The
life and times of Sir Basil Henriques, 1890-1961, Jewish social reformer
and founder of the Oxford and St George’s Clubs,
A large wave of immigrants fleeing
poverty and often persecution. A host community divided in its response:
The resonance is
there for Britain in the 21st century. But this was the East End toward
the end of the 19th as huge numbers of impoverished east European Jews
arrived and pressure on social resources grew. Some in the established
Jewish Community looked on these refugees with disfavour.
Typical was Nathan
Marcus Adler, Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogue. In 1888 he wrote to his
east European counterparts: “It is difficult for them to support
themselves and their households, and at times they contravene the will of
their maker on account of poverty and over-work, and violate the Sabbath
and Festivals. Some have been ensnared in the net of the missionaries and
renounced their religion, may the Merciful save. There are many who
believe that all the cobblestones of London are precious stones, and that
it is the place of gold. Woe and alas, it is not so…. I implore every
rabbi of a community kindly to preach in the synagogue and house of study,
to publicise the evil which is befalling our brethren who have come here,
and to warn them not to come to Britain for such ascent is a descent.”
Others – families
such as the Mocattas, Rothschilds, Montefiores, Montagues and Samuels –
took a more generous view, using influence and wealth to welcome those
fleeing persecution and to try to make a difference to an otherwise bleak
existence.
It was into this
world in 1890 that Basil Lucas Quixano Henriques was born.
He was a devoutly religious member of the Reform Synagogues movement, and
regarded the helping of others as a religious obligation.
As a student at Oxford, he was greatly moved to hear the bishops of London
and Oxford speak about social work in the East End. It was also at Oxford
that he met Rose Loewe, who was to become his wife and soulmate.
In a defining
moment, he also met Barclay Baron and Alec
Paterson, wardens of the Oxford
and Bermondsey mission, a Christian organisation in Bermondsey that
provided practical help for the poor and was especially known for setting
up boys clubs.
That was the spur
to Basil’s decision to dedicate his time and energy to the East End’s
Jewish poor. In 1913 he was granted residence in Toynbee hall in
Commercial Street, and threw himself into its welfare work.
A diary extract
shows a typical day: “29 September. Visited G.S. dreadfully ill with
rheumatic fever and hopelessly weak heart. Looked a charming boy, and
most respectable and nice mother. Although he can’t move an inch in bed
he shares with a brother. Wants a water-bed which C.O.S. is trying to get
him.”
Driven to make a
difference to potentially blighted lives,
he determined to establish a Progressive Jewish youth organisation along
similar lines to existing Orthodox clubs such as the Brady and Victoria
clubs. He approached the Liberal Jewish Synagogue and the West London
Reform Synagogue for funding in 1914. With their help he established the
Oxford and St George’s Jewish Lads Club at 125 Cannon Street Road.
Its motto, he
decided, should be “Fratres” – brothers. The “Oxford” in the title
referred to his time at the university; “St George’s” was from its
location in the parish of St George’s in the East.
But a boys club was
not enough. “It’s no good producing good British Jews if you don’t create
good British Jewesses for them to marry,” he said to Rose Loewe (who had
joined him in his work in the East End): “Will you create a girls’ club?”
The result was the Oxford and St George’s Jewish Girls Club, opened in
July 1915.
That year, with the
First World War raging, he joined the 3rd Battalion East Kent Regiment and
Rose Loewe became his deputy. In June 1916 they became engaged and a month
later married at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood.
Soon after, he was
commanding a tank at the Battle of the Somme. A direct hit against the
front of the tank inflicted severe facial wounds from the splinters of
metal flying around inside. Somehow he got the tank back to base through
ground he later described as “hell in a rough sea made of shell
holes…the way we got over the ground was marvellous; every moment we were
going to stick, but we didn’t. The sight of thousands of our men dying
and wounded was ghastly…I hate to think of it all.”
Recovering from his
injuries, he went on to serve with distinction at the Battle of Cambrai
and on other fronts. Demobbed in 1919 with the rank of captain, he
returned to his and Rose’s one roomed home in the club’s Cannon Street
Road premises. By now the O & St G’s had become much more than just a
youth club and a larger building was urgently needed.
Funds were begged
and borrowed for a disused hostel in nearby Betts Street. Its many rooms
hosted a proliferation of boys and girls clubs and a range of other
activities. Care committees of neighbouring schools set up offices there,
while a luncheon club and a canteen provided facilities for local social
workers to meet to discuss cases. There were a library, a music society, a
play centre, an infant welfare centre and, nearby, a dental centre. Betts
Street had become a fully fledged Jewish Centre or ‘Settlement’.
By 1929 even those
premises were outgrown. Basil approached the philanthropist Bernhard Baron
for funds to buy the site of the disused Berner Street School, in Berner
Street (now Henriques Street, named after him). Baron donated £65,000 for
the purchase, and in 1930 the Duke of Gloucester opened the Bernhard Baron
St George’s Jewish Settlement. Its 125 rooms contained a synagogue, a
friendship club for the over 60s, a lunch club for old people, a Yiddish
society, a club for the blind, a British Legion branch, a free legal
advice centre, a diabetes clinic (Basil was diabetic), a dentist, a minor
injuries centre, a gymnasium, a boxing club and all sorts of facilities
for the various boys and girls clubs using the building. Basil and his
wife Rose were especially proud of the club’s boxing team coached by
British lightweight champion Harry Mizler, who led it to many trophies.
A popular feature
of the boys and girls clubs was the one week summer camp on the estate of
Colonel Sir Frederic Stern at Highdown Hill, Goring-by-sea in Sussex, for
many children their only experience away from London’s polluted air.
Basil’s wife Rose (“the Missus”, as club members called her; Basil was
“the Gaffer” or “Long ‘un” – a reference to his 6ft 6in height) wrote a
camp song book, with songs set to tunes from Gilbert and Sullivan
operettas.
With the outbreak
of the Second World War Basil applied to the War Office to join the Army
Officers’ Emergency Reserve, but diabetes caused his application to be
rejected. Instead he joined the Civil Defence Corps and the basement of
the Berner Street building became Civil Defence offices. The youth clubs
continued. Though many members had gone on to join the forces they still
had some 900 members on the books. Additionally, Basil and Rose
transformed much of the premises into a centre for the distribution of
food and clothing to those who had been bombed out of their homes.
In 1947, the couple
retired as wardens of the Oxford and St George’s Settlement, and in the
following Birthday Honours list Basil was appointed a CBE. No longer
directly involved in the Settlement, he toured the English-speaking world
lecturing on his experiences and in 1955 was knighted for services to
youth welfare.
During his career,
he was also variously chairman of the East London juvenile court 1936-55,
a prison visitor, a member of the board of the London Hospital,
Whitechapel, a supporter of the Jewish Orphanage at Norwood, president of
the North London Progressive Synagogue, minister of the St George’s
Settlement Synagogue, vice-chairman of the
National Association of Boys Clubs, president of the London Federation of
Boys' Clubs, president of the British Diabetic Association
and the author of several books on
social welfare.
He died of heart
failure in 1961, aged 71. The Jewish Chronicle’s obituary summed up his
life: “Both the Jewish Community and the whole country were immeasurably
enriched by the noble life work of Sir Basil Henriques, and they are
grievously bereaved by his death. He combined in his character a
diversity of gifts which enabled him to exert a unique influence as a
social reformer. The direct inspiration of everything he did was his
intense religious feeling. As a lay preacher and religious leader in the
synagogal life of Progressive Judaism he was the esteemed colleague of
rabbis and ministers. But he believed intensely that Judaism should not
be confined to the synagogue but should be the mainspring of all human and
social relationships. In this faith he devoted his life to the welfare of
young people in East London.”
One of Oxford and
St George’s old boys, a Mr E Stone, also wrote in the Jewish Chronicle:
“With many thousands I mourn Sir Basil. He was more than a father to me.
Jewry and the World have lost a saint. His was a good and useful life.”
My principle
reference for this essay is from Basil Henriques, a portrait based on
his diaries, letters and speeches as collated by his widow Rose Henriques,
by L L Loewe, with additional information provided by my friend Simon
B, who knew Basil personally and whose own reminiscences are on the next
few pages.
For further
reading you might be able to track down one or more of the following:
Club Leadership,
by Basil Henriques. Oxford University Press, 1933 (2e 1934; 3e 1942).
Deals with the organization and philosophy of a boys club.
Indiscretions of a Warden,
by Basil Henriques. Methuen, 1937. Tells of his early days in the East End
and his changing philosophy.
What is Judaism? by Basil Henriques. Bernhard Baron Settlement,
1945.
Indiscretions of a Magistrate,
by Basil Henriques. Harrap, 1950. His most famous book and a classic on
juvenile courts
Club Leadership Today, by Basil Henriques. Oxford University Press,
1951. A significant reworking of Club Leadership.
The Home Menders,
by Basil Henriques. Harrap, 1955. A development of his thinking in
Indiscretions of a Magistrate
The Approach to Club Music, by Rose Henriques, Oxford University
Press, 1934. Her only book (other than compendia); explains her
philosophy.
Across the Bridges
by Alec Paterson, 1911, reprinted 1928. An exploration of poverty and
social conditions in south London and the work of the Oxford and
Bermondsey Settlement.
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