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44-576: Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within the 17th century in the field of county surveying in England and Wales, with county surveyors appointed by the justices of the peace at quarter sessions . Eventually, the military defence component of county surveying in the UK began to separate from the civil in 1791, with the Crown's 'Board of Ordnance' being commissioned to carry out

88-532: A close friend of Graham Wallas , who came from a similar background. After graduation Olivier resisted family pressure to train as a barrister and instead sat the competitive examination for the Civil Service. He came first, beating Sidney Webb into second place. Olivier entered the Colonial Office in the spring of 1882, working as a resident clerk. He was joined by Webb shortly afterwards, and

132-563: A comprehensive survey of the South Coast of England which, as a result of 'the last invasion of Britain 1797', at Fishguard in South West Wales ultimately extended to all of the UK. With that shift in emphasis, county surveying began to concentrate more on its civil engineering and civic architecture roles, producing the historically famous British county surveyors such as Thomas Telford , John Loudon McAdam and John Nash ;

176-711: A devastating hurricane, and served as acting governor for a third time. He returned to England in September 1904, and spent three years as Principal Secretary to the West Africa and West Indian Department of the Colonial Office. During this time he was again active in the Fabian Society. Feeling that the society had been stagnating since 1897, he hoped that a prominent new member, H. G. Wells , would be able to re-energise it. He supported Wells' campaign for

220-723: A distinct programme for the Fabians. That year he stood down as Secretary of the Fabian Society, being succeeded by Edward R. Pease . The Oliviers bought a holiday home in Limpsfield in the North Downs ; they had two daughters by now, and a third was born in November. He was a guest speaker at the London School of Economics , which had many Fabian connections. In October 1890, having established an excellent reputation at

264-491: A military career ending as a colonel , Herbert , a successful portrait painter, and Gerard (1869–1939), a clergyman (the father of Laurence ). During Olivier's youth, the family spent time at Lausanne and Kineton , and at Poulshott in Wiltshire , where Henry Olivier was rector . Sydney Olivier was sent to Tonbridge School , and then studied philosophy and theology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford . At Oxford he became

308-683: A monthly periodical called the Christian Socialist , inspired by the Christian Socialist movement of 1848–1852. Olivier had become enthusiastic about Positivism after working as a tutor to the son of Henry Compton , a leading Positivist . He was attracted to the Positivist vision of a moral reform of capitalism, rather than mere amelioration, and for a while entertained this notion as an alternative to socialism that might be more palatable to Victorian England. On 1 May 1885, Olivier and Sidney Webb followed Shaw's lead and enrolled in

352-466: A more radical Fabian agenda in 1906, but by the end of the year he had come to find Wells too erratic. In 1907, following a devastating earthquake in Jamaica , Olivier returned to the colony as governor. He was appointed a KCMG , making him Sir Sydney Olivier. He quickly reestablished order after the earthquake, and his reforms of the colony's government proved to be very popular. He was responsible for

396-474: A perfumer, and a hairdresser"; his mother was a "hairdresser and dealer in toiletries". Webb's upbringing was "comfortable", the family employing a live-in servant; his father was "a man of local substance" as a rate collector, guardian, and sergeant in a volunteer regiment. Having attended a "first-class middle class day school" at St Martin's Lane , and his parents having sent him abroad to Switzerland and Germany to extend his education, Webb later studied law at

440-567: A reading group for a number of Fabians, and developed his speaking skills to address larger meetings. In the summer of 1887 he took part in the Fabians' mock legislature experiment, the Charing Cross Parliament , as Colonial Secretary . In 1888 Olivier wrote the seventh Fabian tract, Capital and Land , in which he criticised Georgism (a system, popular with some Radicals and Christian Socialists, in which land continued to be privately owned and managed but should be taxed for

484-569: A stir in Downing Street by voicing his opposition to the war and his criticisms of Chamberlain, Olivier was posted as Colonial Secretary in Jamaica , departing in early 1900. He again enhanced his reputation as a colonial administrator, and was acting governor later in 1900 and again in 1902. This posting ended in 1903 and Olivier returned to England, but he went back to Jamaica a short while later to work in relief and rehabilitation following

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528-647: Is fundamental to understanding the organisation role that county surveying plays in the administration and development of the real estate of many states and nations around the world, even though sometimes it goes by other names. It was the framework that the King of England applied to his colonies in America and sufficiently successful as to have since been adopted by many other states. Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield , OM , PC (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947)

572-568: Is part of the National Association of Counties of the USA (NACo). The NACo website sets out its perception of the history of county government in the USA, tracing it to Anglo-Saxon England (initial division of land into holdings for government purposes called 'shires', hence 'shire-reeve', the origin of 'sheriff'), Anglo-Norman feudalism (renaming shires conquered by William I as 'counties' and establishing his allodial title to them via

616-702: The 1922 general election . The couple's influence can be seen in their hosting of the Coefficients , a dining club that drew in some leading statesmen and thinkers of the day. In 1929, he was created Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner in the County of Southampton. He served as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs in Ramsay MacDonald 's second Labour Government in 1929. As Colonial Secretary he issued

660-659: The Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution for a degree of the University of London in his spare time, while holding an office job. He also studied at King's College London , before being called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1885. In 1895, Webb helped to found the London School of Economics with a bequest left to the Fabian Society. He was appointed its Professor of Public Administration in 1912 and held

704-601: The Conservative and Liberal parties at the ballot, regardless of the policies of individual candidates. In 1895 he was posted to the Leeward Islands as Auditor-General, a special appointment to examine and reorganise the finances of the colony. After this he returned to London, working as Private Secretary to the Under-Secretary to the Colonial Office , Lord Selbourne . In 1897 he became Secretary to

748-467: The Domesday Book survey), and the increasingly "plural executive structure" commissioned by his successors to the royal throne of England to defend the peace and enforce the complex of chivalric, common, and statutory laws of England (and of Wales from the reign of Edward I) up to the time of the first county government established in America ( County of James City, Virginia ). This triad of origins

792-611: The Exchequer from 1917 until 1920, when he retired from the civil service to devote himself to philosophical and political study. However, this proved not to be the end of his public life. The Sydney Olivier Interscholastic Challenge Shield is the oldest and most prestigious schoolboy football title in Jamaica. The competition started in 1909 and the Shield is played between winners of DaCosta Cup for Rural Area Champions and Manning Cup for Urban Area Champions. In January 1924 Olivier

836-718: The Fabian Society , which had been formed at the start of 1884; Wallas joined the following year, and the three became known as the Three Musketeers of the Society, with Shaw as their D'Artagnan . Partly through Olivier, the Fabians would adopt the policy of reforming capitalism as a necessary precursor to explicitly socialist reforms, Olivier arguing that the sudden introduction of socialism would result in either anarchy or tyranny and attacking Marxism 's neglect of non-economic values. The same month that he joined

880-540: The Fabians , Olivier married Margaret Cox, the sister of Harold Cox , an old school friend and later a Liberal member of parliament. Olivier's wife was intimidated by the Fabians , preferring the less politically involved Simple Life movement, but Olivier was an eager member of the movement, serving as the Society's secretary from 1886 to 1890. He began speaking at the Hampstead Historic Society ,

924-665: The Passfield White Paper that revised the government policy on Palestine , previously set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922. In 1930, failing health caused him to step down as Dominions Secretary, but he stayed on as Colonial Secretary until the fall of the Labour government in August 1931. The Webbs ignored mounting evidence of atrocities being committed by Joseph Stalin and remained supporters of

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968-531: The Soviet Union until their deaths. Having reached their seventies and early eighties, their books, Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? (1935) and The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942), still gave a positive assessment of Stalin's regime. The Trotskyist historian Al Richardson later dubbed Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? "pure Soviet propaganda at its most mendacious". Webb co-authored with his wife The History of Trade Unionism (1894). For

1012-629: The West Indian Royal Commission, and during 1898 he went to Washington to take part in trade negotiations on behalf of the West Indian Colonies. In the run-up to the Second Boer War , the executive of the Fabian Society became split. Some Fabians, including Olivier and Ramsay MacDonald , adhering to the traditional Liberal opposition to militarism and imperialism, opposed the war; Olivier claimed that

1056-714: The Colonial Office, Sydney Olivier was appointed as acting Colonial Secretary of British Honduras . He continued to be active in the Fabian Society during his periods back in London. In 1891 the Oliviers made a permanent home in Limpsfield; several other Fabians and radicals moved to the area, and they soon became the dominant force on the parish council . In 1892, Olivier and Shaw attacked Robert Blatchford , Fabian leader in Manchester , for calling for members to boycott both

1100-688: The Fabian Society he wrote on poverty in London, the eight-hour day , land nationalisation , the nature of socialism, education, eugenics , and reform of the House of Lords . He also drafted Clause IV , which committed the Labour Party to public ownership of industry. In H. G. Wells ' The New Machiavelli (1911), the Webbs, as "the Baileys", are mercilessly lampooned as short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators. The Fabian Society, of which Wells

1144-553: The Fabian Society into the pre-eminent politico-intellectual society in Edwardian England. He wrote the original, pro-nationalisation Clause IV for the British Labour Party . Webb was born at 45, Cranbourn Street, near Leicester Square , London, the second of three children of Charles Webb (1828/9-1891) and Elizabeth Mary (1820/21-1895), née Stacey. His father was "variously described as an accountant,

1188-595: The Labour government of 1929, instead sending him to the West Indies to investigate the sugar trade . Following this he retired for the final time, living in the Cotswolds and then Sussex. He had tried writing poetry during his early years but without any success. He wrote throughout his life, faring better with a few plays (first performed at the Fabian Society) and a Fabian paper on Émile Zola (1890), but

1232-669: The London School of Economics, alongside the Housing Association, renamed its Great Dover Street student residence Sidney Webb House in his honour. Sidney Webb's papers form part of the Passfield archive at the London School of Economics. Posts about Sidney Webb regularly appear in the LSE Archives blog. Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier Sydney Haldane Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier , KCMG , CB , PC (16 April 1859 – 15 February 1943)

1276-584: The Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain , had engineered the conflict to increase British holdings in South Africa. Other Fabians, including Webb and Shaw, believed military action could be used to promote democracy and civilisation, whilst some also felt that the best policy was to reform the British Empire rather than, as Olivier advocated, retreating from it. The majority of

1320-723: The benefit of the community) and instead advocated the communal ownership and control of land. That year he performed with Annie Besant clerical duties at the strike headquarters during the Bryant and May match factory strike . By now he was one of the "Big Four" of the Fabian movement in London, with Shaw, Webb and Wallas. In 1889 he wrote Moral Aspects of the Basis of Socialism in the Essays in Fabian Socialism , an attempt to develop

1364-577: The casket of her ashes was buried in the garden of their house in Passfield Corner, as were those of Lord Passfield in 1947. Shortly afterwards, George Bernard Shaw launched a petition to have both reburied in Westminster Abbey , which was eventually granted – the Webbs' ashes are interred in the nave, close to those of Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin . The Webbs were also friends of philosopher Bertrand Russell . In 2006,

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1408-570: The construction of the Public Buildings in downtown Kingston in which the bureaucracy and courts were housed after the earthquake. He served in this post until 1913 then returned to England permanently, though he took very little part in Fabian activities upon his return. Moving outside of the Colonial Office, he served as Permanent Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for four years, then as assistant comptroller and auditor of

1452-537: The expression, "county surveyor", became a UK statutory title ( Bridges Act 1803 ); and, in England and Wales, its incumbents were appointed by elected county councils as of the coming into effect of the Local Government Act 1888 rather than being Crown-appointed by justices of the peace. The UK equivalent of NACS, the County Surveyors' Society (CSS), founded in 1885, was transformed into

1496-525: The leading Fabians believed that it was a just war and that the native population would be better off under the British than under the Boers , whom many saw as religious fundamentalists and bigots. After a series of close votes, the executive came out in support of the declaration of war, although the Society would change its position during the war, as the government's conduct came under scrutiny. Having caused

1540-567: The native Indians were not ready for self-government. Privately, he believed that the problems of India could not be solved at that time or by a minority Labour government, and resolved to merely defend the status quo. In July 1924, he sided unsuccessfully with Wedgwood , Philip Snowden and J. H. Thomas in the Cabinet, opposing the promise of a loan to the Soviet Union , and was critical of MacDonald's decision to call an unnecessary election later that year. MacDonald did not give him an office in

1584-549: The pluralistic Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) in 2010. County surveyors are present in many counties of the United States . Most of these officials are elected on the partisan ballot to four-year terms. They administer the county land survey records, re-establish and maintain the official government survey monuments , and review property boundaries surveys and subdivision plans. Other duties vary from state to state. NACS

1628-497: The post for 15 years. In 1892, he married Beatrice Potter , who shared his interests and beliefs. The money she contributed to the marriage enabled him to give up his clerical job and concentrate on his other activities. Sidney and Beatrice Webb founded the New Statesman magazine in 1913. Webb and Potter were members of the Labour Party and took an active role in politics. Sidney became Member of Parliament for Seaham at

1672-616: The two became good friends. In contrast to Webb, Olivier was an impulsive and dominating dandy, nicknamed the " socialist hidalgo ". At this time Olivier also worked at Toynbee Hall in the East End of London , living in the slums of Whitechapel and teaching Latin at the Working Men's College. He was a member of the Land Reform Union , where he met George Bernard Shaw in 1883, and part of team which in 1883 established

1716-407: Was a British socialist , economist, supporter of Stalinism, and reformer, who co-founded the London School of Economics . He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884, joining, like George Bernard Shaw , three months after its inception. Along with his wife Beatrice Webb and with Annie Besant , Graham Wallas , Edward R. Pease , Hubert Bland and Sydney Olivier , Shaw and Webb turned

1760-658: Was a British civil servant. A Fabian and a member of the Labour Party , he served as Governor of Jamaica and as Secretary of State for India in the first government of Ramsay MacDonald . He was the uncle of the actor Laurence Olivier . Olivier was born in Colchester , the second of eight children of Anne Elizabeth Hardcastle Arnould and the Reverend Henry Arnold Olivier, a stern Anglican . His brothers included Henry (1850–1935), who had

1804-535: Was appointed Secretary of State for India in the first Labour government and sworn of the Privy Council The following month he was raised to the peerage by Ramsay MacDonald as Baron Olivier , of Ramsden in the County of Oxford. His appointment as India Secretary dismayed those who had expected the office to go to Josiah Wedgwood , a supporter of the Indian independence movement . Under Olivier there

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1848-421: Was briefly a member (1903–1908), fares no better in his estimation. Beatrice Webb in her diary records that they "read the caricatures of ourselves... with much interest and amusement. The portraits are very clever in a malicious way." She reviews the book and Wells's character, summarising: "As an attempt at representing a political philosophy the book utterly fails..." When his wife, Beatrice, died in 1943,

1892-551: Was most noted for several books on colonial matters, including White Capital and Coloured Labour in 1906 and Jamaica, the Blessed Island in 1936. Having no sons, Olivier's peerage became extinct upon his death in 1943. His nephew, the actor Laurence Olivier , would be granted a life peerage in 1970 as Baron Olivier, of Brighton in East Sussex. Four daughters were born to the couple: They were prominent in

1936-494: Was no departure from the Conservative policy on India , although Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison after serving only two years out of a six-year sentence. Olivier's attitude to Empire had changed and he rejected calls for a new conference to discuss changes to the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms of 1921, reaffirming the traditional argument that Britain's contribution to India gave it a right to be there and that

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