Edmund Sturge

Edmund Sturge (8 December 1808 - 28 June 1893), was a Quaker businessman and campaigner for liberal causes.

Birth and early life

Edmund Sturge was born at Olveston, near Bristol, the youngest of the ten children of Joseph Sturge (1752 - 1817) and his wife, Mary (born Marshall).

His older brother, Joseph Sturge (1793-1859), was active in the Anti-Slavery Movement. When Edmund left school, he joined Joseph in Birmingham and became quietly active in this and many other liberal causes, for example, for peace, penal reform, the suppression of the opium trade and for the protection of aborigines .

Anti-Slavery

From 1836, on Joseph Sturge's return from a tour of the West Indies, Edmund helped to distribute Joseph's report on the conditions of slaves widely . He joined the newly formed British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and in 1840 was appointed to its Committee in 1860. He served as the Society's Secretary from 1870 and as its Chairman from 1882 to 1891 and then as its vice-president until his death. After he retired in 1876, he regularly lobbied Parliament on the Society's business (see below: William Tallack's reminiscence).

In 1841, Edmund Sturge and Lydia Albright were married. Lydia was already active in liberal causes, such as the replacement of war with arbitration and the relief of poverty. She was already on the Ladies' Negro's Friendly Society and was later its Secretary

The Monserrat connection

Edmund and his brother John ran a factory in Birmingham, extracting citric acid from citrus juice, using lemons from Sicily, subject to sharp variations in suppy. Their brother, Joseph had supported the production of limes on the Caribbean island of Monserrat. This eventually led to the family becoming the largest landholder on Monserrat, successfully running without slavery, for many years.

In 1867, Edmund and Lydia Sturge travelled to Monserrat and spent a year developing the growing of limes. This enterprise later becam the Monserrat Lime Juice company, of which Edmund Sturge was a Director until his death. Their son, Edmund John and daughter, Edith were also involved in the running of the Monserrat estates.

Marriage and family

In 1841, he was married to Lydia Albright, a daughter of William and Rachel Albright of Charlbury. Their children were :

• John Edmund, born 3 April 1842, married Jane Richardson. Died Monserrat in 1880, aged 38
• Edith Mary, born 26 October 1843 married James Spencer Hollings, 1868.
• Francis Albright, born 28 August 1845
• Eleanor, born 6 August 1848
• Margaret, born 20 August 1850, married (1) Lewis Sturge, (2) Colin Campbell Scott Moncrieff

Lydia Sturge died 19 December 1892 .

Death

Edmund Sturge died on 28 June 1893, aged 84 at Charlbury.

William Tallack's reminiscence

William Tallack, prison reformer wrote :

Mr Edmund Sturge was for many years an active and highly esteemed member of the Howard Committee, and practically fulfilled the functions of its honorary secretary. He had previously resided in Birmingham, but afterwards divided his time between London and Charlbury, in Oxfordshire.

He was a brother of Mr Joseph Sturge, a man of similarly philanthropic energy, who, like himself, devoted much time and labour to the service of the Anti-Slavery cause.

Edmund Sturge resembled George Washington both in features and dignified aspect. He was part proprietor of estates in the island of Montserrat in the West Indies, and was therefore specially conversant with questions relating to the condition of negroes and coolies. For many years he was a constant visitor to the lobbies of the House of Commons, in order to interest members of the legislature in the several objects of philanthropic effort which were so dear to himself.

He wore a wig, for he had lost all his hair in a brief illness. A few days later some of his friends were assembling for a committee meeting of which he was a member, and presently one of them exclaimed, " Edmund Sturge has not come yet. I never knew him unpunctual before." " I am here," responded a quiet voice, and on turning round, his colleagues could hardly recognise their old friend in his suddenly altered appearance. He had a strong objection to wearing an overcoat, even in winter, and used to walk with a noiseless tread, as if his shoes had felted soles. He was not a man of many words, but had a dry humour and occasionally indulged in anecdotes. One of these related to a member of a well-known Quaker family whose eccentricities obliged his friends to put him under restraint at times in an asylum. But he managed to escape more than once, and afterwards remarked that he had thus come to appreciate a common Quaker counsel, to "proceed as way may open." On another occasion the same Friend, on re-entering an asylum at York, requested a private interview with the superintendent, which being granted, and the two sitting for a little while in silence, the new inmate suddenly exclaimed that he had been thinking of the precept, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," and forthwith he struck the superintendent violently.

Mr Sturge was the subject of one of the cartoons in Vanity Fair (British magazine) (November 20, 1886) . In the accompanying letterpress the journalist remarked of him : "No kindlier, simpler, gentler, more upright and honourable a soul ever informed a human body than that which is enveloped in the Quaker outside of Mr Sturge. He is a good, honest creature."

At Charlbury, Mr Sturge used to take his friends into the glades of the adjacent Wychwood Forest and into Cornbury Park, which contains some of the finest beech-trees in England. Mrs Sturge was as devoted to the interests of humanity, and especially to the Anti-Slavery cause, as her husband. They lived long enough to celebrate their golden wedding.

On that occasion the Committee of the Howard Association presented them with an illuminated address of congratulation. In it they recorded : " The Committee gladly avail themselves of this opportunity of conveying to their esteemed friend and colleague, Mr Edmund Sturge, the expression of their profound sense of the value, to this Association and to other kindred bodies, of his services, and of his sound judgment and long experience."

At an Anti-Slavery meeting at the Mansion House, London, Mr Sturge's labours in the cause of humanity received public recognition from the Prince of Wales and several eminent statesmen. He died in 1893, aged eighty-four, and was buried at Charlbury. He was a man of a truly noble character.

Further reading

• Obituary in The Times, 29 June 1893, page 11, column F