Hugh Pembroke Vowles

Hugh Pembroke Vowles (born 1885 in Pembroke, Wales - died 1951 in Oxlynch, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, England) was a British engineer, socialist and author.

Early life and education

Hugh Vowles was the son of Henry Hayes Vowles, a Wesleyan minister, author, and theologian; and of Hannah Elizabeth Thistle. Although he published under the name Hugh Pembroke Vowles early records refer to him as William Hugh Pembroke Vowles.

He married twice. First to Margaret Winifred Pearce of the Pearce family of Priday, Metford and Company Limited. After her death he married Eleanor Biss.

He was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey and at the Technical School, Gloucester, where he served an apprenticeship and passed through the shops and drawing office of W. Sisson Ltd, power plant engineers from 1901 to 1906. After gaining experience as a junior draughtsman with G Waller and Son Ltd of Stroud, Gloucester, he was employed from 1909 to 1913 as a contract engineer with Messrs Williams and Rugby Robinson. This was followed by a brief connexion with the Gas, Light and Coke Company as senior assistant engineer. During the First World War war he first acted as assistant district manager to the Metropolitan Munitions Committee and later as assistant Manager at the Ailsa National Shell Factory, London.

According to a letter written by his daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Vowles, in 1995: during the First World War Hugh Vowles "volunteered for military service and was turned down on medical grounds... and had the horrid experience of having a very young and smart ... woman, one of a self-set up group who went about the West End, London, stopping young men in the street and asking in very contemptuous tones: Why aren't you in uniform, for your country? They were notorious and obnoxious and caused, as it did to (him) a lot of hurt".

In 1918, he became associated with Cox and Company Ltd, bankers of London as technical advisor and factory manager. In April 1921 he was resident at Redcliff, Caswell Bay, Glamorganshire and was described as "General Manager and Chief Engineer to a large industrial concern" [Cited on fly cover of HP Vowles' book "Under New Management" (1922)] In 1922 he went to join W.H. Allen, Sons & Co Ltd mechanical and electrical engineers, for which firm he was engaged as district manager and engineer until 1929, when he went into practice on his own account as a consulting engineer.

Presentations to Learned Societies

In 1930 he addressed the Newcomen Society on the origin of the Windmill. On September 29 1931 he addressed the British Association for the Advancement of Science on the "Early Evolution of Power Engineering".

Later life

During the 1939-45 war he was editor of technical literature for the British Council, London. Travelling to London on Monday mornings after spending the weekend at home at the Leaze, Oxlynch.

He was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, of the Newcomen Society, the Society of Authors and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

He was a self-declared communist and had a keen interest in the Soviet Union, in particular the Ukraine. Because of his fondness for the Soviet Union he was known to his family as "popski". Similarly, he owned a cat called Pushkin.

He retired in 1929 to devote himself to his writings. He continued to write articles for technical journals and newspapers. He was a frequent contributor to "The Citizen" of Gloucester

He had two sons by his first marriage. Francis Hugh Vowles [http://www.a2a.org.uk/search/records.asp?cat=040-d7436&cid=0] (1911-1988) attended Cheltenham College, trained as a lawyer under his uncle Henry Hayes Vowles (junior) of H.H.Vowles and Company, Gloucester. During the war Francis Vowles was an RAF pilot and navigator, teaching trainee pilots to fly the de Havilland Tiger Moth at the Service Flying Training School (number 4), Saskatoon, Canada. He went on to become a partner in Vowles, Jessop and Kean of Lorraine House, 45 Park Road, Gloucester. Christopher David Vowles became a partner in the legal firm Garber Vowles and company, London, and later in the firm Gaster, Vowles, Turner and Loeffler. The firm was retained by a number of trade unions and advised the governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland. He was a director of Priday, Metford and Company Limited.

In 1935 he met Eleanor Biss, who became his second wife. They had no children.

He was a close friend of Hubert Cecil Booth, inventor of the vacuum cleaner. Booth married Margaret Vowles' sister.

Political Ideas

He recognised that there would be increased competition for resources and markets as productivity rose and that this would impact upon people's lives both by taking resources away from good causes, such as health and the advancement of science and by the effects of war:

In "post-war conditions of politicsand trade... trade ... must find a vent in export forthe huge increase of capacity in the productivemachinery of this and other countries, leading tofiercer and fiercer competition for foreign markets andfor “control” of the raw material producing regions-particularly coal and oil areas - and so to anotherlarge scale war beside which the last will pale intoinsignificance, a war possibly with America, as part ofthe price I have to pay for the goods I buy under thepresent system. Many other items I have also enteredup which do not commonly figure in a manufacturer’scost accounts, although they must inevitably be paidfor all the same-neglect of science, neglect of health,neglect indeed of all that might to-day make life fairand gracious, simply because industry is run from thepoint of view of “frenzied finance” and not for theservice of mankind. . . . ." The Price We Pay http://dl.lib.brown.edu/pdfs/1140814894764238.pdf]

He felt that in the 1920s political change was around the corner, in particular to the left: "Nevertheless, in spite of all my doubts there are times when I am upon the whole more hopeful of the world riddingitself of its innumerable burdens; whenI see signs of more and yet more fires being kindled.in the minds of men; smouldering as yet, but soon itmay be to blaze up and spread the knowledge thata time of great change is at hand."

He recognised the danger posed by Hitler to Eastern Europe at the end of the 1930s. In "Ukraine and its People" (1939) he wrote "There is good reason to believe that Herr Hitler proposes to make use of (Ukrainian minority movements) to serve his own ambitions. The nature of these ambitions, which include the annexation of Soviet Ukraine, is indicated in Mein Kampf".

It is interesting that whilst being a Communist, Hugh Vowles' first wife was a shareholder in her family's milling company in Gloucester, England. The company, Priday, Metford and Company Limited, was, however, family-owned for five generations and renown for retaining many staff members for over fifty years.

In a brief account of his life left in about 1990 by his daughter in law Elizabeth Langhorne she states: ”HPV was an engineer, socialist and journalist. He also moved to Gloucester and worked as a left wing journalist trying to promote peaceful relations with the Soviet Union. Conservatives still run when they see a Vowles in their territory".

Religious Ideas

His religious ideas are particularly interesting given that he was the son of a Wesleyan Minister and became a communist in an era when socialism was popular amongst western intellectuals.

He discussed Christianity in the context of socialism in his article entitled "Tradition in the Great State" in the book "Socialism and the Great State" edited by H.G. Wells and published in 1912. This book outlines how a state run along ideal socialist lines would be like. He states the following: "Many of the needs of men are long-lived, and it is an open question whether most if not all of our present-day traditions will not go on to a fuller and completer influence in the lives of the citizens of the Great State. That large body of tradition we speak of as Christianity, for example, may conceivably serve as the basis of the moral tradition in the Great State. This matter is, I believe, to be discussed more fully in another paper in this book, but the present writer now ventures to offer a few remarks that seem to fall within his scope. In many ways he admits Christian tradition has been a beneficial factor in our evolution. Its teaching of love and concord is of the very essence of the Great State. Whatever broadens the basis of sympathy and mutual understanding is a force operating in the constructive direction, and so it would seem probable that Christianity will at least survive in its spirit and intermingle with the more elaborate traditions of the future. In no case can a tradition disappear without leaving behind it some effect or influence. But this is far from asserting that there need be or will be a definite survival of Christianity as such. Contemporary Christianity must purge itself from a multitude of defects before it can possibly be acceptable to the clear-headed men who will be the normal citizens of the Great State. A mere spirit of co-operation alone can never be all sufficing for the religious basis of tradition. The Great State will be complex beyond all precedent and that he may cope successfully with these complexities the average citizen must be trained to think clearly and exhaustively, and be given a wealth of tradition for his guidance multifarious beyond any the world has yet produced. Christianity as we know it at present makes no insistence upon understanding and mental alertness as duties, nor upon the supreme necessity of thoroughness in thought and work. It is not a critical religion; it is emotionally sound, perhaps, but critically careless, and the vital preservative of right in a complex situation is a critical faculty highly stimulated and fed." It is not known if his perspective on religion changed later in his life.

Collaboration with others

Vowles collaborated with H.G. Wells and Professor Sir E.Ray Lankester [Cited on fly cover of HP Vowles' book "Under New Management" (1922)]

Mr Wells and Mr Vowles

Hugh Vowles collaborated with and subsequently fell out with H.G. Wells. Vowles worked with Wells on Wells' book "Socialism and the Great State" published in 1912 and contributed a chapter to the book. They are believed to have continued their collaboration over the following twenty years. For example, in 1929 HPV collaborated on Wells' book "The work, wealth, and happiness of mankind" [http://www.nypl.org/research/manuscripts/berg/brgwells.xml] Following their falling out, in about 1930 Vowles received a payment of eight hundred pounds from H.G. Wells. Vowles wrote "a long letter" to the Editor of the British literary magazine The New Age on September 11th 1930 concerning this issue. HG Wells published a response in the same journal on the 18th September 1930 entitled “Mr. Wells and Mr. Vowles”.

In this response, H.G. Wells wrote: "Sir, I note the long letter from Mr. Vowles in your issue of September 11. Imagine collaboration with the writer of such a letter. The "number of Mr. Well's fellow craftsmen" who consulted Counsel was the Secretary of the Society of Authors. The writ issued very improperly by the society was withdrawn after a special meeting of the Council to consider the action taken by its management in this affair. The Council then arranged for an arbitration in accordance with an offer I had made at the outset of the dispute. The sum of £800 paid by me to Mr. Vowles as an advance to support him was practically never in dispute. He had had it and spent it. He claimed a further £5,200 and was awarded £700 over and above the £800 already paid him. From this the Society of Authors deducted a commission of 10 per cent., leaving Mr Vowles £630, and his MS, such as it is. If the sum recovered was £1,500, then Mr. Vowles owes the Society of Authors £80. As his letter admits, his role was to toil hard and do what he was told, and he was offered by substantial inducements to work to the utmost. The conception of the "Science of Work and Wealth" is entirely mine. Mr. Vowles was given every reasonable opportunity to continue his work under me, but he preferred to stick to his claim for a gross £6,000. I was rash to take on Mr. Vowles in this enterprise. I trusted unduly to the assurances of admiration, devotion, loyalty, and a desire to co-operate with me, with shich he has plied me in an extremely one-sided correspondence for the twenty years preceding this affair. I am very well satisfied to be released from my entanglement on the terms stated. The work is now going on quite satisfactorily. What god it does Mr. Vowles to continue to advertise his association with it, and his dissociation from it, I cannot imagine. H.G. Wells"

The issue of Well's falling out with his collaborators is discussed in Wells' work "The Problem of the Troublesome Collaborator: An Account of Certain Difficulties in an Attempt to Produce a Work in Collaboration and of the Intervention of the Society of Authors Therein" (1930). This documents confirms that Vowles was not his only "troublesome collaborator".

Publications (Books)

* "Under new management: a book for business men and others" (published in 1922 by Allen & Unwin, London)
* "The Web of Finance" (published by John Bellows of Gloucester in 1926)
* "The Quest for Power" (Chapman and Hall, London, 1931 book published with Margaret W Vowles, his first wife)
* "Ukraine and its People" (W. and R Chambers, London, 1939)
* "James Watt and the Industrial Revolution" (published in 1943, new edition 1948 and reprinted in 1949. Also published in Spanish and Portuguese (1944) by the British Council)

Publications (Articles)

* "The Tradition of the Great State. Chapter in "Socialism and the Great State, Essays in Construction", by H.G. Wells et al, Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York (1912).
* "The Price We Pay. The New Age: A Socialist Review of Religion, Science, and Art. No. 1503 Edition Vol 29, No.9 (1921)
* "Essence of The Matter The New Age: A Socialist Review of Religion, Science, and Art. No. 1521 Vol 30, No 1 (1921) [http://dl.lib.brown.edu/pdfs/1140814921246391.pdf]
* "A Reply to Mr Lethaby. The Hibbert Journal: A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology, and Philosophy (Jan. 1929)
* "Engineer as Ruler (1930)
* "An Enquiry into Origins of the Windmill Journal of the Newcomen Society, Volume 11 (1930-31)
* "Early Evolution of Power Engineering Isis, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1932), pp. 412-420
* "Freaks of the Road" Boys' Own Paper, July 1932. A story.
* "Science and Industrial Insanity. Article published with Margaret Vowles. Date uncertain.

References

The personal information above is from a letter written by his second wife Eleanor formerly of 139 Gloucester Road, Stonehouse and dated 1991. Additional personal information has come from letters from his daughter in law, Elizabeth Vowles (daughter of Harold Stephen Langhorne) formerly of the old rectory, Whaddon, Gloucester, England.