Frederick Bligh Bond

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name = Frederick Bligh Bond
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birth_date = 30 June 1864
birth_place = Marlborough
death_date = 8 March 1945
death_place = Dolgellau
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occupation = Architect and Psychical researcher
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religion = Spiritualism and Old Catholic Church
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Frederick Bligh Bond (30 June 1864 – 8 March 1945) cite web | title=Frederick Bligh Bond | work=Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology | url=http://www.answers.com/topic/frederick-bligh-bond| accessdate=2007-05-09] was an English architect, archaeologist, and psychical researcher.

Early life

Bligh Bond was the son of the Rev. Frederick Hookey Bond, born in the Wiltshire town of Marlborough. His family was related to William Bligh, through his nephew Francis Godolphin Bond, Bligh Bond's grandfather. He was also a cousin of Sabine Baring-Gould. cite web | title=Glastonbury Enigma | work=Fortean Times | url=http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/143_blighbond.shtml | accessdate=2007-05-10 (Free registration required)] He attended was educated at home by his father who was headmaster of Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School, and subsequently at Bath College. ["The Rediscovery of Glastonbury: Frederick Bligh Bond Architect of the New Age" by Tim Hopkinson-Ball, 2007]

Architectural practice

He practiced as an architect in Bristol from 1888. His work includes schools, such as the Board Schools in Barton Hill, Easton, and Southville, Greenbank Elementary School and St George's School. He designed the schools of medicine and engineering at Bristol University and the Music School of Clifton College. He also undertook a number of domestic commissions, and a public hall in Shirehampton. cite web | title=A 'Colourful' Bristol Architect | work=Digital Bristol | url=http://www.digitalbristol.org/members/shireweb/blighbnd.htm | accessdate=2007-05-09] Cossham Memorial Hospital is also an example of his work. [cite web | title=Handel Cossham Memorial Hospital | work=Images of England | url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?id=379950 | accessdate=2007-05-10] In addition he oversaw the restoration of a number of churches, became an acknowledged authority on the history of church architecture, and in 1909 published, with Dom Bede Camm, a two volume treatise entitled "Roodscreens and Roodlofts". [cite web | title=Select bibliography: churches, their furnishings, and use | work=The Ecclesiological Society | url=http://www.ecclsoc.org/selectbibliography.html| accessdate=2007-05-10]

Glastonbury excavations

In 1908 the Church of England appointed him as director of excavations at Glastonbury Abbey. His excavations rediscovered the nature and dimensions of a number of buildings that had occupied the site.

Psychical research

Bligh joined the Freemasons in 1889, the Theosophical Society in 1895, the Society for Psychical Research in 1902 and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1909. ['Will the real Bligh Bond stand up?' by Tim Hopkinson Ball, in "Avalon Magazine", No. 37, Autumn/Winter 2007, pp 26-30] As early as 1899 Bligh Bond had expressed his belief that the dimensions of the buildings at Glastonbury Abbey were based on gematria, and in 1917 he published, with Thomas Simcox Lea, "Gematria, A Preliminary Investigation of The Cabala contained in the Coptic Gnostic Books and of a similar Gematria in the Greek text of the New Testament", which incorporated his own previously published paper, "The Geometric Cubit as a Basis of Proportion in the Plans of Mediaeval Buildings".

In 1919 he published "The Gates of Remembrance", which revealed that he had employed psychical methods to guide his excavation of the Glastonbury ruins, using first Captain John Allan Bartlett (‘John Alleyne’) as a medium, and later others. As a consequence of these revelations his relations with his employers, who strongly disapproved of spiritualism, deteriorated, and he was sacked in 1921. From 1921 to 1926 he was editor of "Psychic Science".

In 1926 Bligh Bond emigrated to the USA, where he was employed as education secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research and worked as editor on their magazine, "Survival". Bligh Bond broke with the ASPR and returned to England in 1936 after supporting accusations against the medium Mina Crandon that she had fraudulently produced thumbprints on wax that she presented as being produced by the spirit of her dead brother, Walter.

During his time in the USA Bond was ordained, and in 1933 consecrated as a bishop, in the Old Catholic Church of America.

Later life

He returned to the British Isles in 1935, spending his time in London and Dolgellau, where he died of a heart attack.

Bond is mentioned as part of the background to Deborah Crombie's mystery novel "A Finer End" (Bantam, 2001). ISBN 0-553-57927-4

Publications

*"Roodscreens and roodlofts" with Dom Bede Cam (1909)
*"An Architectural Handbook to Glastonbury Abbey", (1909)
*"The Gates of Remembrance" (1918)
*"The Hill of Vision" (1919)
*"The Company of Avalon" (1924)
*"The Gospel of Philip the Deacon" (1932)
*"The Secret of Immortality" (1934)

References

External links

[http://www.odeion.org/gematria/ Text of Bond and Lea's "Gematria"]