Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Hogg, Quintin
HOGG, QUINTIN (1846–1903), philanthropist, fourteenth child and seventh son of Sir James Weir Hogg [q. v.] and Mary Claudine, daughter of Samuel Swinton, of the Indian civil service, was born on 14 Feb. 1845 in Grosvenor Street, London. Sir James MacNaghten McGarel Hogg, first Baron Magheramorne [q. v.], was his eldest brother; four other brothers were in the service of the Indian government. After attending preparatory schools, Quintin entered Mr. Joynes' house at Eton in 1858, and there took a prominent part in athletics, especially in association football, which was then a recent development. He long maintained an active interest in the game, playing in some early international matches. While at Eton, too, he showed strong religious leanings, which coloured his whole life (Story of Peter, p. 44). In 1863 he left Eton for the office of Messrs. Thompson, tea merchants, in the City of London; eighteen months later, by the influence of Charles McGarel, who had married a sister, he entered the firm of Bosanquet, Curtis and Co., sugar merchants. He soon became a senior partner of the house, which was renamed Hogg, Curtis and Campbell, and under his active direction greatly prospered. The firm's factories were concentrated in Demerara, which Hogg frequently visited. After 1882 the continental bounties for the protection of lime-grown sugar injured the East India trade, and Hogg's income suffered. He retired from the firm in 1898, but pursued other commercial interests till death.
Philanthropy was the main concern of Hogg's life. In the winter of 1864–5, with the help of Arthur (afterwards 11th Baron) Kinnaird, he started in 'Of Alley' (now York Place, Charing Cross) a ragged school for boys. Larger premises were taken in Castle Street, off Hanover Street. In a portion of the building Hogg soon started for thirty-five boys of a better class a 'Youths' Christian Institute.' In 1878 the institute was transferred to Long Acre, and the Ragged School, which was soon superseded by the board schools, was dissociated from it. In the new premises, which accommodated 500 members, Hogg offered courses of technical education, which proved almost as attractive as the schemes of recreation, for which in 1880 he provided a ground at Mortlake.
In 1881 the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street came into the market. The building, which was erected in 1838, had been at first devoted to scientific exhibitions, and since 1860 to technical classes in addition. The concern was wound up in 1881. Next year, to meet the growing needs of his institute, Hogg purchased the lease for 15,000l. and spent larger sums on alterations. Hogg retained the name Polytechnic, but gave it the new significance of an institution under public management which should provide young men and women of the lower middle classes with instruction, recreation, and social intercourse. Its comprehensive aims were thus described by Hogg: 'What we wanted to develop our institute into was a place which should recognise that God had given man more than one side to his character, and where we could gratify any reasonable taste, whether athletic, intellectual, spiritual, or social.' The new Polytechnic was opened on 25 Sept. 1882, with 2000 members. During the first winter the numbers rose, under Hogg's energetic direction, to 6800. Hogg greatly increased and improved the technical classes. New developments included a debating society, a savings bank, a Christian workers' union, and a volunteer corps. In 1886 Hogg opened a day school with professional, commercial, and industrial sections, and organised holiday tours and holiday accommodation for members. Almost all parts of the world were ultimately included in the Polytechnic itineraries, the cost of which remained low, and travellers' circular excursion tickets were sold to the general public. A further development in 1891 embraced a labour bureau for members and non-members, and on Hogg's suggestion, after a conference at the Polytechnic in 1902, an Act of Parliament was passed authorising metropolitan borough councils to establish labour bureaus at the public expense.
Hogg continued to be as generous with his purse as with his energies and counsel. He bought a new athletic ground at Merton. In 1888 he paid off a deficit in working expenses of 6000l, and his aggregate contributions rose to a total of 100,000l. But financial help was now forthcoming from outside sources. In 1889 the commissioners for the redistribution of London parochial charities made a grant of 11,500l., with a yearly endowment of 3500l., and by 1891 an endowment of 35,000l. was subscribed by the public. Hogg, who regarded religious instruction as essential to his scheme, agreed that the official subvention should be applied exclusively to secular work. In 1896 Hogg's friends celebrated his silver wedding by raising nearly 14,000l whereby to reduce outstanding liabilities.
By his successful inauguration and administration of the Regent Street Institute Hogg initiated the Polytechnic movement in London. In January 1889 he was elected an alderman of the first London County Council, and holding the office till 1894, encouraged the formation by the Council of other London polytechnics.
Hogg's activities told on his health, and he often sought recuperation in foreign travel or in yachting. He died of heart failure at the Polytechnic on 17 Jan. 1903. The evening before was spent as usual in directing and advising the members. After cremation his ashes were buried in the Marylebone cemetery at Finchley. On 16 May 1871 Hogg married Alice, eldest daughter of William Graham, M.P. He had two sons and two daughters.
In 1880 Hogg started and edited 'Home Tidings of the Young Men's Christian Institute,' which was continued in 1887 as the 'Polytechnic Magazine.' Later he appointed a paid editor, but remained till his death a frequent contributor. In 1900 he published 'The Story of Peter,' a series of religious addresses dehvered at a Sunday afternoon class at the Polytechnic, 1896–97.
In memory of Hogg a new Quintin Hogg recreation ground and boathouse at Grove Park, Chiswick, were provided in 1904 at the cost of 25,000l., and a bronze group statue, by Sir George Frampton, R.A., was erected in 1906 in Langham Place, opposite the Polytechnic. There is a portrait by Lowes Dickinson, and another by E. W. Appleby hangs in the hall of the institute. A sum of 90,000l. was also raised in 1910 by Hogg's friends and admirers for the purpose of rebuilding the old premises. In 1911 the daily attendance at the Polytechnic averaged 3000, and 600 classes were held weekly.
[Quintin Hogg, by his daughter, Ethel M. Hogg, with photograph as frontispiece, 1904 ; The Times, 19 Jan. 1903 ; information from the secretary of the Polytechnic ; Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xxii., Polytechnics; Century Magazine, June 1890; Sidney Webb, the London Polytechnic Institutes, 1898.]