George Richards of Poole

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Introduction. In my article “George Orwell and the Other Two” I asked if anyone could give me more information about George Richards of Poole who wrote one of the passages of allegedly bad English quoted by George Orwell in his article “Politics and the English Language” (Horizon, April 1946). This offending passage was published on 31 August 1945 in the socialist journal Tribune and the full letter read:

Speaking as one who wished to see Winston Churchill continue in the direction of affairs for the present, and who, therefore, unhesitatingly voted Conservative in the recent election, I freely concede that there are certain undoubted and manifest benefits to be derived from a Labour government.

For example the real realisation of the hard facts governing in the post-war world must come to millions as an unpleasant dose of medicine. It as well that the doctors administering it should not only have a mandate from the people, but themselves be sprung from the people.

Even so, a new government must walk warily. I imagine that there is nothing like coming into power in a democratic state for making a man realise how limited are the powers of the princes of this (modern) world. Nevertheless, if a new spirit is to be infused into this old country, there is one thorny and contentious reform which must be tackled, and that is the humanisation and galvanisation of the BBC. Timidity here will bespeak canker and atrophy of the soul. The heart of Britain may be sound and of strong beat, for instance, but the British lion’s roar at present is like that of Bottom in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” – as gentle as any sucking dove. A virile new Britain cannot continue indefinitely to be traduced in the eyes, or rather ears, of the world by the effete languors of Langham Place, brazenly masquerading as “standard English”. When the Voice of Britain is heard at nine o’clock, better far and infinitely less ludicrous to hear aitches honestly dropped than the present priggish, inflated, inhibited, school-maamishly arch braying of blamelessly bashful mewing maidens.

Sylvia Fox saw my article on this website and has given me more details of George Richards of Poole. With the help of her information I did some further research.

Early Life. George Richards was born George Edward Dixon Reichardt on 27 January 1905 in Cottingham in Sculcoates Registration District in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire. His parents were Alexander Maurice Reichardt a wool merchant born in Tarnow in Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867; and Aline Mary Campion Reichardt nee Dixon born in 1880. They also had a daughter Ursula Ella Reichardt born on 21 October 1902.

Alexander Reichardt was naturalised a British citizen in 1896 and married Aline Dixon on 5 January 1901 at St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Hull. Her father was a wealthy industrialist Edward Dixon the Managing Director of Blundells, Spence & Co a paint and varnish manufacturer. Alexander Reichardt travelled extensively on business and eventually deserted his family leaving them dependant on his wife’s family’s money. Aline Reichardt judicially separated from her husband in 1918.

In 1911 George Reichardt lived with his sister, their mother and his maternal grandfather Edward Dixon at 1 Royal Crescent in Bridlington. George Reichardt had a cleft lip and palate. He was fitted with a plate which enabled him to speak but he did so with an odd and difficult to understand voice. Despite this he studied at a prep school and at Repton a Derbyshire public school winning numerous prizes and a scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford, though he only stayed at Oxford for a year.

The family had problems during the First World War and on 9 February 1926 the London Gazette announced that George Edward Dixon Reichardt had changed his name by deed poll to Richards. His mother and sister also changed their names accordingly.

Adult Life. George Richards never worked and lived on an allowance from his mother. He devoted his time to the theatre, films, literature, dining out, and generally enjoying himself.

In 1925 Ursula Ella Richards, twenty three, married Dr Maitland Scott, thirty eight, a Bournemouth medical doctor. He was the oldest of ten children of Bernard Scott a surgeon and served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War. One of his four younger brothers Lieutenant Bernard Scott junior of the London Regiment was killed aged twenty on 21 May 1916 at Arras on the Western Front in the First World War.

One of Dr Maitland Scott’s five sisters Elisabeth Whitworth Scott was born on 20 September 1898 at Poole in Dorset and was educated at home until she was fourteen; at Redmoor School in Bournemouth; and from 1919 to 1924 at the Architectural Association Schools where she got a diploma in 1924. She became one of the first qualified women architects.

Elisabeth Whitworth Scott’s most famous work the new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford upon Avon replaced the former one that was destroyed in a fire in 1926. In 1928 her design was selected unanimously from seventy two proposals submitted to the Anglo-American Committee of Assessors. George Bernard Shaw said it was the only one that showed any theatrical sense. It opened in 1932. There were some criticisms because it was faced in brick not stone i.e. in modern style.

Some misogynists suggested that Elisabeth Whitworth Scott had not really designed the new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre because it was not very feminine looking. She pointed out that she had ensured there was adequate space to take tea on its terrace.

Elisabeth Whitworth Scott’s great uncles included the architects Sir George Gilbert Scott and George Frederick Bodley. There had been women architects for centuries but the increasing professionalization of architecture had made it much harder for them. The Royal Institution of British Architects began to admit them in 1898 but the Architectural Association only did so in 1917 during the First World War. This was true for many professions including the law.

The first generation of women professionals were mainly young women left high and dry by the loss of so many young men in the First World War. Married women were still normally expected to give up their careers until very recent times.

On 28 May 1936 George Edward Dixon Richards married Elisabeth Whitworth Scott. Her family strongly opposed the marriage because they saw him as a wastrel. However she appreciated not having to be the supportive wife of a hard working professional man. His marriage certificate gave his occupation as a gentleman. The marriage was childless.

The happy couple lived in London but moved back to Dorset in 1939 during the Second World War. George Richards was medically unfit for military service. He bred cats and became friends with the drama critic James Evershed Agate who died in 1947.

George Richards began bombarding newspapers and journals with letters on a wide variety of topics becoming notorious as George Richards of Poole. Most of his letters were less florid than the one Orwell took exception to.

I found seven letters George Richards had published in the Daily News (the News Chronicle). He praised the benefits of fresh milk and eggs over powdered ones (1941); suggested that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour because of the stark, bleak monotony of their lives (1942); praised the US General Forces radio programme in comparison to the BBC (1944); criticised Hollywood publicity agents who over hyped films (1944); praised ITV in comparison to the BBC (1957); criticised Christians for supporting laws evolved for regulating the affairs of nomadic tribes 2,000 years ago (1959); and criticised railwaymen who boycotted Belgian cargoes (1961).

George Richards sometimes used other names. One thin pseudonym was G. Reichardt of Poole. He used it in a letter savaging avant-garde art (New Statesman, 4 August 1967); and one about over size road signs (Daily Telegraph, 8 December 1968).

According to Nicholas Osborne Tomalin (New Statesman, 18 August 1967) George Richards used other less easily recognisable pseudonyms. They allegedly included Shadrack Joliffe, George Robens, James Olentighe, Soame Jenyns, Zoilus, Hubert Hoylake and John Peter Zender.

George Richards had earlier lived off his mother’s money. She died in 1958 and he then lived off his wife’s money. He often visited London to see plays, concerts and exhibitions. He would then write letters abusing critics whose commentary he disliked.

Some of these letters were sent directly to critics whose views George Richards disliked. Philip Hope Adrian Hope Wallace of the Guardian took out an injunction against him. George Richards retaliated by sending him parcels containing toilet seats from various strangely named souls; and a series of accommodation addresses.

Nicholas Tomalin said that Stephen Meredith Potter the critic and author, of The Theory and Practise of Gamesmanship fame, was changing trains at Poole. He heard heavy steps racing towards him down the platform, growing louder and louder. Stephen Potter allegedly cried “My God, it’s George Richards of Poole”. Stephen Potter allegedly then leapt into his compartment, drew down the blinds and never returned to Poole.

Elisabeth Whitworth Richards nee Scott died on Monday 19 June 1972 aged seventy three at Poole General Hospital in Dorset. Her husband George Edward Dixon Richards died on 26 September 1980 aged seventy five at Mount Pleasant Hospital in Chepstow of a heart attack, bronchopneumonia, and Crohn’s Disease.

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Our thanks to Sylvia Fox, who came across George Richards while researching her biography of Elizabeth Whitworth Scott, RIBA (1898-1972).

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