Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue
Benjamin Waugh (1839-1908), Philanthropist
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Social reformer; born 20 February 1839, in Settle, Yorkshire. Apprenticed to linen draper 1853; entered Airedale College, Bradford, to prepare for Congregational Ministry 1862; married 1865 Sarah Elizabeth Boothroyd, with whom he had twelve children, including the painter Edna Clarke Hall; served as Congregational minister at Newbury, Greenwich and New Southgate respectively 1865–87, during which period began to campaign on behalf of neglected children; elected to first London School board 1870, representing Greenwich; published The Gaol Cradle, Who Rocks It? (1873), arguing for creation of juvenile court system; editor of Sunday Magazine 1874–96; founder member of London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children 1884; published Sunday Evenings with my Children (1889); instrumental in promoting Anti-Cruelty Act 1889 and instigating a number of other reforms to the law; Founder and Director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (when London SPCC incorporated by Royal Charter 1895), resigned directorship due to failing health 1905; died 11 March 1908, at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex.
In 1891 the Review of Reviews provided the following assessment: ‘Benjamin Waugh is a Yorkshireman, with nothing of the Yorkshireman in his physique (for he is small and puny) or in appearance, or in character, except it be a shrewd long-headedness worthy of the Tykes, and indomitable perseverance, and an untiring energy.’[1]
Elizabeth Heath
In 1891 the Review of Reviews provided the following assessment: ‘Benjamin Waugh is a Yorkshireman, with nothing of the Yorkshireman in his physique (for he is small and puny) or in appearance, or in character, except it be a shrewd long-headedness worthy of the Tykes, and indomitable perseverance, and an untiring energy.’[1]
Elizabeth Heath
Referencesback to top
Behlmer 2004Behlmer, G., ‘Waugh, Benjamin (1839–1903)’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004.
Dodgson 1920
Dodgson, C., A Catalogue of Etchings by Augustus John, London, 1920.
Evans 1988
Evans, M.L., Portraits by Augustus John: Family, Friends and the Famous, exh. cat., National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 1988.
Evans et al. 1996
Evans, M.L., and others, Themes and Variations: The Drawings of Augustus John 1901–1931, exh. cat., National Museum and Gallery of Wales, Cardiff, Spink and Son Ltd., London and Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy: Cardiff and London, 1996.
Hall 1971
Hall, E., Clarke, intro., Edna Clarke Hall: Drawings and Watercolours 1895–1947, exh. pamphlet, D’Offay Cooper Gallery, London, 1971.
Holroyd 1996
Holroyd, M., Augustus John, London, 1996.
Holroyd 2004
Holroyd, M., ‘John, Augustus Edwin (1878–1961)’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004; online ed., May 2006.
Jenkins & Stephens 2004
Jenkins, D.F. and C. Stephens, eds., Gwen John and Augustus John, exh. cat., Tate, London, 2004.
Parr 1908
Parr, R.J., Benjamin Waugh: An Appreciation, London, 1908.
Robinson 1961
Robinson, W.G., Benjamin Waugh, London, 1961.
Thomas 1994
Thomas, A., Portraits of Women: Gwen John and Her Forgotten Contemporaries, Cambridge, 1994.
Thomas 2004
Thomas, A., ‘Hall, Edna Clarke, Lady Clarke Hall (1879–1979), ODNB, Oxford, 2004.
Waugh 1913
Waugh, R., The Life of Benjamin Waugh, London, 1913.
Waugh 1939
Waugh, R., The Life of Benjamin Waugh, [London, 1913] 2nd ed., 1939.