. During his education he developed a lifelong dislike for

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...

Career

During 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 opposi ...

, Ash served in the British 23rd Armoured Brigade in North Africa, Italy and Greece. In 1944, he was mentioned in dispatches. He later wrote a history of his regiment.

Dartington Hall

After the war, Young introduced him to the Dartington Hall Trust. The rundown 1,000 acre (4 km²) estate of

Dartington Dartington is a village in Devon, England. Its population is 876. The electoral ward of ''Dartington'' includes the surrounding area and had a population of 1,753 at the 2011 census. It is located west of the River Dart, south of Dartington ...

, near

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and abo ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, had been bought by

Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek Λέων ("lion") through the Latin '' L ...

and Dorothy Elmhirst in the 1920s. With ideas from the philosopher

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

and money Dorothy Elmhirst inherited from her family (the American Whitneys) the Elmhirsts rescued a medieval hall and developed the estate, creating craft workshops and founding a famous design school. After farming in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, Ash was interested in the postwar plans for new towns such as

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

and joined the

(TCPA), becoming its chairman and later its vice-president. The TCPA published the influential magazine ''Bulletin of Environmental Education''. Ash promoted enlightened development. Before leaving Essex for

, Ash founded the Harlow art trust. Ash became chairman of the Dartington Trust in 1972. While some Dartington activities were given up, others started. Dartington glass and the Schumacher College continued. Ash also backed a magazine called ''The Vole''. In writing about the great private estates which followed the dissolution of the English monasteries, Ash argued that they had been failures in any civilizing sense. Monasteries had been centres of learning and innovation. He argued for re-establishing such communities. Broadly, his philosophy followed

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrians, Austrian-British people, British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy o ...

and rejected Descartes.

Books

His published books include: * ''Regions of Tomorrow: Towards the Open City'' (1969) * ''A Guide to the Structure of London'' (1972) * ''New Renaissance: Essays in Search of Wholeness'' (Green Books, 1986) * ''Journey into the Eye of a Needle'' (1991) * ''The Fabric of the World: Towards a Philosophy of Environment'' (Green Books, 1992) * ''Sharpham Miscellany: Essays in Spirituality and Ecology'' by John Crook, Maurice Ash, and Stephen Batchelor (1992) * ''Beyond the Age of Metaphysics: and the Restoration of Local Life'' (Green Books, 1998) * ''Where Division Ends: On Feeling at Home in Chaos'' (Green Books, Totnes, 2001)

Personal life

Ash met the Elmhirsts' daughter Ruth and in 1947, they were married. They had a son and three daughters. In 1962, the Ashes bought Sharpham House,

Ashprington Ashprington is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England. The village is not far from the River Dart, but high above it, and is about three miles south of Totnes. There is a local pub, hotel and phonebox. The ci ...

, near Totnes, in

, a large

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

house designed by Robert Taylor. A farm there was run on

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...

principles, and also vineyards, a Buddhist community and college, and the Robert Owen Foundation, a charity which provided agricultural experience for people with mental disabilities.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ash, Maurice English non-fiction writers British Army personnel of World War II British environmentalists People educated at Gresham's School Alumni of the London School of Economics 1917 births 2003 deaths People from Hazaribagh English male non-fiction writers 20th-century English male writers British people in colonial India