Peter Caddy (20 March 1917 – 18 February 1994) was a British caterer, hotelier, and with his wife

Eileen Caddy Eileen Caddy Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE (26 August 1917 – 13 December 2006) was a British spiritual teacher and New Age writer, best known as one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation community at the Fin ...

and their friend

Dorothy Maclean Dorothy Maclean (January 7, 1920 – March 12, 2020) was a Canadian writer and educator on spiritual subjects who was one of the original three adults at what is now the Findhorn Foundation in northeast Scotland. Biography Maclean was born in Gu ...

, co-founder of the Findhorn Foundation community.

Life and work

Educated at Harrow, Caddy was apprenticed as a director with J. Lyons and Company, and was a member of the

Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship The Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship was a Rosicrucian group founded by George Alexander Sullivan in about 1924. It may have existed under the name The Order of Twelve from 1911 to 1914 and again from 1920. The ROCF operated first from the L ...

. On the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he was commissioned as an officer with the Catering Branch of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, where he served from 1940 until 1955. From 1957 until 1961 he was manager of the Cluny Hill Hotel near

Forres Forres (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the County of Moray, Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin, Moray, Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several ...

, Scotland, now the training college of the Findhorn Foundation. During a period of unemployment from 1962 onwards, Caddy began experimenting with

organic gardening Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety pres ...

to supplement his family's food supply. The garden near

Findhorn Findhorn ( or ''Inbhir Èireann'') is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Kinloss, Scotland, Kinloss, and abou ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, flourished to such a remarkable extent that it eventually attracted national attention. Peter Caddy attributed its success to his spiritual practices, and a community began to form around his family and their friend

. Much more information about the establishment and growth of the Findhorn Community is contained in Peter Caddy's autobiography. In 1979 Caddy left the

Findhorn Ecovillage Findhorn Ecovillage, known in the past as the Findhorn Community, and also referred to as Ecovillage Findhorn, is an experimental and utopian community project based at The Park, in Moray, Scotland, near the village of Findhorn focused on ecol ...

community he had helped to found. He died in a car crash in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 1994.

References

1917 births 1994 deaths People educated at Harrow School Royal Air Force officers Road incident deaths in Germany Findhorn community New Age spiritual leaders Organic gardeners Royal Air Force personnel of World War II {{RAF-bio-stub