Edmund Wright Brooks
Encyclopedia
Edmund Wright Brooks was an English Quaker philanthropist and cement
maker. He was active in the Anti-Slavery movement and also in famine relief in Russia and aid to Armenians. he was joint secretary and then chair of the Friends War Victims Relief Committee.
, in Wiltshire, of Quaker parents. He was the son of Edmund Brooks (1802-1893), baker, warehouseman, farmer and Ann Wright (1799?-1884), daughter of David Wright (1774?-1857) of Bury St Edmunds, baker, and Ann Wright (1778?-1827).
He had two brothers. About 1850 the family moved to Esher
where his father was a farmer.
.
He then entered the engineering works of John Fowler & Co.
, Leeds, and built up a solid position in the firm so that he was able to take a leading part in the engineering industry.
In 1860, he moved to Guildford
in Surrey, where he practiced as an engineer and in 1870, moved to Grays
in Essex.
in Essex
and Halling
, Faversham
and Upnor
in Kent
. At one time, his company employed the largest number of staff of any company in Essex. He was fully occupied with this business until the early 1890s, when he became more involved with Quaker and philanthropic work.
until his resignation in 1926. He was Secretary of the British Quaker Anti-Slavery Committee and was concerned among other things with the establishment in 1897 of a Mission in Pemba
, one of the Zanzibar islands, now in Tanzania, to help freed and escaped slaves there. Slavery was finally legally abolished in Zanzibar in 1909..
Because of his knowledge of Russian and his expertise, he was asked by the Meeting for Sufferings
in November 1891 to go with Francis William Fox to Russia and investigate the reported famine
there. Brooks returned, reported on January 15, 1892 to the Meeting and left again with Herbert Sefton Jones, who was fluent in Russian, on February 15 with funds for a Quaker relief effort and an urgent need to distribute food before the spring thaw would make transportation difficult. The Friends concentrated their efforts on Samara
but also went to Tatarstan
and other adjacent regions. Some of the travel was by railway but much was by horse drawn sledge. Brooks returned home on April 12. In the end, the Russian famine of 1891-92 killed between 375,000 and 500,000 people.
In 1895 he and Thomas William Marsh (1833-1902) waited on the Czar
to plead the cause of religious dissenters in Russia, and he was later active on behalf of the Dukhobors when permission was secured for them to emigrate. In 1899 he visited Leo Tolstoy
with John Bellows .
Between 1896 and 1899, he was Clerk of the Friends Armenian Relief Committee, which raised £18,000 .
He was a Joint Secretary, with Ruth Fry
of Friends War Victims Relief Committee 1914-24, He was later, chairman of its Executive Committee, and if needed, giving almost daily help to the small and overworked office staff. His son, Alfred, also served on this Committee .
, and at Grays, he was a governor of Palmer's Endowed School
and the first chairman of the Grays School Board. He also served on the Committee of Ackworth School, a Quaker school in Yorkshire.
He was involved in local government and philanthropic undertakings, and served as a JP
for 30 years.
He stood for Parliament in the Essex, South East
constituency, at the General Election of 1892
as a Gladstonian Liberal, against the sitting Conservative MP
, Major F C Rasch
.
He was a founder of Friends of Armenia which provided relief to Armenians, in 1897, and long term honorary treasurer.
There were four sons and six daughters, including Herbert Edmund Brooks (1860-1931), Alfred Brooks (1861-1952) and Howard Brooks (1868-1948), who succeeded him in the cement business. According to DQB and Digest Register at Friends House, the children were:
He died at his home, 'Duval', Grays, 22 June 1928.
Of the nine surviving children, one resigned Quaker membership in 1886 and three more in 1915. His daughter Mabel Winifred (b. 1872) remained a Friend and married, in 1897, Henry Jeffrey Simpson (1868-1938) an employee and later partner in the family cement manufacturing company .
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
maker. He was active in the Anti-Slavery movement and also in famine relief in Russia and aid to Armenians. he was joint secretary and then chair of the Friends War Victims Relief Committee.
Family background
He was born 29 September 1834 at MelkshamMelksham
Melksham is a medium-sized English town, lying on the River Avon. It lies in the county of Wiltshire.It is situated southeast of the city of Bath, south of Chippenham, west of Devizes and north of Warminster on the A350 national route. The 2001 UK census cited Melksham as having 20,000...
, in Wiltshire, of Quaker parents. He was the son of Edmund Brooks (1802-1893), baker, warehouseman, farmer and Ann Wright (1799?-1884), daughter of David Wright (1774?-1857) of Bury St Edmunds, baker, and Ann Wright (1778?-1827).
He had two brothers. About 1850 the family moved to Esher
Esher
Esher is a town in the Surrey borough of Elmbridge in South East England near the River Mole. It is a very prosperous part of the Greater London Urban Area, largely suburban in character, and is situated 14.1 miles south west of Charing Cross....
where his father was a farmer.
Education
He was educated at the Sidcot SchoolSidcot School
Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England....
.
He then entered the engineering works of John Fowler & Co.
John Fowler & Co.
thumb|right|John Fowler & Co. [[steam roller]] of 1923John Fowler & Co Engineers of Leathley Road, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England produced traction engines and ploughing implements and equipment, as well as railway equipment. Fowler also produced the Track Marshall tractor which was a...
, Leeds, and built up a solid position in the firm so that he was able to take a leading part in the engineering industry.
In 1860, he moved to Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
in Surrey, where he practiced as an engineer and in 1870, moved to Grays
Grays
Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock's traditional parishes...
in Essex.
Business interests
In the cement business, he was a partner with his sons and sons-in-law in Hilton, Anderson Brooks, & Co earlier Brooks, Shoobridge and Co. with activities at GraysGrays
Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock's traditional parishes...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
and Halling
Halling, Kent
Halling is a village on the North Downs in the northern part of Kent, England, covering 7.1 square kilometres of land. Consisting of Lower Halling, Upper Halling and North Halling, it is scattered over some along the River Medway parallel to the Pilgrims' Way running over Kent.The origin of the...
, Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
and Upnor
Upnor
Lower Upnor and Upper Upnor are two small villages in Medway, Kent, England. They are in the parish of Frindsbury Extra on the western bank of the River Medway...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. At one time, his company employed the largest number of staff of any company in Essex. He was fully occupied with this business until the early 1890s, when he became more involved with Quaker and philanthropic work.
Quaker interests
He was treasurer the Anti-Slavery SocietyAnti-Slavery Society
The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...
until his resignation in 1926. He was Secretary of the British Quaker Anti-Slavery Committee and was concerned among other things with the establishment in 1897 of a Mission in Pemba
Pemba, Tanzania
Pemba Island, known as "The Green Island" in Arabic , is an island forming part of the Zanzibar archipelago, lying off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. It is situated about 50 kilometres to the north of the Unguja . In 1964 Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to...
, one of the Zanzibar islands, now in Tanzania, to help freed and escaped slaves there. Slavery was finally legally abolished in Zanzibar in 1909..
Because of his knowledge of Russian and his expertise, he was asked by the Meeting for Sufferings
Meeting for Sufferings
Meeting for Sufferings is an executive committee of Britain Yearly Meeting, the body which acts on behalf of members of the Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain and the Crown Dependencies...
in November 1891 to go with Francis William Fox to Russia and investigate the reported famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
there. Brooks returned, reported on January 15, 1892 to the Meeting and left again with Herbert Sefton Jones, who was fluent in Russian, on February 15 with funds for a Quaker relief effort and an urgent need to distribute food before the spring thaw would make transportation difficult. The Friends concentrated their efforts on Samara
Samara Oblast
Samara Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Samara. Population: In 1936–1990, it was known as Kuybyshev Oblast , after the Soviet name of Samara .-Demographics:Population:...
but also went to Tatarstan
Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of Russia located in the Volga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kazan, which is one of Russia's largest and most prosperous cities. The republic borders with Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Orenburg Oblasts, and with the Mari El, Udmurt,...
and other adjacent regions. Some of the travel was by railway but much was by horse drawn sledge. Brooks returned home on April 12. In the end, the Russian famine of 1891-92 killed between 375,000 and 500,000 people.
In 1895 he and Thomas William Marsh (1833-1902) waited on the Czar
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
to plead the cause of religious dissenters in Russia, and he was later active on behalf of the Dukhobors when permission was secured for them to emigrate. In 1899 he visited Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
with John Bellows .
Between 1896 and 1899, he was Clerk of the Friends Armenian Relief Committee, which raised £18,000 .
He was a Joint Secretary, with Ruth Fry
Ruth Fry
Anna Ruth Fry, usually known as Ruth Fry was a British Quaker writer, pacifist and peace activist.-Life:...
of Friends War Victims Relief Committee 1914-24, He was later, chairman of its Executive Committee, and if needed, giving almost daily help to the small and overworked office staff. His son, Alfred, also served on this Committee .
Public service and politics
He had always been preoccupied with education. At Guildford he had been secretary of the British SchoolBritish and Foreign School Society
The British and Foreign School Society offers charitable aid to educational projects in the UK and around the world by funding schools, other charities and educational bodies...
, and at Grays, he was a governor of Palmer's Endowed School
Palmer's College
Palmer's College is a sixth form college for 16 - 19 year olds in Thurrock, Essex, England. With an 'outstanding' Ofsted inspection in 2007, the College was awarded Beacon status in 2008...
and the first chairman of the Grays School Board. He also served on the Committee of Ackworth School, a Quaker school in Yorkshire.
He was involved in local government and philanthropic undertakings, and served as a JP
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
for 30 years.
He stood for Parliament in the Essex, South East
South East Essex (UK Parliament constituency)
South East Essex was a parliamentary constituency in Essex in the East of England...
constituency, at the General Election of 1892
United Kingdom general election, 1892
The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election...
as a Gladstonian Liberal, against the sitting Conservative MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, Major F C Rasch
Sir Carne Rasch, 1st Baronet
Sir Frederic Carne Rasch, 1st Baronet , was a British Conservative politician.Rasch was born in London, the only son of Frederick Carne, a barrister, and his wife Catherine James Edwards, daughter of James Edwards. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge...
.
He was a founder of Friends of Armenia which provided relief to Armenians, in 1897, and long term honorary treasurer.
Marriage, family and death
On 29 June 1859, he married, Lucy Ann Marsh (1835-1926), daughter of Richard Marsh (1795-1878) of Strood, draper, and Ann Marsh (born Morris, 1793-1891).There were four sons and six daughters, including Herbert Edmund Brooks (1860-1931), Alfred Brooks (1861-1952) and Howard Brooks (1868-1948), who succeeded him in the cement business. According to DQB and Digest Register at Friends House, the children were:
- Herbert Edmund (born 18 May 1860, Kingston - died 1931)
- Alfred (born 9 November 1861, Guildford - died 1952), grandfather of Anthony BrooksAnthony BrooksMajor Anthony Morris "Tony" Brooks was a British undercover agent in World War II. He received the Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross, Croix de Guerre, and Legion d'Honneur for his work as a leader of a group sabotaging German reinforcements prior to and during the Normandy invasion...
- Edith Annie (born 9 February 1863, Guildford - died 22 June 1890)
- Charles (born 1 August 1864, Guildford - died 1948)
- Lucy Ellen (born 3 September 1866, Guildford - died 1948)
- Howard (born 8 May 1868, Guildford)
- Ethel Mary (born 17 April 1870 , Grays)
- Mabel Winifred (born 11 November 1872, Grays)
- Gertrude (born 12 February 1875, Grays)
- Florence (born 22 March 1877, Grays)
He died at his home, 'Duval', Grays, 22 June 1928.
Of the nine surviving children, one resigned Quaker membership in 1886 and three more in 1915. His daughter Mabel Winifred (b. 1872) remained a Friend and married, in 1897, Henry Jeffrey Simpson (1868-1938) an employee and later partner in the family cement manufacturing company .
Sources
- Milligan's Biographical dictionary of British Quakers in commerce and industryMilligan's Biographical dictionary of British Quakers in commerce and industryThe Biographical Dictionary of British Quakers in Commerce and Industry 1775-1920, by Edward H. Milligan, includes entries for some 2,800 people, arranged alphabetically...
:- Edmund Brooks (1803?-1893) (father of Edward Wright Brooks) pp. 69–70,
- Edmund Wright Brooks p. 70
- Howard Brooks (1848-1948), son of Edmund Wright Brooks, p. 70.
- The Friend (1928), ns lxviii.635-7;
- Testimony of Ratcliff & Barking Monthly Meeting, in London Yearly MeetingBritain Yearly MeetingThe Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, also known as Britain Yearly Meeting , is a religious organisation in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, often defined as a denomination of Christianity.It is a part of the international religious...
Proceedings 1929 pp. 187–90. - Barry Dackombe "The great Russian famine of 1891-2 : E.W. Brooks and Friends' famine relief " In Journal of the Friends Historical Society, Vol.58 ; no.3 (1999) p. 277-299.
- Greenwood, John Ormerod Quaker Encounters; in three volumes;York, William Sessions
- Volume 1: Friends and Relief (1975) ISBN 0-900657-29-4
- Volume 2: Vines on the mountains (1977) ISBN 0-900657-41-3
- Volume 3: Whispers of Truth (1978) ISBN 0-900657-42-1
- Quaker Encounters Volume 1
- 86: E.W. Brooks speaks at Meeting for Sufferings concerning the massacre of Armenians in Turkey, he then persuades the Russian Government to instruct their ambassador in Turkey to assist a British Quaker fact-finding mission;
- 87, Travels to Philippopolis (Bulgaria) to assist with refugees
- 104 note: visits to Russian Mennonites in 1895 with Thomas Marsh, with his wife and Hannah White in 1896, with John Bellows in 1899.
- 108, view of Tolstoy, following a visit to his home 8 April 1892
- 116, facing plate – drawing of E.W. Brooks, Francis W Fox and M Pobedonostzef in Russia concerning the famine, from the Daily Graphic 28 January 1892
- 117, facing plate - portrait photograph of E.W. Brooks
- 117, Tolstoy reports his own activity during the famine to E. W. Brooks.
- 120,123-4, Visit to Russia on behalf of the Quaker Russian Famine Committee, with F.W. Fox, November 1891,
- 122, 125, Visit to Russia with Herbert Jones in February 1892
- 127, Closing of Russian Famine fund
- 128-9, Secretary of Famine Relief Committee, Visits new Czar in 1895
- 135, E.W. Brooks on Committee to assist the Dukhobors in 1897
- 144, Efforts to see the Czar in 1900
- 165, Chair on the newly-appointed War Victims Relief Committee, 1914
- 241, Quoted as having fore-echoed Ruth Fry's statement concerning the falsity of rumours of theft of relief food
- Quaker Encounters Volume 2 - No index entries
- Quaker Encounters Volume 3
- 167-8, Secretary of the Pemba Industrial Mission
- The Times, obituary of Edmund Wright Brooks on Sunday, Jun 24, 1928; pg. 19; Issue 44928; col B.