CHAPTER THREE: 'A Practical Dreamer and a Poet'
In February 1954 K. D. D. Henderson, received an Airletter from Dr Nicolas Zernov, requesting some biographical information about H. N. Spalding. The letter also asked for a photograph of HN who, together with his wife, had recently made a donation to the Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Travancore, in South India. The gift was to be used to help finance the development of the College library, which needed furniture as well as books. Zernov was working at the College in a temporary capacity, on leave from his lectureship at Oxford. He and his wife were about to return home. His Indian hosts wanted the details quickly. HN, who died in the previous September, was to be honoured in a ceremony during which a memorial plaque was to be unveiled in the College library. The inscription on the memorial plaque reads:
IN MEMORY OF
H. N. SPALDING, PHILOSOPHER,
POET AND BELIEVER,
WHO SOUGHT MAN'S WAY OF RETURN
TO GOD IN EAST AND WEST.
TO HIS INTEREST AND BENEFACTION
THE FOUNDATION OF THIS
LIBRARY IS DUE
A few days later, on 11 February, Henderson sent the following reply: 'Spalding, Henry Norman, M.A. (Oxon.), Hon. D.CL., Durham, F.R.S.L.; born at Blackheath 15th August 1877. Educated in Switzerland and France, at Eastbourne College, New College, Oxford; Barrister-at-Law, Lincoln's Inn. Publications: -- From Youth to Age, verse, 1930; Poem of Praise, 1950; Civilization in East and West, 1939.' To this terse summary Henderson added, 'Would you like a fuller biography by his brother?'1 The grateful College authorities appeared to be satisfied with what they already had. No further details were requested and no photograph was sent. [Zernov and his wife returned to Oxford.2
The account of H. N. Spalding's life and career given in this chapter is based on two primary sources. The first consists of the personal memories and the family records of his son, Dr John Spalding. On several occasions he agreed to talk to me about his father. These conversations were recorded by agreement and subsequently transcribed. In addition Dr Spalding sent me a document, extending to several closely typed pages, in which he supplied important biographical details of HN and his family, adding notes by way of comment and explanation. The second source is the written record of the thoughts, ideas, plans, and aspirations, left by HN himself. His written work, unpublished as well as published, reveals a great deal about his remarkable life. He conducted a voluminous correspondence with friends and acquaintances in many parts of the world. Few of these letters survive except those to be found in the papers of others who were caught up in the pursuit of some of the causes he espoused. His determination to get something done made him an importunate correspondent at times, whenever he felt that persistent advocacy was required. As often as not his letters were written in his own hand. At other times he needed secretarial help with the work he undertook from the house at number 9 South Parks Road.
Despite his public profile, his scholarly researches and the generous benefactions made jointly by him and his wife, comparatively little is known about his life, especially about his childhood. He was reluctant to talk about himself and diffident about his accomplishments. He was a private person who, whilst ready to engage in conversation and debate with others about the practical and theoretical issues that interested him most, seemed unwilling to share his thoughts and feelings even with the members of his own family. This is not to suggest that his relationships with those closest to him lacked warmth. It is to acknowledge that he lived at a time when it was less common than it is today for parents -- fathers in particular -- to spend much time with their children or to express their thoughts and emotions without inhibition. For parents who could afford it, the supervision of children passed in any case to others, in the home as well as at school.
Members of the Spalding family regard themselves as belonging (if only at some remove) to a minor Scottish clan. At one time they may have been connected with Spalding, a small English town in Lincolnshire. In 1318 a Spalding commanded the English garrison of Berwick-on-Tweed on the border between the two countries. He betrayed it to the Scots and afterwards found it wise to live north of the border. Ashintully Castle, little more than a country house 22 miles north of Perth, became his home. It is regularly visited by Spaldings from all over the world. By all accounts the Spaldings of those days were a rough lot even by the standards of the day, but they were good soldiers and sold their fighting skills abroad. One branch of the family went to Sweden. The records of the Swedish House of Lords (Riddarhus) show that Spaldings were in Sweden for two generations before 1624. They prospered because their arms are still to be seen in the Riddarhus in Stockholm. Other members of the family went to North America, but there is no evidence to suggest that they went as soldiers, either to assist those who were fighting for their independence from British rule, or in the service of the forces trying to prevent their defection in the name of the King. Whatever the case may be, HN laid no claim to an American connection.3
Henry Norman Spalding was born at Lennox House in Blackheath, in south-east London, on 15 August, 1877, the eldest of the four children borne by Henry Benjamin's second wife, Ellen Rebe Spalding. There are no clear details about his early life. He spoke little about his childhood or his father, but he was devoted to his mother throughout her life.4 His brother, Kenneth Jay Spalding, was born two years later on 17 March 1879. His sister Selma Nellie was born on 27 November 1880. Eva Ruth followed on 20 December 1882. HN was brought up by his parents as a Protestant Christian in the Presbyterian Church. In later life he was nominally a member of the Church of England, but he was rarely to be seen in a church, except on special occasions such as weddings or funerals. His father, Henry Benjamin Spalding, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, was born on 11 December, 1817 and died on 1 January 1908. Henry Benjamin had nine children by his first wife, Ann Seger (nee King). She was born on 10 April 1816 and died on 11 July, 1874. His second wife was Ellen Rebe (pronounced Reebee), nee Jay, who was born on 26 January, 1848 and died on 6 March 1938. She was 30 years younger than her husband. She and Henry Benjamin were married in Lewisham Congregational church on 7 September 1876. They lived successively at Hartham Cottage, 31 Campden Road Villas, and 3 Montague Place, all in Kentish Town, London. They moved to Lennox House, Manor Way, Blackheath, and then to Sunny Bank, Milnthorpe in Eastbourne. He is buried in Ocklynge Cemetery, Eastbourne. As a widow, Ellen Rebe lived with her daughter Selma, who had married Sir Thomas Lennard, the shoe manufacturer. They lived together for a time in a house overlooking the entrance to Dartmouth harbour and then at Medland Manor near Cheriton Bishop on Dartmoor. Ellen Rebe is buried in Cheriton Bishop churchyard.
Spalding and Hodge
The Spalding family's assets were invested originally in the firm of Spalding and Hodge, which had been founded by HN's grandfather in 1797. The founder of Spalding and Hodge had ten children, of whom HN's father, the afore-mentioned Henry Benjamin Spalding, was the youngest. Some of his descendants have been known to describe him as a man who ran a paper shop in London. The understatement is tongue in cheek and rather English.

H. N. Spalding's family tree.
It is true, but misleading. It is true that Henry Benjamin did start his business in a modest way, quite probably by opening a newspaper shop, or its equivalent in those days, but he soon saw a niche in the market for making and selling paper, which he exploited successfully. The 'papers' that began to be sold were produced principally for the publication of books. The works of Thackeray were originally published on paper provided by the firm, and works of Dickens were also among the notable titles to be printed on S & H paper. Established in the closing years of the eighteenth century, the partnership of Spalding and Hodge supplied paper for discerning customers from premises in The Strand, London. The business prospered. In due course it was removed to Drury Lane. The business did not remain successful, however. For want of careful supervision and management the business went into decline. It was unfortunate, perhaps, that HN's father was not more closely involved in the day-to-day running of the company. That was left to a relative, who possessed less business acumen than the family would have cared to see in him. The result was that the finances of Spalding and Hodge fell to an alarming level.
School and University
At this time HN, already living with his family in Eastbourne, was a boy at Eastbourne College, but as funds ran low, he and the other members of his family were obliged to move to Switzerland where living, strange as it may seem today, was cheaper than at home. He managed to learn a useful amount of French whilst there, but spoke the language with a marked English accent. The brief note from Henderson to Zernov quoted at the beginning of this chapter might be taken to suggest that Spalding's education 'in Switzerland and France' was grander than it was in fact. HN's days on the continent were spent there of necessity rather than by choice. The family soon returned to Eastbourne. HN resumed his education at Eastbourne College. He stayed there without leaving much of a mark, either academically or in sport. It seems that he enjoyed his time at school without being enthusiastic about it. In 1898 he went up to New College, Oxford, to read Greats, in Oxford's demanding and prestigious school of the Classics. In later life he frequently observed that his studies at Oxford opened up a completely new world to him. In the Classics he found a lasting source of inspiration. Philosophy, ancient and modern, fascinated him and furnished him with a life-long source of intellectual delight. The subjects also helped to refine his capacity for careful reasoning. It seems, however, that when it came to science he had a blind spot. His son, who followed a distinguished career in medicine, states that HN had no interest in science, and that his father's inability, or unwillingness, to appreciate the value of scientific inquiry became something of a barrier between them.
Work in London
On leaving Oxford in 1901, HN went to work at the Admiralty in London. His responsibilities, modest enough at the time, seem to have been chiefly on the financial side. He did not find the work of a junior Civil Servant especially congenial, but he applied himself and was chosen to be private secretary to Sir Gordon Miller, Accountant-General of the Navy. When he subsequently became clerk to the Naval Income Tax Commissioners, his main achievement was to simplify some of the complicated Income Tax regulations. He resigned from the Admiralty in 1909, the year of his marriage. The British Navy was rather grander than the Admiralty that served it in those days. HN's son, Dr John Spalding, still has an umbrella used by his father during that period. It bears the inscription 'Spalding, Admiralty.' That was apparently sufficient to ensure that if lost and found the umbrella could be safely returned to its rightful owner. It is more likely that the brief inscription is evidence of the relatively small size of the Admiralty than of the seniority of the umbrella's owner. In 1906 HN was called to the Bar but he never practised. There were two General Elections in 1910. The first campaign lasted from 14 January to 9 February. The second campaign lasted from 2-19 December. In the former he fought the East Grinstead constituency as the Liberal candidate, but failed to win the seat. His decision to involve himself in political affairs under the banner of the Liberal Parry scandalised some of his neighbours. He and his wife were ostracised by some of their former friends and acquaintances, who could not see why a man of his talents and distinction should identify himself with the Liberals and challenge the Conservatives. Two reasons may be given for his failure to be elected. The first is that he chose to contest a safe seat held by a Conservative. The second reason has more to do with HN's personality and temperament than with his political acumen. He was too open and straightforward for the intrigues of political life.
Some time later he was persuaded to stand for Parliament again, this time at Reading. He was chosen to fight the seat in succession to the sitting Liberal member for the constituency, Sir Rufus Isaacs, who had been appointed Lord Chief Justice in 1913. Isaacs was later to be Viceroy of India and 1st Marquess of Reading.5 At this point there is confusion about what happened to HN's candidacy. Members of the Spalding family believe that he stood for Parliament again and was defeated for a second time. The chronology of events places this in some doubt, however. Sir Rufus Isaacs did not become Lord Chief Justice until 1913, but there were no further Parliamentary elections until 1918.
The Group got to power in 1916 by a method which they repeated with the Labour Party in 1931. By a secret intrigue with a parvenu leader of the government, the Group offered to make him head of a new government if he would split his own party and become Prime Minister, supported by the Group and whatever members he could split off from his own party. The chief difference between 1916 and 1931 is that in the former year the minority that was being betrayed was the Group's own social class — in fact, the Liberal Party members of the Cecil Bloc. Another difference is that in 1916 the plot worked — the Liberal Party was split and permanently destroyed — while in 1931 the plotters broke off only a fragment of the Labour Party and damaged it only temporarily (for fourteen years). This last difference, however, was not caused by any lack of skill in carrying out the intrigue but by the sociological differences between the Liberal Party and the Labour Party in the twentieth century. The latter was riding the wave of the future, while the former was merely one of two "teams" put on the field by the same school for an intramural game, and, as such, it was bound to fuse with its temporary antagonist as soon as the future produced an extramural challenger. This strange (to an outsider) point of view will explain why Asquith had no real animosity for Bonar Law or Balfour (who really betrayed him) but devoted the rest of his life to belittling the actions of Lloyd George. Asquith talked later about how he was deceived (and even lied to) in December 1915, but never made any personal attack on Bonar Law, who did the prevaricating (if any). The actions of Bonar Law were acceptable in the code of British politics, a code largely constructed on the playing fields of Eton and Harrow, but Lloyd George's actions, which were considerably less deliberate and cold-blooded, were quite unforgivable, coming as they did from a parvenu who had been built up to a high place in the Liberal Party because of his undeniable personal ability, but who, nonetheless, was an outsider who had never been near the playing fields of Eton.
-- The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden, by Carroll Quigley
HN's obituary in The Times (17 September 1953) reads in part:
[HN] was invited to stand in the Liberal interest in succession to Sir Rufus Isaacs when he became Lord Chief Justice, but his candidature never became effective because of the outbreak of war, which took Spalding back to the Admiralty and then to the Ministry of Munitions, where he was deputy director of the welfare department.
The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis of 1915 when there was much newspaper criticism of the shortage of artillery shells. The agency was created by the Munitions of War Act 1915 passed on 2 July 1915. Under the very vigorous leadership of Liberal party politician David Lloyd George, the Ministry in its first year set up a system that fully mobilized Britain's potential for producing a massive outpouring of munitions....
By 1918 the ministry was superintending 20,000 factories, with large numbers of women new to engineering work. To improve efficiency and its public relations, the Ministry opened a department focused on workers' welfare. It improved first aid conditions; promoted factory safety; handled medical conditions induced by the handling of dangerous chemicals and TNT; provided day care for children; limited overtime; and sometimes provided transportation and lodging for workers.[4]
-- Minister of Munitions, by Wikipedia
The Reading constituency was chosen quite probably because Mrs Spalding owned two small houses, 'The Holt' and 'Meads', on the river above Marsh Lock at Henley. The houses were given to her by her father. They were usually let, but 'The Holt' had an annual break when it was lent to the crew of Brasenose College for Henley week. One year the BNC crew failed to qualify, so the house was lent to the crew from Magdalen College, Oxford. As a token of their appreciation, the members of the Magdalen crew gave HN some decanters, which are still in Dr John Spalding's possession.
The world of ideas was to occupy him henceforward. Before leaving Reading, however, he was to give lectures for the Workers' Educational Association.6 When his daughter Ruth was born in 1913 the members of his audience presented her with a silver spoon inscribed with the subject of HN's lectures, 'From Wages and Hours'. He returned to the Civil Service in 1915, serving once more in the Admiralty and then in the Ministry of Munitions under Lloyd George, who was appointed Minister of Munitions in the same year. As Deputy Director of the Welfare Department H helped Seebohm Rowntree to organise a welfare service for women working in the nation's munitions factories.
This organization has been able to conceal its existence quite successfully, and many of its most influential members, satisfied to possess the reality rather than the appearance of power, are unknown even to close students of British history. This is the more surprising when we learn that one of the chief methods by which this Group works has been through propaganda. It plotted the Jameson Raid of 1895; it caused the Boer War of 1899-1902; it set up and controls the Rhodes Trust; it created the Union of South Africa in 1906-1910; it established the South African periodical The State in 1908; it founded the British Empire periodical The Round Table in 1910, and this remains the mouthpiece of the Group; it has been the most powerful single influence in All Souls, Balliol, and New Colleges at Oxford for more than a generation; it has controlled The Times for more than fifty years, with the exception of the three years 1919-1922, it publicized the idea of and the name "British Commonwealth of Nations" in the period 1908-1918, it was the chief influence in Lloyd George's war administration in 1917-1919 and dominated the British delegation to the Peace Conference of 1919; it had a great deal to do with the formation and management of the League of Nations and of the system of mandates; it founded the Royal Institute of International Affairs in 1919 and still controls it; it was one of the chief influences on British policy toward Ireland, Palestine, and India in the period 1917-1945; it was a very important influence on the policy of appeasement of Germany during the years 1920-1940; and it controlled and still controls, to a very considerable extent, the sources and the writing of the history of British Imperial and foreign policy since the Boer War.....
When Milner died, in May 1925, The Times obituary had this to say about this portion of his life:"With the special meeting of the War Cabinet attended by the Dominion Prime Ministers which, beginning on March 20, came to be distinguished as the Imperial War Cabinet . . . Milner was more closely concerned than any other British statesman. The conception of the Imperial War Cabinet and the actual proposal to bring the Dominion Premiers into the United Kingdom Cabinet were his. And when, thanks to Mr. Lloyd George's ready acceptance of the proposal, Milner's conception was realized, it proved to be not only a solution of the problem of Imperial Administrative unity in its then transient but most urgent phase, but a permanent and far-reaching advance in the constitutional evolution of the Empire. It met again in 1918, and was continued as the British Empire Delegation in the peace negotiations at Versailles in 1919. Thus, at the moment of its greatest need, the Empire was furnished by Milner with a common Executive. For the Imperial War Cabinet could and did, take executive action, and its decisions bound the Empire at large." (3)
-- The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden, by Carroll Quigley
The Spaldings were living at 109 St George's Square, Westminster, an easy walk up the Thames from the Houses of Parliament. They also had a home at Tivoli (now the Hotel Buena Vista) in Lyme Regis, a delightful small town on the south coast of Dorset. It was the First World War, however, which put an end to his political ambitions. He had twice tried to enlist in the Army but was turned down on both occasions because of poor eyesight. Professor A. J. Arberry, who met Spalding for the first time in 1928 at Parson's Pleasure in Oxford, wrote: 'After the end of the first war [Spalding] returned to live in Oxford, and began that long series of munificent benefactions to good causes with which his name will always be associated.' 7 Financial security had made it possible for HN and his wife to devote themselves more and more to charitable causes.
Marriage
Spalding met his future wife, Nellie Maud Emma Cayford, in Eastbourne. She was born in the year before him, on 16 January, 1876. In her youth she lived with her family in Hampstead and attended Hampstead High School. Her younger brother, Alfred, was said to be 'backward' following a fall from a horse, although his disability may date from before that accident. He was more probably a spastic child. He died in 1930. Her mother, Emma Cayford (nee Puddefoot), was seriously disabled for several years before she died on 14 November 1904. Nellie Maud Emma was obliged to leave school at the age of 14, probably in 1890, in order to run the family home, which from about that time was at Huntsland, Crawley Down, near East Grinstead in West Sussex, some 30 miles away from Eastbourne. Her father, Ebenezer Cayford, travelled to work in the city of London by train on the Brighton line from Crawley. Among the responsibilities she undertook was that of accompanying her father on some of his overseas business trips. She escorted him several times to Hamburg and once to Tenerife. As a result of these dislocations she would have described her education as inadequate. Her son John says that when he was small he did not notice this, but he does remember that his mother was a little overwhelmed at the time by HN's 'intellectual friends'. Like many others of her generation, especially women, she educated herself, overcame her diffidence, and in her case also acquired what her son calls a knowledge of biology and medicine superior to that of her husband. From the family home at Huntsland she made frequent visits to Eastbourne, where she met HN. After that first meeting it was not long before they decided to be married.
Her financial resources were eventually to come from the investments made by her father in the various shipping companies with which he had been involved. These companies conducted a lucrative trade with South America, chiefly with the Argentine. They also developed commercial interests further afield. One such development was linked to the phosphate trade in the Pacific. The couple were keen to marry as soon as possible, but Miss Cayford's father, Ebenezer, refused to give his consent, considering that HN lacked experience, had not had time to prove himself, and lacked the ability to manage the inheritance that he would share when married. The father was concerned about what might happen to the settlement he intended to make on his daughter. As he lay dying after a prostatectomy, he told her 'I expect you will marry that young man'. Whatever his motives or intentions, the death-bed conversion was taken to be a real, if reluctant, approval of the union.
It was with very deep regret that the shipping world learned of the death of Mr. Ebenezer Cayford, who was, until the early part of last year, chairman of Messrs. Houlder Bros. and Co., Limited. The sad event, which occurred last Thursday, cast quite a gloom over all those who knew the man himself, for his personality was one of infinite charm, and his kindness to those in distress whole-hearted and unvarying. Born in 1835, he was in his 74th year, but notwithstanding the weight of his years he was active almost up to the last, and ofttimes we have seen him striding along Leadenhall Street with all the vigour of a man in the prime of life. Ebenezer Cayford, with his flowing white locks and his patriarchal beard, was a striking figure, and there was a fire in his eyes which plainly revealed that he was a man of great enthusiasms and firm convictions. Indeed, so strongly did any suspicion of injustice move him, that the education controversy found him in the ranks of the passive resisters, ready to have his property sold rather than accede to the demands of the rate collector. We may not agree with the principles he defended with such zeal, but the spirit which prompted his actions was the same which guided him in business, and gained for him in so universal a measure the respect and admiration of all who came into contact with him. He was not one to parade his generosity, but there is many a successful man in business today who could relate an instance of assistance willingly rendered at a time when it meant much -- assistance rendered, moreover, in so kind a manner as to make the service doubly great. Mr. Cayford was able to look back upon a fifty years' association with the Messrs. Houlder Bros, for he entered the firm as a boy and worked his way steadily upwards. The funeral will take place tomorrow (Wednesday) at Ocklynge Cemetery, Eastbourne, being preceded by a service in the Upperton Congregational Church at 2.30, at which Dr. Clifford, one of Mr. Cayford's closest friends, will give a brief address.
-- The Syren & Shipping Illustrated, Volume 1, 1908
The couple did not want to delay the wedding. HN was 32 years old. Nellie Maud Emma was 33. They decided to marry abroad. As a matter of course she took with her as chaperone a lady friend whom she had known since childhood. It would have been insensitive to have arranged a big wedding so soon after the death of the bride's father, so the marriage took place quietly and without publicity in Florence on 21 October 1909. The honeymoon was spent in Italy.
After their marriage the couple lived in the bride's family home, Huntsland, a medium sized, comfortable looking, house set in rural surroundings and with a pleasant garden. It was from here that he fought unsuccessfully his campaign for a seat in the House of Commons for the Liberal Party in the General Election of 1910. From Huntsland he and his wife moved to a flat in London close to Grosvenor Square. HN described it as 'snooty'. The house at 109 St George's Square, London WI was purchased in 1913. HN lived at this address whilst working in London during the First World War. For most of the time his young family was sent to live in Lyme Regis 'to get away from the bombs' that were dropped infrequently by the few comparatively small German Zeppelins. To complete the sequence of family moves, mention should be made of Tivoli (now the hotel Buena Vista) in Lyme Regis, Dorset; Shotover Cleve, The Ridings, Headington, Oxford; and 9 South Parks Road. Dr John Spalding states that the house in South Parks Road was 'destroyed' after his mother's death in 1938, 'to make a University laboratory'.
The new Mrs Spalding's father, Ebenezer Cayford, had not always enjoyed affluence. He was born in Somerset, not far from Frome, where his family were farmers. In his youth there was much uncertainty about the future of farming after a decline in the agricultural industry in this country. As a result he decided to seek his fortune in London. To begin with he, too, started to sell papers. He sold them on the street. He then applied for a job in a shipping firm. He failed to get the post, which was offered to another youth, J. T. Arundel. For some reason Ebenezer omitted to give his home address to the company, but he happened to see a further advertisement in which he was asked to get in touch with the company again. This he did, joining Arundel in a career that was to take him to the boardroom. Near the end of his life Arundel was one of Dr John Spalding's two god-fathers.
John T. Arundel (1 September 1841 – 30 November 1919) was an English entrepreneur who was instrumental in the development of the mining of phosphate rock on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Banaba (Ocean Island). Williams & Macdonald (1985) described J.T. Arundel as "a remarkable example of that mid-Victorian phenomenon, the upright, pious and adventurous Christian English businessman."[1]
Early life
His father owned a gentleman's outfitter in the City of London and a warehouse business on the Thames estuary, with the family living at Gravesend.[2] The family were active in the Congregational Church, and through a church connection he joined Houlder Brothers & Co., a firm that provided ships for migration to New Zealand and Australia.[2]
Early career
In 1860, J.T. Arundel travelled on a Houlder Brothers & Co ship into the Pacific, calling at the Chincha Islands, on which guano was mined for refining into superphosphate. J.T. Arundel took an interest in the potential of the fertiliser business and in 1868 the company sent him on a second voyage into the Pacific to pursue opportunities.[2]
When J.T. Arundel set off in 1871 to develop a business in the Pacific he left his fiancée Eliza Eleanor (Lillie) Whibley in England, as he wanted to secure their financial security by achieving success with his business ventures. J .T. Arundel and Lillie Whibley were not to marry until 1881. Following their marriage Lillie Arundel would travel into the central Pacific with J.T. Arundel when he would visit the various islands on which his company has operations. Lillie Arundel gave birth in 1884 to their second daughter while on Manra, then known as Sydney Island, giving her the name of that island.[2]
In 1898 Fred Whibley, Lillie's younger brother, arrived in Sydney, after 10 years in the United States and Canada. J .T. Arundel offered Fred Whibley a position with John T. Arundel & Co. Fred Whibley declined and chose to become an island trader on Niutao in what is now Tuvalu. A harmonious working relationship would have been unlikely given the pious Christian attitudes of J.T. Arundel and Fred Whibley's reputation as the 'black sheep' of the family.[3]
John T. Arundel & Co.
In 1871 with financial support from Houlder Brothers and Co., he established John T. Arundel & Co. The initial activities were carried out by the two companies. Houlder Brothers and Co leased Flint Island from the British government and Arundel managed the guano digging in the central part of the island from 1875 to 1880.[2] In 1872, Caroline Island was leased by the Houlder Brothers. In 1881, the lease was later taken over by Arundel (for whom one of the islets is named).[4]
John T. Arundel & Co went on to engage in mining guano on other Pacific islands and also established coconut plantations and traded in copra and other commodities.[2] The company operated from Sydney, Australia with business interests in the Pacific that included:
Mining guano on:
• Caroline Island from 1872 (with the support of Houlder Brothers and Co) then under John T. Arundel & Co from 1881.[4] The guano mining, which began in 1874, supplied a total of about 10,000 tons of phosphate until supplies were exhausted around 1895.[5]
• Baker Island from 1886 to 1899,[6] which is now claimed as an unincorporated territory of the United States.
• Howland Island from 1886 to 1899,[6] which is geographically part of the Phoenix Islands and now claimed as an unincorporated territory of the United States.
• Jarvis Island from 1886 to 1899,[7] which is geographically part of the Line Islands and now claimed as an unincorporated territory of the United States.
• Manra or Sydney Island in 1884, which is geographically part of the Phoenix Islands and is part of Kiribati.
• Raine Island in the Torres Strait, Rocky Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Lady Elliot Island off Bundaberg, Queensland and several islands in the Capricorn and Bunker Group in the waters off Northern Australia.[6]
• Establishing coconut plantations on:
• Flint Island in 1881 in what is now Kiribati, with the plantation operated by the firm until 1891.
• Caroline Island in 1885, however the coconut palms suffered from disease and the plantation failed.[5]
• Nikumaroro, or Gardner Island, which is geographically part of the Phoenix Islands and is part of Kiribati. The plantation was started in 1892 but as a consequence of severe drought the plantation was abandoned within 12 months.[8]
Albert Ellis who worked for John T. Arundel & Co., later acknowledged that the company was not making money although the company was gaining experience in the mining and shipping of guano and phosphate rock in what were sometimes difficult conditions, with many of these islands having no safe anchorage for shipping.[6]
Pacific Islands Company Ltd
In 1897 John T. Arundel & Co., merged its business with that of the trading and plantation firm of Henderson and Macfarlane to form the Pacific Islands Company Ltd ('PIC'). The company was based in London with its trading activities in the Pacific. The Chairman of the PIC was Lord Stanmore, formerly Sir Arthur Gordon, Governor of Fiji and first High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. John T. Arundel was the vice-chairman.[2]
The PIC continued to expand its plantation interests and in 1899, acquired a license to develop coconut plantations on Birnie Island, which is geographically part of the Phoenix Islands and is part of Kiribati, with the PIC attempting ti acquiring licenses to develop coconut plantations in the British Solomon Islands in 1900 and 1901.[9][10]
Despite this attempt to broaden the operations of the company the company remained chronically short of capital throughout its existence and was lent money from time to time by its directors.[9] The PIC abandoned the plans to develop coconut plantations in 1902.[10]
In 1899 Albert Ellis made what he later described as "a good 'find'", when he had laboratory analysis carried out on a rock that was used to prop open the Sydney office door, as it appeared similar to the hard phosphate rock that he had seen on Baker Island[11] The laboratory analysis confirmed that the rock was high grade phosphate. Albert Ellis and other company employees travelled to Banaba to confirm that the soil of that island was largely phosphate rock. A. F. Ellis went on to Nauru, at that time a German territory, and confirmed it also consisted of large deposits of phosphate rock.[11]
J. T. Arundel and Lord Stanmore were responsible for financing the new opportunities and negotiating with the German company that controlled the licences to mine in Nauru.[2][6] In 1902 the interests of PIC were merged with Jaluit Gesellschaft of Hamburg, to form the Pacific Phosphate Company, ('PPC') to engage in phosphate mining in Nauru and Banaba, then known as Ocean Island.[2][6] The company's engineers had to find solutions for transferring the phosphate rock from the island to ships that had to anchor off the island. As high islands both Nauru and Banaba did not have lagoons or anchorages that protected ships from the Pacific storms.[2][6] Solutions were found and despite losing some 5 ships on the reef at Ocean Island, the PPC became a very profitable company. The profitability of the company directed attention to the original agreements made with the land owners of Nauru and Banaba.[2][6] The agreement with the Banabans was for the exclusive right to mine for 999 years for £50 a year. The terms of the licenses were changed to provide for the payment of royalties and compensation for mining damage.[2][6]
In 1913 an anonymous correspondent to the New Age journal criticised the operation of the PPC under the title "Modern buccaneers in the West Pacific".[12][/b]
The PPC investigated phosphate deposits on Makatea in the Tuamotus in French Polynesia and formed a company, the Compagnie des Phosphates de l'Océanie, with a Tahitian syndicate that was also investigating the potential of Makatea. This gave the PPC a virtual monopoly on the sources of high grade phosphate in the Pacific.[13]
In 1919 the business of the PPC in Nauru and Banaba was acquired by Board of the British Phosphate Commission.[2][6] From 1919 the responsibility for the welfare of the people of Nauru and Banaba, the restoring of land and water resources lost by mining operations and compensation for environmental damage to the islands was under the control of the governments of United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.[14]
-- John T. Arundel, by Wikipedia
Shipping and Trade
The shipping companies with which Ebenezer was associated were the Houlder Line, Houlder Bros., and Furness Withy.8 Diligent and ready to learn, he began to make progress. His promotion to the boardroom was steady. The companies in which he had interests were engaged in trade with the Argentine. Among the goods imported to this country were large tonnages of beef. These commercial interests extended into the Pacific region. There was an office in Sydney, Australia, run by Mr Arundel. The companies also traded in coconuts imported from a number of islands in the Pacific. A lucrative business opportunity came in an unexpected way after a piece of rock was picked up on an island in the Pacific. The rock was brought to the office in Sydney and used as a door-stop in one of the rooms until a sharp-eyed employee, a young chemist by training, spotted its potential, had it analysed, and then revealed that it contained phosphate. This led to the discovery of large amounts of phosphate in the mineral deposits on Nauru and Ocean Islands. In various forms the chemical is used as a fertiliser. Ebenezer's shares in the companies that started to exploit these deposits began to rise in value. He died a comparatively wealthy man, leaving his daughter in a relatively sound financial position, although it was not immediately clear how large his estate was. His director's fees ceased on his death. His daughter and a few female companions went away to a cottage in Scotland while his affairs were sorted out. Investigations confirmed that she was going to be comfortably well off, but the money she inherited still had to be managed responsibly. It was HN who assumed this responsibility. He made the financial decisions, but always regarded himself as a trustee of his wife's money, and never committed himself to any substantial project without her prior agreement. The investments were prudently made. Mrs Spalding retained her shares in a phosphate company and in Houlder Bros. The returns on capital proved to be satisfactory. His father-in-law need not have doubted either his business acumen or his financial probity.
Family and Friends
The Spalding's first child was still-born at Huntsland, Crawley Down. The doctor involved in the delivery is reported to have wept because he had not managed the birth adequately. The three other children were born in London, at St George's Square, under the care of an obstetrician. The eldest, Anne Rebe Heather was born on 18 November 1911. Ruth Jeanie Lucile was born on 30 November 1913. John Michael Kenneth -- the future Chairman of the Spalding Trust -- was born on 18 September 1917. The three young children were taught reading, writing and arithmetic by their Norland nurse, Lydia Dawson. She also taught them swimming and took them on country walks. Anne also went to a Mr Harding, a retired teacher, for more tuition, including Latin. John remembers life in St George's Square -- bowling hoops in the Square's gardens, hearing the tugs hooting on the river Thames in fog, and throwing Sunday's sausage skins to the seagulls -- but most of the time was spent by the family at Lyme Regis.
Anne became an artist. She trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing, now the Ruskin School of Art. It was then in the west wing of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which now houses the museum shop. The School of Art is now in the High Street, between the entrance to Merton Street and the Examination Schools. She was taught by Barnett Freedman, who became a life-long friend. Albert Rutherstone and Gilbert Spencer were among her teachers. Her friends included Richard Naish, later to become head of the Ruskin School. He and his wife Martha went to live in Lewknor and encouraged Anne to live there too. Anne painted mainly in oils, sometimes in water-colours. She also made woodcuts and lithographs, at first in a studio in St Giles, Oxford and then in flats in Notting Hill and in Kent before she bought her house in Lewknor. She did not marry. Ruth took a degree in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) at Somerville College, Oxford. Already keen on amateur dramatics, she became an actress and a producer of plays. She also enjoyed success as an author under her maiden name. She wrote The Improbable Puritan: A Lift of Bulstrode Whitlocke 1605-1675, which was published by Faber & Faber in 1975. This biography was awarded a Whitbread Prize in the same year. She also edited The Diary of Bulstrode Whitlocke 1605-1675, published by Oxford University Press for the British Academy in 1991. John, as recounted in the Preface, became a distinguished neurologist in Oxford.
Whilst still living in London, Mrs Spalding invited to tea a Russian refugee, Madame Narishkin, who lived nearby. Madame Narishkin declined to remove her coat, even though the weather was warm. The coat was worn to conceal the fact that her wardrobe was otherwise somewhat inadequate. The Spaldings discreetly offered financial assistance. The friendship between the Spaldings and the Narishkins was to last. The Spaldings began to help other Russian refugee families as well. For HN such encounters helped to stimulate a developing interest in Russian culture, art, and religion. In 1923 the London house was sold. The family then lived entirely at Lyme Regis, where the children were very happy, and (as John put it) 'were taught the rudiments by a wise and loving nanny'. This was the year in which the financial independence enjoyed by the Spaldings enabled them to establish the first Spalding Trust. This was followed in 1928 by the creation of a second Trust with similar aims to the first.9 The chief effect of the second foundation was to add to the funds that were available to the 1923 Trust. Both Trusts were described as Education Trusts, but the resources could be used without restriction for any charitable purpose. Apart from gifts to the University of Oxford, the Spaldings befriended and assisted many others. During the First World War these included refugees from Belgium. Indigent relatives of Mrs Spalding were also helped from time to time.
A Critical Influence
In 1914 HN was in his middle thirties. Though spared from military service on medical grounds, he was profoundly affected by the grievous losses suffered by so many of his contemporaries in the armed conflict of the First World War. During World War I he read the casualty lists that were published daily, recording the deaths of thousands of men not much younger than himself. They included friends, former colleagues and associates. The suffering inflicted by human beings on others in that conflict was a critical influence -- perhaps the most crucial influence -- on his development. It is difficult for anyone born after the end of World War II to imagine the scale of the horror of such conflict. A single example, one of far too many that could be cited, conveys something of the destruction of human life at that time. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, British casualties rose to 60,000. Over the four months of the battle on French soil, the British lost 410,000 men, the German losses amounted to 500,000, and the French lost 190,000. HN could only note what was happening from afar. As the war dragged on and the casualty lists lengthened, he began to wear a black tie in honour of those who had fallen. He continued to wear this symbol of mourning each day for the rest of his life.
In July 2001 a service of commemoration was held at Lutyen's memorial to the Missing at Thiepval, a village close to the then German lines, on the 85th anniversary of that first day of the Battle of the Somme. The names on the memorial appear 'like footnotes on the sky', in the phrase of Sebastian Faulks, who attended the service.10 The names were certainly that and more to HN, who was prevented by poor eyesight from serving in the Army. The conflict increased his desire to do everything he could to promote world peace. During and after the war he was a keen supporter of the League of Nations Union, serving on the League's Executive Committee in London.11
[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon] became President of the League of Nations Union in 1918.[45]
-- Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, by Wikipedia
After the split in the Liberal Party in 1886, it was the members of the Cecil Bloc who became Unionists — that is, the Lytteltons, the Wyndhams, the Cavendishes. As a result, the Cecil Bloc became increasingly a political force. Gladstone remained socially a member of it, and so did his protege, John Morley, but almost all the other members of the Bloc were Unionists or Conservatives. The chief exceptions were the four leaders of the Liberal Party after Gladstone, who were strong imperialists: Rosebery, Asquith, Edward Grey, and Haldane. These four supported the Boer War, grew increasingly anti-German, supported the World War in 1914, and were close to the Milner Group politically, intellectually, and socially.
-- The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden, by Carroll Quigley
The Second World War merely confirmed what he already knew about human frailty. He remained an optimist about the future, although he did not believe that human progress is inevitable. Progress, in his view, depended upon the recognition and the acceptance of truths that were in danger of being forgotten, or at least temporarily overlooked. These truths, so he believed, lie waiting to be discovered (or re-discovered), if men and women can only be persuaded to locate their source. In his literary works he points consistently to that source of truth and spiritual insight. His thesis was that truth -- universally applicable -- is to be found, not necessarily in institutional religion, but in the accumulated wisdom of the world's great religious teachers.
Oxford, Brasenose College, and 'Shotover Cleve'
In 1925, when Anne Spalding, HN's eldest daughter, was 14 years old, she and her sister Ruth needed the kind of education that it was felt Lyme Regis could no longer provide. HN and his wife did not want them to go to boarding school, so the decision was made to move. They decided on Oxford and made plans to build a house there. They chose a site some three miles from Carfax in the centre of Oxford, on elevated ground on Shotover Hill. Oxford was chosen as the place to live for three main reasons. The first requirement was for good schools for the children. Oxford had those. The second reason was that HN had happy memories of his time as an undergraduate at New College. To be within easy distance of the academic community in Oxford was most desirable. The third reason for choosing Oxford was that his great friend 'Sonners' was a Fellow of Brasenose College. 'Sonners' was the nickname of William Teulon Swan Stallybrass (1883-1948), who had changed his surname from Sonnenschein during World War I. He was not a German, but anti-German prejudice in those days was quickly aroused at the sight and sound of a Teutonic-looking surname. So far from being German, Stallybrass is reputed to have tried to learn the German language several times but never with much success. HN, his wife Nellie, and Stallybrass, were the original Trustees of the 1923 and 1928 Spalding Educational Trusts.

'Shotover Cleve', the Spaldings' new house, built in 1925 at Oxford. The photograph was taken by W. T. S. Stallybrass in 1929.
Stallybrass later became Principal of Brasenose College and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, remaining throughout a good friend of the Spaldings. In 1919 HN became a member of the Senior Common Room at Brasenose and often dined in College after moving to Oxford. The friendship was increased when K. J. Spalding, HN's younger brother was elected to a Senior Research Fellowship in Philosophy at the College. Stallybrass helped to arrange for KJ's appointment at Brasenose College in 1928. [/size=120] Whilst still a bachelor in London, HN had been a member of the Thames Hare and Hounds Running Club.12 So was Stallybrass. Both men worked at the Ministry of Munitions during the First World War. 'Sonners' was awarded an O.B.E. [Order of the British Empire] for his work during that period.[/size] Neither at that time nor in the years that followed were Spalding's achievements recognised by the award of a civic honour. It was when 'Sonners' was working in the Ministry that he decided to follow his father and adopt the surname of his paternal grandmother as his own. The name 'Sonnenschein' was too problematic to live with at a time when Britain was at war with Germany. The lifelong friendship between Spalding and Stallybrass had begun some years earlier, however. A recently discovered collection of photographs taken by Stallybrass includes pictures of HN and members of his family that were taken a few months before the outbreak of World War I. Some of them appear in this book.13
'Sonners' died tragically in 1948. He had been in London for a meeting of the University Grants Committee. After the meeting he dined at the Middle Temple and then left for Paddington station to catch the midnight train to Oxford. He was travelling alone. Somewhere near Iver in Buckinghamshire he fell from the train to his death. No-one witnessed the accident. His body was found on the track in the early hours of 28 October. Various theories were advanced to account for the accident. The most likely seems to be that being visually impaired, he mistook an external door of his compartment for the door to the corridor of the train, A cataract operation during the Second World War cost him the sight of one eye and left him with partial vision in the other. He had almost lost his life in the same way once before, but friends were with him on that occasion to save him. Despite his handicap he was able to administer the affairs of Brasenose College with exemplary efficiency.14 HN, who counted him among his closest friends, felt the loss acutely.
Plans for the new family home near Oxford were drawn up in 1925. 'Shotover Cleve' was a substantial country house. After the Second World War it was large enough to be divided into five parts in order to accommodate family, friends and undergraduate students.15 The skills of the carpenter, Mr Bing, proved to be invaluable at that time. The meaning of the name HN chose for the house is uncertain. It has been noted that of its three elements the first and the second may be translated 'steep', whilst the third may be a variant of 'cliff'. There were indeed slopes in plenty around the house. The architect was O. P. Milne, Dr John Spalding's second god-father. Disagreements between the client and the architect led to a permanent breach of friendship. Transport from Shotover Cleve to central Oxford was a little difficult. Neither HN nor his wife Nellie were drivers. The walk from the house to the nearest bus stop was almost a mile, and the bus-service was infrequent. Mrs Spalding needed to be able to visit the shops; HN had an increasing number of engagements in Oxford; many of which were of uncertain length; Anne and Ruth wanted to visit their school friends. The solution was a chauffeur-driven car, driven by the handyman, whose services the family already retained. The arrangement worked reasonably well until it became clear that the car was often needed by different members of the family at the same time. The decision was made to keep Shotover Cleve, but to move to a more convenient place nearer to the centre of Oxford. If necessary, Shotover Cleve could be let to tenants. One of the tenants in the 1930s was Kenneth Clark, later Lord Clark, who was then Keeper of Fine Arts at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Later, he moved to the National Gallery in London. In his autobiography he is not enthusiastic about Shotover Cleve, but he did make some improvements during his tenancy.
Over the years many refugees were to visit Shotover Cleve. HN was involved in what was called Russian Eurasianism, the purpose of which was to enable aristocrats still in the Soviet Union to escape to the West. Colonel Malevsky-Malevitch was also involved, staying at the house for several months. Another Russian, who returned to the USSR to help in the planned escapes, disappeared. It was never established whether he had been captured or whether he had been planted by the Soviets as an agent. From the intelligence sources now becoming accessible since the collapse of the USSR, it appears that the man was an agent and that the efforts of the would-be helpers in the West were well known to the Soviet authorities. Spalding himself felt a little betrayed by the episode, so much so that his feelings for Shotover Cleve were never quite the same. Despite this, increasing contact with Russian refugees stimulated Spalding's interest in Russian culture and religion. His interest in Eastern Orthodoxy led him to wonder about other religions in the East, of which he then had little knowledge.
There is a long drive to Shotover Cleve, off which the Spaldings built a smaller but still substantial family house for the Narishkins that was at first known as 'Domic'. There was speculation about the choice of the name. The Russian diminutive domik means 'cabin'. The Narishkins were grateful to have been granted asylum in Britain but they had been accustomed to a grander lifestyle in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg. A Narishkin ancestor was the mother of Peter the Great. The muzei-domik Petra I ('the Cabin of Peter the Great', now a museum) stands on the Petrovskaya embankment in the northern part of the Russian city. Built in three days for Peter by his soldier-carpenters in 1703, the two-roomed cabin is a reminder of his simple life-style during the six years he lived there whilst supervising construction work in St Petersburg. The Narishkins may have had this in mind when they called their new dwelling 'Domic'. They had two sons. The elder was called Vadim. He was of the same age as John Spalding. Their daughter, Moira, was a little younger. The second son was Theodore, known in the family as 'B' (for Baby). These children were among the young Spaldings' playmates. With the help of HN and his wife, the Narishkins then moved from the house built for them at Shotover to a house in Old Headington, Oxford. The 'Cabin' was eventually re-named The Orchard. Captain Narishkin used his knowledge of art -- almost universal among Russian aristocratic emigres -- to make or put together objets d'art for sale in Oxford. He dealt in small pictures and decorative boxes, selling them on to local shops. This brought in a modest income. Profitable deals were few and far between. His wife was an enthusiastic hostess but not a provident housekeeper. Their guests included Prince and Princess Galitzine (who had a shop on Hay Hill, Berkeley Square in London, a venture supported by the Spaldings), the Arapoffs, the harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler, and others, some of whom stayed or visited the Spaldings at Shotover Cleve next door.