Montague Edward Fordham (1864–1948) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

agriculturalist and advocate of rural reform. He belonged to the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

, and was a historian and barrister by profession.P. Conford, 'Finance versus Farming: Rural Reconstruction and Economic Reform 1894-1955', ''Rural History'', 2002, Vol.13, No.2, p. 228 Fordham first gained notability in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

where he was involved in a number of initiatives in support of traditional

handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...

. To this end, he was the first director of the Birmingham Guild and School of Handicrafts following its 1890 foundation, as well as serving as the director of the Arts and Craft Gallery from 1899 to 1908 and head of the Artificers Guild from 1903 to 1906. Fordham's main passion, however, was rural reform, and he formed the Land Club Union in 1908 which aimed to establish model farms, organise farmers' banks and loans, provide machinery, and revive traditional life and festivals in the country. The following year, he published ''Mother Earth: A Proposal for the Permanent Reconstruction of our Country Life'' as an effective manifesto for the Union, with a foreword by

John A. Hobson John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858 – 1 April 1940) was an English economist and social scientist. Hobson is best known for his writing on imperialism, which influenced Vladimir Lenin, and his theory of underconsumption. His principal and e ...

. The book attacked what he saw as the anti-farmer nature of the economic system; it also anticipated the modern

organic movement The organic movement broadly refers to the organizations and individuals involved worldwide in the promotion of organic food and other organic products. It started during the first half of the 20th century, when modern large-scale agricultural p ...

by attacking modern methods. After the publication of this book, he became involved with a number of rural reform groups, such as the

Agricultural Organisation Society The Agricultural Organisation Society (AOS) was an agricultural association established in Great Britain in April 1901. Nominally an independent body, funded only by its members and supporters, the AOS soon forged close links with the British gov ...

and Land Clubs League, arguing in favour of his desire to see a return to small-holdings.Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations'', 2002, p. 32 He desired

autarky Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems. Autarky as an ideology or economic approach has been attempted by a range of political ideologies and movement ...

in food production for all countries, while also highlighting the dangers of

soil erosion Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the Topsoil, upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, Atmosphere of Ea ...

caused by the concentration of agriculture in certain countries. His 1924 book ''The Rebuilding of Rural England'' contained an attack on the existing monetary systems, and argued instead in favour of making money available as credit, thus indicating a link with

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...

.Conford, 'Finance versus Farming', p. 229 His criticisms of the economic system of Britain became more marked after the 1931 slump. He established the

Rural Reconstruction Association The Rural Reconstruction Association (RRA) was a British agricultural reform movement established in 1926 with Montague Fordham as its Council Secretary, a post he held for 20 years.P. Conford, 'Finance versus Farming: Rural Reconstruction and Eco ...

in 1926 and served as its Council Secretary for 20 years, with the group at the forefront of the agricultural reform movement. His son

Michael Fordham Michael Scott Montague Fordham (4 August 1905 – 14 April 1995) was an English child psychiatrist and Jungian analyst. He was a co-editor of the English translation of C.G. Jung's '' Collected Works''. His clinical and theoretical collabora ...

became a noted

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

.Michael Fordham obituary
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fordham, Montague 1864 births 1948 deaths Arts and Crafts movement English barristers English Quakers Members of the Fabian Society 20th-century English lawyers 20th-century English farmers 19th-century English farmers