Edward R. Pease

Edward Reynolds Pease (23 December 1857 – 5 January 1955) was an English writer and a founding member of the Fabian Society.

Early life

Pease was born near Bristol, the son of devout Quakers, Thomas Pease (1816–1884) and Susanna Ann Fry (1829–1917; sister of Edward Fry, the judge); he was the sixth of Thomas's 15 children but Susanna's first, Thomas having had five children by previous marriages. One of his sisters was the schoolteacher Marian Pease. His father had been a wool comber and his mother came from the Fry family known for manufacturing chocolate. Edward Pease was educated at home until he was 16, and soon after moved to London where he was taken under the wing of his brother in law Sir Thomas Hanbury. He was initially employed as a clerk in a business where Hanbury was a partner. In time Hanbury arranged for him to become a partner in a stock broking firm.

Career

In the early 1880s Pease became friends with Frank Podmore and husband and wife Edith Nesbit and Hubert Bland. On 4 January 1884, Podmore's group founded the Fabian Society.

In 1886, the death of a wealthy relative meant Pease received a sizeable legacy allowing him to give up work at the London Stock Exchange and devote time to his socialist interests. In 1886, he moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, began working as a cabinet-maker and formed the National Labour Federation, a general union with a national scope. However, his attempts to convert the working class to socialism were unsuccessful so he returned to London. He travelled to United States with Sidney Webb in 1888, and on his return married Marjory Davidson, a young Scottish schoolteacher.