R.B. [Richard Burdon] Haldane (1856-1928)

July 30, 1856 - August 19, 1928

This page is under construction

This photograph was taken in

Biographical Highlights

born Edinburgh, Scotland. July 30, 1856; brother of Elizabeth Haldane
educated at Edinburgh University 1872; MA 1876? and Gottingen University (1874) and Dresden
studied law in London; called to the bar in 1879.
elected Liberal MP for East Lothian (Scotland) in 1885 General Election [reelected until 1911]
1890 named Queen's Counsellor.
1895-98 Co-founder, London School of Economics (LSE).
supporter of the Boer War
1902 Privy Councillor
elected Gifford lecturer, University of St. Andrews, in the sessions 1902-1903; 1903-1904
1900 Free Church of Scotland case
1905 appointed Secretary of State for War [until 1912] (government of Henry Campbell-Bannerman)
While in office he was responsible for the creation of the General Staff (1906) and the Territorial Army (1907).

Haldane "pursued and achieved possibly the most critical reforms of the British military system: the creation of an expeditionary force capable of quick movement to the Continent; the development of the Territorial Army as an effective and well-trained reserve body; and the institution of a General Staff"

1909 Chair, Royal Commission for University Education
served in several offices as an advisor on educational policy
honorary MA and Doctor of Philosophy, Gottingen
1911 appointed to the House of Lords; granted the title, Viscount Haldane of Cloan.
1912 appointed Lord Chancellor [until 1915] (appointed by Herbert Asquith, Liberal Government)
1915, unfairly accused of pro-German sympathies during the First World War; left Asquith's coalition government.
1915 Order of Merit
member of the Fabian Society
1918 joined the Labour Party
campaigned for the Labour Party in the 1923 General Election.
1924 appointed Lord Chancellor (by Ramsay MacDonald, first Labour Government)
1924-1928 leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords.
died at Cloan, Scotland, August 19, 1928; buried at Gleneagles

Books amd major publications:

Essays in philosophical criticism, ed. by Andrew Seth and R. B.Haldane; with a preface by Edward Caird. London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1883.
A treatise on the law and practice relating to vendors and purchasers of real estate / by J. Henry Dart; 6th ed. / by William Barber, R.B. Haldane, and W.R. Sheldon. 2 vols. London : Stevens, 1888.
Life of Adam Smith, by R.B. Haldane, M.P. London, W. Scott, 1887.
Education & empire; addresses on certain topics of the day. London, J. Murray, 1902.
The pathway to reality; being the Gifford lectures delivered in the University of St. Andrews in the session 1902-1903. London, J. Murray, 1903.

CONTENTS: Bk. I. The meaning of reality--Bk. II. The criticism of categories.

The pathway to reality : stage the second. Being the Gifford lectures delivered in the University of St. Andrews in the session 1903-1904. London : J. Murray, 1904.

CONTENTS: Bk III. Absolute mind.--Bk IV. Finite mind. [nb Harvard University has William James' annotated copy]

Compulsory service; a study of the question in the light of experience, by General Sir Ian Hamilton; with an introduction by the Right Hon. R. B. Haldane. 2d ed., with notes on the Admiralty view of the risk of invasion. London, J. Murray, 1911. 212 p. [First edition, November 1910. Second edition January 1911]
Higher nationality; a study in law and ethics; an address delivered before the American Bar Association at Montreal on September 1, 1913, by Viscount Haldane of Cloan. New York, American Association for International Conciliation, 1913. [14 p.]
The conduct of life, and other addresses, New York, Dutton [1915] 136 p.

CONTENTS: 1. The conduct of life.--2. The meaning of truth in history.--3.The civic university.--4. Higher nationality: a study in law and ethics.

"The doctrine of degree in knowledge, truth, and reality", Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. IX. London, Pub. for the British Academy by H. Milford [1919]: 32 p. 25 cm.
Before the war, London, New York, [etc.] Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1920. 207 p. 21 cm.

[Reprinted in part from various periodicals. "The purpose of the pages which follows is ... to explain the policy pursued towards Germany by Great Britain through the eight years which ... preceded the Great War of 1914."- Introd.]

Life of Goethe, by P. Hume Brown. with a prefatory note by Viscount Haldane. 2 vols. London, J. Murray, 1920. [Chapter XXIII is by Viscount Haldane, who, with his sister's aid, revised vol.II.]
The reign of relativity. [3rd ed.] London : J. Murray, 1921. xix, 434 p
The problem of nationalization, by the Viscount Haldane of Cloan, with an introduction by Harold J. Laski. Cambridge, Mass., Dunster House Bookshop [1921] 40 p. 27 cm. [Dunster House papers. no. 2]

The evidence here reprinted is that offered by Lord Haldane to the royal Commission on the coal mines. This evidence was sought for the purpose of gaining advice on the recruitment of a civil service for organizing the coal industry upon a national basis. Cf. Introd.

The philosophy of humanism and of other subjects, London: J. Murray / New Haven, Yale University Press, 1922. 302 p.
Army. Report of the Committee on the Education and Training of Officers London, Printed and pub. by H.M. Stationery Off., 1924. 40 p. 25 cm.
Goethe als Denker. Heidelberg, C. Winter, 1924

[16 p.; 26 cm. Heidelberger Akten der von-Portheim-Stiftung, 7; Materialien zur Naturphilosophie, 3

Human experience; a study of its structure, London, J. Murray, 1926. xxiii, 229 p.
Selected addresses and essays, London, J. Murray [1928]

CONTENTS: The dedicated life.--Higher nationality.--The conduct of life.-The civic university.--The soul of a people.--The calling of the preacher.--The Judicial committee of the Privy council.

An autobiography. London, Hodder and Stoughton; Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Doran, 1929.

Letters

Leeds
over 600 letters, 1907-28, to (Sir) E. Gosse. are held at the University of Leeds Library - B.C. indicates a ms. in the Brotherton Collection.

Harvard
correspondence of Richard B. Haldane, 1918. 1 item. [Haldane discusses the anniversary of the first one hundred years of the Harvard Law School]. Permission to publish is required.

Bibliography - Secondary Materials

Ashby, Eric, and Mary Anderson Portrait of Haldane at work on education.[Hamden, Conn.] Archon Books, 1974.
Dringenberg, Henny Maria Katharina, Die mission Haldanes ... Bonn, Verein Studentenwohl e.v., 1930. vii, 119 p.
Hall, Jean Graham und Douglas F. Martin: Haldane. statesman, lawyer, philosopher, Chichester: Barry Rose Law Publishers, 1996.: xii, 411 p., [8] p. of plates: Includes bibliographical references (p. 389-393)
Howard, Michael Eliot, Lord Haldane and the Territorial Army, London, Birkbeck College [1967], 15 p. Haldane memorial lecture, 32.
Koss, Stephen E. Lord Haldane; scapegoat for liberalism, New York, Columbia University Press, 1969.
Kraft, Bernhard Daniel Ernst, Lord Haldane's zending naar Berlijn in 1912 : de duitsch -engelscho onderhandelingen over de vlootquaestie, 1905-1912. Utrecht : Kemink en zoon n. v., 1931.
Massie, Robert K.: Dreadnought. Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War, New York 1991.[Massie, Robert K.: Schalen des Zorns. Großbritannien, Deutschland und das Heraufziehen des ersten Weltkrieges, Frankfurt/M. 1993.
Maurice, Sir Frederick: Haldane, the life of Viscount Haldane of Cloan, K.T., O.M., 2 vols. London, Faber and Faber [1937-1939] [ v. 1. 1856-1915 -- v. 2. 1915-1928]
Meter-Adams, Rudolph, Die mission Haldanes im februar 1912 in spiegel der deutschen presse, Bochum-Langendreer, L. Grabe, 1935. 49 p.,
Reinken, Liselotte von. Haldane; Umriss eines liberalen Imperialisten, Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer, 1937. vi, 56 p.
Seth Pringle-Pattison, A. "Richard Burdon Haldane (Viscount Haldane of Cloan) 1856-1928," Proceedings of the British academy, Vol. XIV. London, H. Milford [1930] 42 p., 1 l. 26 cm.
Sommer, Dudley: Haldane of Cloan. His Life and Times 1856-1928, London: G. Allen & Unwin 1960.
Spiers, Edward M. Haldane, an army reformer. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, c1980.
Wilson, Charles Haynes.Haldane and the machinery of government.[London, Birkbeck College, 1957] 18 p. [Haldane memorial lecture, 24]
Zorger, Franz, Haldanes mission im jahre 1912; der letzte deutsch-englische verstandigungsversuch vor dem weltkriege. Inaug.-diss., Frankfurt a.M. Borna, Leipzig, R. Noske, 1928.

Photographs

Biographical note:

A biography in German :

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUhaldane.htm
http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/bio/h/haldane.html

F 79/417 http://www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/f79_417/index.html
Photographie
DHM, Berlin

for a photograph negative held at V&A Lafayette Collection see http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Palais/6875/hal3607.html