{{Short description|British educationalist, writer, and poet}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Use Irish English|date=March 2021}} '''Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes''' (17 July 1850 – 14 October 1936) was an Anglo-Irish educationalist, writer and poet. His writings are noted for his view that Western thought is bankrupt.<ref>{{ThoemmesBritish20C|Holmes, Edmond Gore Alexander|446}}</ref>
==Early life== He was born in County Westmeath, Ireland, the fourth son in a large family. His father was Robert Holmes (1803–1870) of Moycashel, a farmer known as a breeder of English shorthorn cattle, and of racehorses; his mother was Jane Henn (1824–1905), daughter of William Henn junior, a master in chancery.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|title=Holmes, Edmond Gore Alexander (1850–1936), inspector of schools |first=Peter |last= Gordon |year=2004 |language=en |id=46694}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=British Farmer's Magazine |date=1853 |publisher=James Ridgway |page=451 |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=8cAEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA451 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Reilly2000">{{cite book|last=Reilly|first=Catherine|title=Mid-Victorian Poetry, 1860–1879|page=228|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bzRDJeN4KxQC&pg=PA228|accessdate=26 February 2018|date=2000-01-01|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9780720123180}}</ref> Both Edmond and his younger brother the classical scholar T. Rice Holmes were born at Waterstone House (Waterston), a property near Athlone owned by Robert Holmes.<ref name="Reilly2000"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Murphy |first1=David |title=Holmes, Thomas Rice Edward |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/holmes-thomas-rice-edward-a4071 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Waterstown House, Westmeath, Landed Estates, University of Galway |url=https://landedestates.ie/property/5749 |website=landedestates.ie}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bence-Jones |first1=Mark |title=A Guide to Irish Country Houses |date=1996 |publisher=Constable |location=London |isbn=0094699909 |page=282 |edition=2., rev., reprinted}}</ref>
Edmond Holmes moved to London in 1861, at age 11.<ref name="Reilly2000"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Aldrich |first1=Richard |last2=Gordon |first2=Peter |title=Dictionary of British Educationists |date=1 April 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-94931-2 |page=121 |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=Qc7eCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 |language=en}}</ref> He was educated from 1863 at Merchant Taylors' School, and matriculated at St John's College, Oxford in 1869, graduating B.A. in 1874 with a first class degree in Greats, M.A. 1876.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref name="alox">{{alox2|title=Holmes, Edmond Gore Alexander}}</ref> On his father's death, the family estate including land at Ardnurcher, Kilbeggan and Durrow passed to the eldest son Robert William Arbuthnot Holmes (1843–1910), a barrister and government official, who in the 1870s owned {{convert|1298|acres}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Holmes (Moycashel) Family |url=https://landedestates.ie/family/4187 |website=landedestates.ie}}</ref><ref name="WW">{{Who's Who|title=Holmes, Sir Robert William Arbuthnot|id=U187214}}</ref>
Briefly teaching at Repton School and Wellington School after Oxford, Holmes was then a tutor in the family of George Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Career== Holmes became an inspector of schools in 1875, a position he obtained through the influence of the Earl of Winchilsea.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref name="alox"/>
Holmes rose to become chief inspector for elementary schools in 1905. He resigned in 1910.<ref name="ODNB"/> Stewart called this end to his official career an "enforced resignation"; he had made criticisms of the status quo, and from then on took on an external gadfly role.<ref name="Stewart">{{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=William Alexander Campbell |title=Progressives and Radicals in English Education, 1750-1970 |date=1972 |publisher=A. M. Kelley |location=London |isbn=978-0-678-07015-4 |pages=192-193 |language=en}}</ref> By this time he had been joined by other critics of contemporary education, Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton and James Herbert Simpson, later the first head of Rendcomb College.<ref>{{cite ODNB|title=Simpson, James Herbert (1883–1959) |first=John |last=Howlett |id=63837}}</ref>
===Katherine Bathurst=== {{main|Katherine Bathurst}} Katherine Bathurst who had had a troubled career was transferred from Wales to work under Holmes's supervision. Disputes between them ensued, including expenses, timetables and Bathurst's objections to Holmes amending her reports. The Oxford Education Committee complained about her and she was given six months probation in February 1904;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Papers of Katherine Bathurst - Archives Hub |url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb366-kb |access-date=2022-12-18 |website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}</ref> in the following month female inspectors were moved to a new organisation as proposed by Robert Morant. Bathurst was sent to Manchester.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Bathurst, Katherine (1862–1933) |first=Peter |last=Gordon |id=48585}}</ref>
==="Egeria"=== {{main|Harriet Finlay-Johnson}} Holmes was impressed on encountering the teacher Harriet Finlay-Johnson in 1903.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daglish |first1=Neil |title=Education Policy Making in England and Wales: The Crucible Years, 1895-1911 |date=19 December 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-84560-7 |page=214 |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=uSlmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 |language=en}}</ref> When he came to write ''What Is and What Might Be'' (1911), he took her school at Sompting in Sussex as a "Utopian" example of elementary education, using the pseudonym "Egeria" for Finlay-Johnson.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Howlett |first1=John |title=Edmond Holmes and Progressive Education |date=12 August 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-67819-9 |page=115 |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=m1bUDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT115 |language=en}}</ref>
For Holmes, Finlay-Johnson appeared as Maria Montessori but ''avant la lettre''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=William Alexander Campbell |title=Progressives and Radicals in English Education, 1750-1970 |date=1972 |publisher=A. M. Kelley |location=London |isbn=978-0-678-07015-4 |page=217 |language=en}}</ref> She published her ideas in 1912 as ''The Dramatic Method of Teaching'', with his encouragement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Finlay-Johnson |first1=Harriet |title=The Dramatic Method of Teaching |date=1912 |publisher=Ginn |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=1Ikwy0NCghkC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bolton |first1=Gavin M. |title=A conceptual framework for classroom acting behaviour. |url=https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1627/ |publisher=Durham University|page=20 |date=1997}}</ref>
===Holmes-Morant circular=== In 1910/11 Holmes became involved in controversy, over a confidential memorandum criticising school inspectors who had formerly been elementary school teachers. This angered the teachers' union and it led to the downfall of Robert Morant, the permanent secretary to the Board of Education, when it became public.{{fact|date=March 2021}}
==New Ideals in Education conferences== Holmes played a significant role in founding the "New Ideals in Education" group, which ran a first conference in 1914 at East Runton on Montessori education. Involved initially were Beatrice de Normann, Belle Rennie, James Herbert Simpson and Alice Woods. Further recruits were Wyatt Trevelyan Rawson Rawson of Dartington Hall and Thorold Coade of Bryanston School.<ref name="Stewart"/> The conference series continued into the 1930s. The initial meeting also led to the foundation of the New Education Fellowship.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Publications== Holmes's writings on education are taken as an early statement of "progressive" and "child-centred" positions.
*''What Is and What Might Be'' (1911), critical of the existing school system.<ref name="ODNB"/> *''The Montessori System of Education'' (1912) *''The Tragedy of Education'' (1913)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Edmond |title=The Tragedy of Education |date=1913 |publisher=Constable & Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.22543/page/n7/mode/2up}}</ref> *''In Defence of What Might Be'' (1914). A review described it as "pregnant with possibilities for the untrammeled soul of the growing child. A draft of fresh air into static pedagogy."<ref>{{cite news |title=Books of the week |url=https://archive.org/stream/independen79v80newy#page/338/mode/1up |newspaper=The Independent |date=30 November 1914 |access-date=24 July 2012}}</ref> *''Freedom and Growth and other essays'' (1923)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Edmond |title=Freedom and Growth and other essays |date=1923 |publisher=Books for Libraries Press |location=Freeport, NY |url=https://archive.org/details/freedomgrowthoth0000edmo}}</ref>
'''Poetry''' *''Poems'' (1876) and ''Poems: Second Series'' (1879) were written under the influence of ''Literature and Dogma'' by Matthew Arnold.<ref name="Howlett">{{cite book |last1=Howlett |first1=John |title=Selected Poetry and Prose of Edmond Holmes |date=23 May 2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |isbn=978-1-61147-929-4 |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=TIHkCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 |language=en}}</ref> *''The Silence of Love'' (1901) and ''The Triumph of Love'' (1903), two sonnet sequences both of 113 sonnets.<ref name="Howlett"/> Words from five of the latter were set to music by Charles Villiers Stanford, a friend from Merchant Taylors', whose courtship of Jennie Wetton had been supported by Holmes as a go-between.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Banfield |first1=Stephen |title=Sensibility and English Song: Critical Studies of the Early Twentieth Century |date=1985 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-37944-1 |page=515 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dibble |first1=Jeremy |title=Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-816383-1 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VevXghb1SwoC&pg=PA40 |language=en}}</ref> *''Walt Whitman's Poetry: A Study & A Selection'' (1902)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Creed of My Heart and other poems'' (1912)<ref name="WW"/> *''Sonnets to the Universe'' (1918)<ref name="WW"/> *''Sonnets and Poems'' (1920), anthology<ref name="WW"/> '''Religious''' *''A Confession of Faith. By an Unorthodox Believer'' (1895)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Creed of Christ'' (1905)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Creed of the Buddha'' (1908)<ref name="WW"/> *''All is One; a plea for the higher pantheism'' (c.1921)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Edmond |title=All is One; a plea for the higher pantheism |date=c. 1921 |publisher=Richard Cobden-Sanderson |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/allisonepleaforh00holmrich}}</ref> *''Experience of Reality (A Study of Mysticism)'' (1928)<ref name="WW"/>
'''Other works''' *''Sursum Corda. A Defence of Idealism''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Edmond |title=Sursum Corda. A Defence of Idealism |date=1898 |publisher=Macmillan & Co. |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=Zlk5MwEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref> *''In Quest of an Ideal'' (1920), autobiography<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Edmond |title=In Quest of an Ideal: An Autobiography, by Edmond Holmes |date=1920 |publisher=R. Cobden-Sanderson |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=9qYwAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> *''Philosophy Without Metaphysics'' (1930)<ref name="WW"/> *''The Headquarters of Reality. A Challenge to Western Thought'' (1933)<ref name="WW"/>
==Personal life== Holmes married in 1880 Florence Mary Syme (died 1927), daughter of Peter Macfarlane Syme RA and his wife Elizabeth Georgina Mulock. They had three children, two daughters and a son.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{Who's Who|title=Holmes, Edmond Gore Alexander |id=U211411}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Bernard |title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland |date=1879 |publisher=Harrison |page=1140 |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=VYKmNCdw7kkC&pg=PA1140 |language=en}}</ref> Of the children:
* Verena Holmes became a leading early woman engineer;<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-66362|title=Holmes, Verena Winifred (1889–1964), engineer|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/66362|access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref> * Maurice Gerald Holmes (1885–1964) became a British civil servant.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-63809|title=Holmes, Sir Maurice Gerald (1885–1964), civil servant and educationist|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/63809|access-date=2020-03-21|last1=McCulloch|first1=Gary}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== *''Edmond Holmes and the Tragedy of Education'' (1998) Chris Shute. *Gordon, P. (1983). "The writings of Edmond Holmes: a reassessment and bibliography." History of Education 12(1): 15–24. *Gordon, P. (1978). "The Holmes-Morant Circular of 1911: A Note." Journal of Educational Administration and History X(1): 36–40.
==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=9381| name=Edmond Holmes}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edmond Holmes |sopt=t}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Edmond Gore Alexander}} Category:1850 births Category:1936 deaths Category:Irish educational theorists Category:Irish poets Category:Pantheists Category:Writers from County Westmeath