| Administrative History | P L GELL : CURRICULUM VITAE
1852 Born 29 April, son of the Reverend John Philip Gell (d. 1898) and Eleanor (d. 1860), only daughter of Admiral Sir John Franklin, the Arctic explorer.
Educated at Kensington School and at King's College London, where he was a pupil of Professor J B Mayor.
1872-75 At Balliol College, Oxford, where his contemporaries included Milner, Asquith, Arnold Toynbee, Lord Curzon, Lord Midleton and the Duke of Bedford.
First Class Honours in Modern History 1875;
Brackenbury History Scholar.
1878 MA and Arnold Prize for an essay on the Turkish Races in Europe.
1877 Tutor to the children of George James Howard, later 9th Earl of Carlisle. Assistant tutor at Balliol.
1880 Applied unsuccessfully for a professorship at the University of Otago.
1880-84 Member of the Inner Temple.
1883 Employed by Cassell, Petter, Galpin &
Co, publishers.
1884-98 Secretary to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, Oxford. Inadequate holidays, staff shortages and overwork led to friction with the Delegates, until his health broke down in November 1897. Returned from 6 months' convalescence at St Raphael willing to resume work, but persuaded to resign with a pension.
1889 Married Edith Mary Brodrick (1860 - 1944), daughter of Lord Midleton. Until 1904 or 1905 lived at Langley Lodge, Headington, later with a second house at Chaulke Hill, Kingsbury. In 1904 leased and in 1920 purchased Hopton Hall, Derbyshire. Subsequently also acquired a house at Haven Hill, Kingswear, Devon.
1883 Instrumental in the foundation of the Universities' Settlement in East London (Toynbee Hall). Resident at Toynbee Hall December 1884 - May 1885.
1893 Literary executor of Benjamin Jowett, and secretary and trustee to the Jowett Memorial Fund.
1897 JP Oxfordshire.
1906 JP Middlesex
1926 Died 29 May.
1917-18 Member of the Archbishops' Committee of Enquiry IV, set up to report on the questions, "(1) What matters in the existing administrative system of the Church, including patronage and endowments, seem to them to hinder the spiritual work of the Church;
and (2) How can the reform or the removal of such hindrances be most effectively promoted?".
The Empire
Member of a small committee formed by the Duke of Abercorn during the Boer War to provide surgical treatment and private hospitality for sick and wounded officers. (Not represented in the papers.)
1917 Member of the Empire Settlement Committee, 1917, by virtue of his chairmanship of the British South Africa Company. His role was to negotiate terms with that company by which it would facilitate emigration.
Publications (articles and pamphlets)
1883 "John Richard Green" Fortnightly Review
1886 University Settlement in East London. The municipal responsibilities of the "well-to-do"
1893 The Civic Mission of the National Church in regard to the Homes of the Working Classes
1893 "Benjamin Jowett, his life and work;
reminiscences and memorials by friends and pupils", The Westminster Gazette, "Westminster" Extra no. 4 (No name appears on the publication, but the copy in the present collection has "by P L Gell" on the cover in his own hand.)
1895 Benjamin Jowett, Essays on Men and Manners, ed. P L Gell
1900 The Rubber Industry in the British South Africa Company's Territories
1907 Pedigree of the Family of Gell of the King's Field in the Wapentake of Wirksworth, Company Derby
1908 Church Finance
1908 The Maintenance of the Parochial System in the Diocese of Southwell (2nd revised and enlarged edition 1909)
1913 The Gells of Hopton, article reprinted from the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society's Journal
1916 Elasticity in Public Worship: a paper read at the Canterbury Diocesan Conference
Directorships
When PLG left the Clarendon Press, Milner failed to obtain for him an appointment on his staff as High Commissioner for South Africa, but through Lord Grey's influence he was appointed to the Board of the British South Africa Company in 1899: he was already involved with Reffells Bexley Brewery and subsequently acquired other directorships:
1898 Reffells Bexley Brewery Ltd
1899 British South Africa Company;
1917 Chairman;
1920 President
1900 British Exploration of Australasia Ltd (Chairman)
1900 The Millionaire Ltd
1901 Westralia Mount Morgans Gold Mines Co Ltd
1901 The Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust
The Foreign, American and General Investment Trust
1902 Rhodesia Lands Ltd
1903 Rhodesia Cold Storage and Trading Co Ltd (Chairman). 1908 re-named Rhodesia Trading Co Ltd
1903 Consolidated Deep Leads Ltd (Chairman). Known until December 1903 as the London and Globe Deep Leads Assets Ltd. An Australian mining company
1903 Domains Co of Siberia Ltd. 1905 re-named the Domains Co Ltd
1905 Australian Commonwealth Trust Ltd (Chairman). 1907: voluntary liquidation and reconstruction with Consolidated Deep Leads Ltd as the Australian Deep Leads Trust Ltd
1906 Guardian Assurance Co
1907 Pilbarra Asbestos Co Ltd
1908 Huelva Copper and Sulphur Mines Ltd (Chairman)
1919 Guardian Eastern Insurance Co Ltd
Trusteeships of Companies
1903 Bridgetown and St. Andrews Railway Ltd
1906 Australian Smelting Corporation
1907 Victoria Falls Power Company 1909 re-named Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Co Ltd
Miscellaneous business interests
1902-05 Consulted about raising capital for the Southampton and Winchester Great Western Junction Railway, but the company failed to get co-operation from existing railway companies and was abandoned.
1904 Appointed arbitrator in a dispute between parties entitled to participate in the distribution of assets of East Rand Deep, a South African mining company which sold out its entire property to an English company of the same name and went into liquidation. Rudolph Mayer and Louis Joel acquired mining claims in 1895 in association with Ludwig Ehrlich, but the wars suspended activity. In 1902 Joel sued Ehrlich and Mayer over closing the pool and distributing assets.
Politics
From 1886 Member of the Liberal Committee for the Maintenance of the Legislative Union, later the Liberal Unionist Association.
From 1886 Member of the Oxfordshire Liberal Committee for the Maintenance of the Legislative Union, soon to become the Oxfordshire Liberal Unionist Association: from 1887 Treasurer.
c.1886 Member of the Executive Committee of the Oxford University Unionist League.
1891 Involved in Mid-Oxfordshire by-election campaign.
1892 Involved in general election campaign in Mid-Oxfordshire, in particular the controversy arising when the Liberals claimed that the phrase "scum of the earth", used by the successful Unionist candidate G H Morrell in 1891 of those advocating less military expenditure, had been used of the Oxfordshire agricultural labourer. PLG in December 1892 condemned this as wilful misrepresentation and a bitter correspondence with the successful Liberal candidate G R Benson and Sir William Markby ensued.
1892 Instrumental in founding, and Chairman of, the Executive Committee of the Oxford Liberal Unionist Association.
1908-14 Member of the West Derbyshire Unionist League, and the West Derbyshire Unionist Council, which was both a subsidiary of the League and a co-ordinating body for several political groups including the League.
The Church
1880-81 Secretary to the National Church Reform Union.
1898 Oxford Diocesan Secretary for the Central Church Committee for Defence and Instruction.
1908 Spoke at the Southwell Diocesan Conference and subsequently published two pamphlets, which led to involvement in Church finance.
1909-11 Member of the Archbishops' Committee on Church Finance.
1912-16 Vice-Chairman of the Additional Dioceses Committee, appointed by the Upper House of Convocation to consider creating new dioceses in the Province of Canterbury.
1914-21 Member of the Central Board of Finance of the Church of England.
1915 Member of the Pensions Committee. |