George Lyward

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George Aubrey Lyward OBE (13 January 1894 – 22 June 1973) was a British educationist and psychotherapist who founded and led Finchden Manor, a "community for delinquent, disturbed or disturbing boys"[1] in Tenterden, Kent, UK.

He featured in the BBC Radio 4 series Great Lives in May 2012, nominated by singer Tom Robinson. Robinson had attended Finchden Manor after a suicide attempt when aged 16, and said that Lyward saved his life.[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Lyward grew up in the Clapham Junction area of south London. His father was a clerk and an opera singer among other endeavours, but left home while Lyward was very young. His mother worked as a primary school teacher. He had three sisters. He won a scholarship to Emanuel School in Battersea, and there became a prefect, Head of House, and a sergeant in the Officers' Training Corps, and played rugby in the first XV despite a history of childhood polio which had left him with a weak leg.[3] As a prefect, he was put in charge of the lower fifth, known as the 'toughs'. This experience made him aware of his ability to get on with 'difficult' boys. [3][4]

After leaving school he taught in two prep schools and at Kingston Grammar School and then returned to Emanuel as a master, before winning in 1917 a choral scholarship to study at St John's College, Cambridge where he took a history degree. In 1918 in order to supplement his modest choral scholarship funds he was a house-tutor at The Perse School in Cambridge. He took a history degree, and in 1920 he undertook training to become an Anglican priest at Bishop's College, Cheshunt. However, he abandoned this path two weeks before his planned ordination.[3]

He taught again at Emanuel, then in 1923 moved to Trinity College, Glenalmond in Scotland to work with the sixth form, developing his ideas about teaching this age group. In 1928 a broken engagement led to a breakdown and treatment by Hugh Crichton-Miller, who along with John Rawlings Reese later asked Lyward to help with some of their patients.[3]

Lyward married Sarah (Sadie) whom he met in 1931, and she accompanied him to Finchden, but she died an early death at 54 from cancer in 1967.[4]

Finchden Manor[edit]

Lyward originally founded his therapeutic community at Guildables farm, Edenbridge, Kent in 1930.  By 1935 he moved the growing group to larger premises at Finchden Manor, Kent. During WW2, when Finchden Manor was requisitioned by the army, the community relocated to Pipe Aston near Ludlow, Shropshire, and then to Marrington Hall, Chirbury, Shropshire.  After the war the community returned to Finchden Manor. [4][5] Lyward continued to work there until his death in 1973.  

Finchden Manor is a Grade II* listed building on the outskirts of Tenterden, Kent. It is a large 16th century timber-framed house with modern additions.  Sir Thomas More, when Lord Chancellor of England, was reported to have visited the house.  It was used in the 19th century as a Benedictine priory.  After Lyward’s community closed, Finchden Manor was converted to a set of private houses. [6][7]

Therapeutic approach[edit]

When Michael Burn, who wrote a book about Finchden Manor, first met Lyward he said ‘I had a feeling of relief.  He looked like none of the types I had dreaded finding … not a Presence, or Grand Old Man … He was of middle height and looked frail. He had a slightly abstracted air, and held his right hand over his heart, as if taking an oath or apologising for a hiccup.’ [8]

A former Finchden boy recalls his initial interview with Lyward:

‘He had a playful manner which threw you from the serious to the teasing and back again faster than I could keep up with.  I was still answering the serious question when he was apparently making a joke about it.  Yet I noticed he never lost the sense of direction, even though I felt I was being pulled around all the points of the compass in random order. He was getting his answers while I was still lost, giddy, and not sure what we had been talking about.’ [9]

Lyward’s style was conversational, mercurial, improvisational, and at times contradictory.  His usual medium was lively conversation, 1-1 or with a group.  He could disarm, reassure, provoke, surprise, amuse and attack. [3] [10] [9] Despite the boldness of his therapeutic approach, Lyward was basically a shy man, with a lifelong insecurity that gave him a chameleon-like quality designed to gain the support and approval of whomever he was with. [3][11] [8] He would sometimes joke that Finchden was ‘the sheltered community I have built for myself’, where his position protected him from those outside pressures with which he was unable to cope, while at the same time being useful in helping those who lived there. [11]

Lyward said that his educational and therapeutic career began ‘when I first stood in front of a group of children, and the thought came to me like a blow, these are people – we are all people together in a room - that is the most important thing about this situation … Nothing could separate us, we were members one of another.’ [4]

Lyward’s approach has been described as poetic rather than medical. [3][5] He said that only a poet could understand Finchden and make sense of it.  And, a colleague later added, only a poet could have run it.[10]

Former residents of Finchden Manor include Tom Robinson, Alexis Korner, Francis Lickerish, Robert John Godfrey, Matthew Collings and Danny Kustow.[12]

Finchden Manor closed in 1974, eighteen months after Lyward's death.[9]

Sydney Hopkins, author of Mister God, This Is Anna was referred to Finchden Manor [4] and was later a member of staff there.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dunhill, David (28 June 1973). "Mr George Lyward: Help for the maladjusted (obituary)". The Times. Retrieved 7 May 2024. (available online to subscribers)
  2. ^ "Great Lives". BBC. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Prickett, John. "Mr Lyward Remembered: a Memorial Address". Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e Lyward, George (2009). George Lyward: His Autobiography. Lulu Enterprises. ISBN 9781447551751.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ a b Toplis, Gordon (1974). "A Royal Course". The New Era. 55 (3): 63–67.
  6. ^ Historic England. "Finchden Manor (419400)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  7. ^ Shaw, Philip (2020). "Finchden Manor: A mansion in the Appledore Road with medieval origins and a colourful history". Tenterden with St Michaels and Smallhythe Parish News. Retrieved 7 May 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ a b c Burn (1956), Mr Lyward's Answer.
  9. ^ a b c Wendelken, Alan (2019). A Finchden Experience. Lulu Enterprises. pp. Chapter 27. ISBN 9780244837242.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  10. ^ a b Harvey, Jeremy (2006). Valuing and Educating Young People : Stern Love the Lyward Way. Jessica Kingsley. ISBN 9781843100560.
  11. ^ a b Auster, Simon (1974). "Anger of a Therapist". The New Era. 55 (3): 68–69.
  12. ^ Robinson, Tom (1 September 2005). "Saving lives with a second chance". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2024.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

  • "Mr Lyward's Web Page". "A site dedicated to George Aubrey Lyward 1894-1973", includes photographs, articles, and a BBC radio programme.
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