Tawney , Richard Henry , 1880-1962 , historian

R H Tawney was born in Calcutta in 1880 but educated at Rugby School and then Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected a Fellow in 1918. After working at Toynbee Hall in London he joined the Workers' Education Association (WEA) in 1905 and took the first tutorial classes in Longton and Rochdale. The success of these helped to establish the 3 year tutorial classes which were the backbone of the WEA in its early years. Tawney was President of the WEA between 1928 and 1944 during which time he became Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics.