Frank Podmore was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 author, founding member of the Fabian Society

Fabian Society

The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...

, and writer on psychic

Psychic

A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...

 matters.

Life

Born at Elstree

Elstree

Elstree is a village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire on the A5 road, about 10 miles north of London. In 2001, its population was 4,765, and forms part of the civil parish of Elstree and Borehamwood, originally known simply as Elstree....

, Borehamwood

Borehamwood

-Film industry:Since the 1920s, the town has been home to several film studios and many shots of its streets are included in final cuts of 20th century British films. This earned it the nickname of the "British Hollywood"...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, Podmore was the son of Thompson Podmore, headmaster of Eastbourne

Eastbourne

Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...

 College. He was educated at Haileybury

Haileybury and Imperial Service College

Haileybury and Imperial Service College, , is a prestigious British independent school founded in 1862. The school is located at Hertford Heath, near Hertford, from central London, on of parkland occupied until 1858 by the East India College...

 and Pembroke College, Oxford

Pembroke College, Oxford

Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...

 (where he first became interested in Spiritualism and joined the Society for Psychical Research

Society for Psychical Research

The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...

 — this interest remained with him throughout his life).

In October 1883 Podmore and Edward R. Pease

Edward R. Pease

Edward Reynolds Pease was an English writer and a founding member of the Fabian Society.Pease, the sixth of fifteen children, was born near Bristol, the son of devout Quakers, Thomas Pease and Susanna Ann Fry sister of Edward Fry, the judge...

 joined a socialist debating group established by Edith Nesbit

E. Nesbit

Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...

 and Hubert Bland

Hubert Bland

Hubert Bland was an early English socialist and one of the founders of the Fabian Society.Born in Woolwich, south-east London, Bland wanted to join the army but instead became a bank clerk. In 1877, he met 19-year-old Edith Nesbit, a follower of William Morris. They married on 22 April 1880 with...

. Podmore suggested that the group should be named after the Roman General, Quintus Fabius Maximus

Quintus Fabius Maximus

Quintus Fabius Maximus most commonly refers to;*Quintus Fabius Maximus*A number of ancient Romans from the gens Fabia.The ancient Romans that share the name Quintus Fabius Maximus include:* Quintus Fabius Maximus, augur 203–196 BC....

, who advocated weakening the opposition by harassing operations rather than becoming involved in pitched battles. In January 1884 the group became known as the Fabian Society, and Podmore's home at 14 Dean's Yard

Dean's Yard

Dean's Yard, Westminster, comprises most of the remaining precincts of the former monastery of Westminster, not occupied by the Abbey buildings. It is known to members of Westminster School as Green, and referred to without an article...

, Westminster

Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

, became the organisation's first official headquarters.

In 1886 Podmore and Sidney Webb conducted a study into unemployment, eventually published as a Fabian Society pamphlet, The Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour.

However, Podmore's major work was a detailed study of the life and ideas of Robert Owen

Robert Owen

Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...

 (1906).

Podmore resigned from a senior post in the Post Office in 1907.

He died by drowning at Malvern, Worcestershire

Malvern, Worcestershire

Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...

, in August 1910.

Works

Podmore's books and pamphlets include:

• Phantasms of the Living (1886, written with Frederick Myers
  Frederic William Henry Myers
  Frederic William Henry Myers was a classical scholar, poet, philosopher, and past president of the Society for Psychical Research.-Early life:...
  
   and Edmund Gurney
  Edmund Gurney
  Edmund Gurney was an English psychologist and psychic researcher.-Early life:He was born at Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames. He was educated at Blackheath and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a high place in the classical tripos and obtained a fellowship. His work for the tripos was...
  
  ).
• The Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour (1886).
• Apparitions and Thought-Transference (1892).
• Studies in Psychical Research (1897).
• Modern Spiritualism (1902). The foremost history of spiritualism. Reprinted as Mediums of the 19th Century, vols. 1 & 2.
• Biography of Robert Owen (1906).
• Mesmerism and Christian Science (1909).
• The Newer Spiritualism (1910).

External links

• Edward R. Pease
  Edward R. Pease
  Edward Reynolds Pease was an English writer and a founding member of the Fabian Society.Pease, the sixth of fifteen children, was born near Bristol, the son of devout Quakers, Thomas Pease and Susanna Ann Fry sister of Edward Fry, the judge...
  
  , The History of the Fabian Society.
• Andrew Lang, "The Poltergeist and his explainers" (Appendix B), The Making of Religion, London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1900, pp. 324-39.