Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/142

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Pratt
132
Pratt

a civil list pension of 70l. in 1905, and married Mr. F. H. Markoe in Christ Church cathedral, on 6 July 1912.

Oil-portraits by J. B. Yeats and J. Williamson are in the possession of his daughter. He also figures in a caricature by 'Spy' in 'Vanity Fair' (21 March 1895) and in William Rothenstein's 'Oxford Sketches.'

In appearance and dress Powell resembled a sea-captain. He was broad, burly and bearded, brusque in manner, with dark hair and eyes, and a deep rich laugh: in temperament an artist and a poet, in attainments a scholar, as a man simple, affectionate, observant, with rare powers of sensitive enjoyment, the delight of his friends, clerk and lay, rich and poor, and the centre of many clubs both in Oxford and London. In the sphere of learning he will chiefly be remembered for his published services to northern literature, and for the general stimulus which he gave to the study of medieval letters in Great Britain. Besides the works mentioned, Powell published 'Old Stories from British History' (1882; 3rd edit. 1885; new impression 1903), and contributed with Vigfusson to the Grimm Centenary: 'Sigfred-Arminius and other Papers' (1886). He wrote several articles for this Dictionary, including a memoir of Vigfusson. Some chapters from his pen are included in W. G. Collingwood's 'Scandinavian Britain' (1908).

[Frederick York Powell: a Life and a Selection from his Letters and Occasional Writings, by Oliver Elton, 2 vols., Oxford, 1906, with full bibliography; Sette of Odd Volumes, Opusculum No. xxxviii., London, 1910, being a privately printed reprint of Powell's Some Words on Allegory in England, with biographical matter, by Dr. John Todhunter and Sir Ernest Clarke; Eng. Hist. Review, July 1904; Oxford Mag., 18 May 1904; The Times, 10 May 1904; Manchester Guardian, 10 May 1904; Monthly Review, June 1904; Morning Post, 10 May 1904; Folklore, June 1904; United Irishman, 16 July 1904; information from Prof. W. P. Ker; private knowledge.]

H. A. L. F.


PRATT, HODGSON (1824–1907), peace advocate, born at Bath on 10 Jan. 1824, was eldest of five sons of Samuel Peace Pratt by his wife Susanna Martha Hodgson (d. 1875). After education at Haileybury College (1844–6), where he won a prize for English essay in his first term, he matriculated at London University in 1844. In 1847 he joined the East India Company's service at Calcutta, subsequently becoming under-secretary to the government of Bengal and inspector of public instruction there.

While in India Pratt showed much sympathy with the natives, stimulating the educational and social development of the province of Bengal, and urging on the Bengalis closer relations with English life and thought. In 1851 he helped to found the 'Vernacular Literature Society' which published Bengali translations of standard English literature, including Macaulay's 'Life of Clive,' 'Robinson Crusoe,' Lamb's 'Tales from Shakespeare,' and selections from the 'Percy Anecdotes' (see Reports of Transactions, 1854–7). Pratt acted as secretary till 1856. He also started a school of industrial art. In 1857 Pratt was at home on leave and at the close of that year he contributed to the 'Economist' articles and letters dealing with Indian questions, social, political, educational, and religious, which were published collectively in a pamphlet. The spread of the Indian Mutiny recalled Pratt hurriedly to India, which he left finally in 1861.

Settling in England Pratt immediately threw himself into the industrial co-operative movement, in association with Vansittart Neale, Tom Hughes, and George Jacob Holyoake. He met Henry Solly in 1864 and became a member of the council of the Working Men's Club and Institute Union (founded by Solly in June 1862). In its interest he travelled up and down the country, encouraging struggling branches and forming new ones (see Pratt's Notes of a Tour among Clubs, 1872). He was president from 1885 to 1902. With Solly he also started trade classes for workmen in St. Martin's Lane in 1874. In 1867 he was a vice-president with Auberon Herbert, W. E. Forster, George Joachim Goschen, and others of the Paris Excursion Committee, through whose efforts over 3000 British workmen visited the Paris Exhibition of that year (see Pratt's preface to Modern Industries: Reports by 12 British Workmen of the Paris Exhibition, 1868).

At the same time Pratt, who had a perfect command of French, was an ardent champion of international arbitration. On the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 he pleaded for the peaceful settlement of the dispute. Two years later he joined in an appeal to M. Thiers, the French premier, for the release of Elisée Reclus, the geographer, who had thrown in his lot with the Commune, and had been taken prisoner (Eugene Oswald, Reminiscences of a Busy Life, pp. 518–21). In 1880 he joined William